Production 1 - done and noted!

Despite the flu, the production went well! I gathered a good amount of notes and some surpising conclusions. No names will be mentioned in this blog or my dissertation due to privacy issues -  the conclusions and notes are general, not quotes and not character or person specific.

 

I did glean some interesting conclusions. Strangely, while the majority of the participants knew each other well, the most involved and comfortable interaction occurred while discussing the performance and suspicions of the participants, rather then when conversation turned to peoples personal lives and events. I found this interesting as, due to the participants having little to no performance experience as the 'production' went on they began to build a personality - through accents or characteristics - for their character, in a few cases even develop backstories to a degree!

Approval!

Today, I travelled up to Chichester and met with the organiser of this years Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party, Becki Short, to present my initial designs, and I am delighted to announce that they have been approved! I explained that for the most part little on the designs would change to the final designs with the exception of the March Hare, and now all that is left is to present them, fully rendered, in A3 for final approval before the making can begin.

 

Also myself and the head maker will need to meet for fabric sourcing to work out an initial budget for the costumes to present to the organiser.

Seven Deadly Sins - Modelling

I have been asked to model a costume designed and made by fellow AUCB costume third year Tanya Pye. This has been an ongoing personal project for Tanya for the last few months, and the photoshoot is now tomorrow, 60 miles away in Havant, near Portsmouth. This is very exciting, as I will be participating in a photoshoot with 7 others, modeling a costume in a proffessional photoshoot. This will be interesting experience as while I have had experience in acting so I understand some of the pressures and problems for them, which has helped me be a better costumer and backstage worker, but never had experience modelling so I hope that this experience will help me gain better allround experience to draw from.

 

The costume I shall be modelling is based on the concept of Gluttony, and while I sent my measurements to Tanya several months ago I have not had an actual fitting - but considering my measurements have changed very little (if at all) I doubt that this will be a problem, especially as considering the main component of this costume is a corset!

The corset itself, unlike the 1890's Parisian corset that I have the most experience with, I will be modelling a boudoire corset. This is definitely going to be a new experience in more ways then one - please stay tuned for more details!

The Murderer is...

Tonight is the night of the murder mystery.

Location; Domestic
Setting; 1950's Hollywood Christmas

Characters; 8, each with a vague 2 line character profile each

Participants; 9

This is a very common form of immersive performance, which many people dont realise IS immersive performance. The audience are also characters and participants, and no one is left out unless they choose to be and even then its difficult. Proffessional murder mystery companies - where a proffessional team is hired to decorate a venue and provide in many cases scripts and characters, as well as proffessional acting participants, are most commonly used for special occassions such as Hen Night's and Christmas, but is also used for corporate team building events. The games, where the are no strict proffessionals directly involved, are used for a variety of occassions, the same occassions as above but also commonly for New Years events and Birthdays.

This implies that the general purpose behind these events is to pull people together who may or may not know each other.

 

I know the people who are attending the murder mystery tonight but not at all well, as though I have known some of them since childhood I see them only once or twice a year.

 

Also as an interesting dynamic I have also been asked to put together costumes for the character profiles I have been given. Due to knowing little of the characters and only a vague idea of who will be given who, I have come up with signature pieces that can be worn over the participants general clothes.

 

There is also an added dynamic - none of the participants, appart from myself and three of the other participants know that this is a murder mystery, though none of us know more then the general information of setting and the vague character profiles. This will make it more interesting in seeing how people will react and interact as their characters.

Mad Hatters Initial designs - DONE!

I now have completed my initial designs for all the characters, and I believe almost finalised my design for the White Queen costume. For myself to class it as a final design it must be approved by the organiser but I believe she will like it. I have stayed with the themes running throughout - modern meets Victorian and a multitude of button's. I have used a combination of the research that I gathered for my recent summer project for AUCB - a 100 year time line of 1900 to 1999 - and used this to create a Victorian-Esq silhouette and a blending of modern and victorian style decoration in the form of fabric flowers as last year made of organza and lace, but with modern fabrics and small pearlescent and crystal buttons decorating the flowers and scattered to decorate. I want to use a white satiny fabric for the majority with white or silver organza for the sleeves.

 

The only costume I am currently considering doing a total redesign on is the March Hare. I have designed it with a variety of textures - there has been one element to the costumes that has been dictated by the organisers and that is that all the animal characters are to be in fake fur body-suits. This is, considering last years heatwave and resulting heatstroke in the actors, something I would usually avoid but it is something that the organisers are adamant about - therefore I am going to try and find a way to make them much cooler and more ventilated to provide for the comfort of the performers.

 

In working with the bodysuits as a base I have been able to design I have designed a knitted waistcoat of a different pattern for each half, adding to the oddness of his character - however I am not entirely satisfied with it and believe it needs further development.

Dissertation issues - and solutions!

For my dissertation I am writing about immersive performance and whether or not this has lost its classification as theatrical performance and has instead become spectacle.

However, the majority of immersive performances, due to the fact that the majority are held outside, are held in the summer and therefore in terms of looking for performances to go and see there has been a distinct lack.

 

While I worked on the site specific performance 'A-roving We Will Go' over the summer, which did have immersive elements it was not, specifically, an immersive performance. This did, however, lead me to looking outside the conventional forms of immersive performances and instead look at the performances that fit the parameters of immersive performance.

 

I did manage to find a very well known and aclaimed company doing a run of immersive performance in London but unfortunately it opens eight days before my dissertation is due for hand in and therefore would not allow me enough time to write about it and form conclusions based upon it in a way that would gel with the rest of my essay.

 

This in turn lead me to public Murder Mysteries. In a public murder mystery, the audience, while spectators, are also a part of the performance in that some may be given lines, they have the chance to explore the scenes and interact with the performers if they choose, and are often involved in the unmasking of the 'culpret'. This makes it, by definition, immersive performance.

 

I managed to find one locally in Poole, where a company which runs murder mystery events was to stage one in a small restaurant, which was to take place tonight, however just as I was about to leave for the event they contacted me to let me know it had been cancelled due to people being unable to attend, I suspect due to the high level of flooding in the area.

 

As this was one of the only two immersive performances I had managed to find in a 130 mile radius after searching for a month, I was understandably worried. However, this has led to an idea that could be a very interesting perspective to write about. After looking at the murder mystery games online to do some research on whether the events would class as immersive performance I found a company that makes the murder mystery games that does class them as immersive performance and therefore have decided to stage one for research.

 

I have also been sent the information for another immersive performance which is currently running in London - The Architects. This is an immersive performance in a converted biscuit factory, and despite the fact that it is being run through the National Theatre has been plagued by bad reviews. This makes it an interesting study as for such an aclaimed establishment to put on a show that has been subject to such criticism, could this be due to the nature of the performance itself? Immersive performance has a history of bad critiques.

 

I have managed to get tickets of it, and between these two performances I will have two performances that, while in the same performance type, are far from each other on the scale of immersive performance.

The Christmas Break! Minus the break

Now that hand in is over for the first part of A Midsummer Night's Dream, while I will still be thinking about it and looking over it in the holidays, I have jumped straight into the 2013 Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party!

 

This is an anual charity event in Portsmouth for Cystic Fibrosis Kids Portsmouth, made up almost entirel of volunteers. Earlier this year I worked as costume assistant to Tanya Pye on the 2012 event, and I am delighted and honoured to have been asked by the organisers to design the costumes for the 2013 event!

 

After discussion with the organisers I am designing costumes for the characters;

 

Alice

The Red Queen

The White Queen

The Mad Hatter

March Hare

White Rabbit

Door Mouse

Tweedle Dee

Tweedle Dum

 

In addition to this, I will also be designing some of the props, set pieces and 5 hats/fascinators for the main staff to wear. This is due to the fact that in the last event, the organisers and wardrobe team were difficult to spot in the croud for those who needed to find us (the characters, stall holders, security etc.) and this will greatly help with our visibility.

 

Upon discussion with the organisers, as I am still a student they agreed that I should design the costumes during the Winter break when it would not effect my grades for the course and the designs would be ready for realisation in January.

 

 

Research

I have been looking at adaptations of Alice in Wonderland as this is the basis of the event, though the actual performances are related in characterisation and not specifically in plot to the Alice and Wonderland of Lewis Carroll. Also, this is a contemporary event, meant to relate to children. Therefore I am designing the costumes to be a blend of the contemporary and Victorian - bringing in the era of authorship and tying it in with the language often used, in memory from the last event, particularly by the Queens

 

 

Set/Props

The main prop/set pieces I am designing are the 'trees'. Last year the event organisers hired wooden fold out painted prop trees that were fairly unsuccessful as, due to this being an outside event with the uneven ground, constantly moving children, the wind and no way to secure the trees they were constantly falling over. This being the case I am experimenting with the idea of using willow, wrapped in fabric. This would make them cheap, light, and health and safetly consciuos as we could use tent pegs to secure the trees into the ground so that no one would trip on them and they wouldn't fall over, the fabric would prevent the risk of any splinters, and they would, once the shapes had been formed, dried and taped, be durable and easy to assemble.

Final Post on SP!!!! And its all over...

This project has been, ultimately, the most transient I have done to date, with the sheer amount and variety of changes keeping up has been the ultimate challenge, and one that considering the obstacles of constant deadlines and the number of collaboratives to stay in keeping with I have managed to master.

In hindsight, if I could go back and do anything differently it would be to better stick to my own design judgement. When I felt the designs were becoming too realistic for Kenneths vision of the piece, I did voice my concerns but allowed myself to be steered along anyway even though I knew the risk. In hindsight therefore, and if the situation ever arrises again I will better trust my own judgement calls on the designs, as while this has been highly collaborative the designer, when they see something right or something wrong that they can justify in the designs must, when they feel there is strong enough cause, have the right and the conviction to stand up for their designs.

I also feel that I wish I had had more time. With the constancy of the costume changes I often feel I did not have time to do the needed in depth contextual research to be fully informed as the costumes were changing, and there is therefore the risk of historical errors, specifically in locational historical accuracy. However, as in the 1970's Greece was, due to the strict military regime, it reads as 1960's, and in this case the communication to the audience is paramount that it is indeed the 70's. Therefore I have taken artistic licence, in terms of suiting the costume to character and making it more recognisable as the 70's. In doing this I have endeavoured not to compromise the historical integrity, and locational integrity of the costumes, but there are therefore elements that, while 1970's, are not specifically GREEK 1970's.
This is a gamble, but one that I feel is necessary in order to keep to Kenneths vision of the piece and audience communication.

On the whole, I have found that working with such  wide team of collaborators to be a challenging but rewarding experience and has, strangely, helped me better find my own voice as a designer. While it has been a challenge trying to co-ordinate so many different opinions and idea's into the designs, and there have at times been conflicts that have forced me to have to make difficult decisions, often at the cost of time needed to be spent on other designs in order to get the more fluctuating designs settled in terms of concept, this has also meant that I now have a better understanding of what is required in industry, and the courage of conviction needed in standing for your work while still being part of a collaborative creative team.

I have enjoyed very much working with Oliver and Kenneth on this production and anticipate enjoying it next term as we realise the production.