Last of the new designs - bar one!

Here are the rest of the A Midsummer Nights Dream final designs with alterations - with the exception of the Athenian Band. A late addition, it was reccomended that these costumes were left until after I had sorted out the main Athenian and Fairy costumes, especially as I need to discuss more fully with Kenneth our director what he has in mind for the band.

So without further ado - the remaining Athenians!

 The three bottom designs are the final scene - the post wedding party with the three couples in their wedding garb.

Changing the designs - it continues...

Now, with the final changes set and unless something dramatic happens in rehearsals (no pun intended) no more extreme costume alterations, it is finally time to get my designs altered. There are three reasons for doing this. The first is so that the costumes on the designs match the costumes worn for the sake of the dressers so that when they are given the image of what the actor is to be wearing in that scene it will match the costume. The second is to document the costume changes through the process as they have been altered. The third is for the sake of the actors when we present the designs to them at the read through.

On the first day back of the next term we launch into rehearsals. The first day is for the read through where the set and costume designs are presented to the cast for the first time. This is the first chance for the actors to get a look at their costumes and character designs so it is important that they are right for the actors to then be able to use that to help build up there characterisation for the performance.

 

So, without further ado - the first set of finished designs! I have been re-doing them in scene order. Theseus and Hippolyta's designs have not changed in this scene, and neither have the costumes for Philostrates or Egeus, however Helena's dress, Hermia's dress and Lysanders suit have all altered.

 

 These are the designs up to the end of Act 2 scene 2!

 

Fabric Sourcing!

After spending yesterday compiling my research and starting on the basic look that I want for each character based on their character analysis and House livery (Mountague, Capulet and Escalus) myself and Tanya went down to Southbourne for some initial fabric inspiration. Considering the period setting, being the Tudor period, the fabrics would have been rougher and heavier then the machine woven fabrics of the modern world, and so we headed first to Zebedee's Fabrics. As well as having an impressive range of synthetic fabrics, they also have a section devoted to thicker and upholstery fabrics and brocades. This is the section that we ended up spending most of our time in, as they had some good inspiration fabrics for tones and pattern, particularly for Mountague clothing. I also managed to find ribbon in there that matched the Mountague and Capulet colour schemes!

 

Upon leaving Zebedee's, and slightly more hampered by the rain, we headed to The Treasure House. One of my favourite places in Southbourne, The Treasure House is a treasure trove for haberdashery, in particular buttons, ribbon and dye's! Hunting through the wall (yes, WALL) of buttons, I found some rather beautiful jewelled ones as well as more traditional but equally lovely wooden ones from various different woods.

Also in The Treasure House I found some beautiful, thick traditional lace in white and in a tea colour that I feel would be perfect for the prodution, in particular the white for Juliets Ball dress and the tea for either Lady Mountague or Lady Capulet. I would have considered it for the Nurse, as she is considered, especially by Juliet, a member of the family but in that time lace would have been precious and I do not think that a lace as thick and good as this would have been afforded to someone who was technically still a servant.



A small break before braving the rain once more - purchaces to the left of image!

After our break, we headed for the trek to Jo-Ann's fabrics at the other end of Southbourne - this is one of my all time favourite fabric shops as she is a litteral Aladin's cave of fabric finds. However, unfortunately on arriving she had closed for a long lunch break and, being an hour before she re-opened with the weather getting continually worse we were forced to postpone our hunt there.

Set thoughts...

After looking at options for the set - considering our productions limited budget and transport capabilities - I began looking at Tudor architecture. Beautiful strips and clean lines on off white. Very aesthetically pleasing BUT difficult to work with on certain levels due to the small space in one venue and the large open air space of the other. However, knowing the play I began looking into Tudor gardens, and considering the nature of our second and main venue - being the Amphitheatre - this is far more promising, and also could make a very interesting effect.

 

Considering that the majority of the scenes could be interpreted as being in an open air but enclosed area, I am considering transforming the space into a Tudor courtyard. The set will not have to change during the performance except very minorly, though this will mean some creativity particularly when it comes to the scene in Mantua, however this is not a major issue.

Reflection on AMSND

Just over 5 weeks to go.

 

I can say, in all honesty that this has been one of the most fun, stressful, tiring, frustrating and tiring productions I have had the privilege to work on. There have been the lows, most recently when a costume needed the design changing because it was too difficult to find in multiples in budget. There have been the incredible highs, where the fittings go well and everything seems to come together before your eyes - thank you again to our second years! We have had setbacks, where on thinking we had finally found a costume after a long hunt, it failed at the final hurdles.

 

There are also those wonderful, surreal moments that seem to happen in this industry - say, when you get a call from a fisherman about a lobsterpot. Thank you again Jim the Fisherman out of Mudeford!

 

Now with 5 weeks to go, there is still a tremendous amount of work to do. We have as a team achieved an extraordinary amount, we have faced the odds and so far been able to overcome them.

 

There are however still setbacks. Though myself and Grace, my supervisor, were meant to be going to a hire company today to look at military costume options, she arrived before me to find that the costumes were still at the warehouse.

There is the added problem with hiring at the moment in that the other hire company she was looking into had forgotten about our emails. Thankfully they are now having another search for us and Grace is going to keep me updated on her search!

 

Now myself, Grace and Sarah have each taken on one of the fairy dancer costumes to try and complete as much as we can of them over the easter break in order to take some of the pressure off of our makers. I was updated today by Grace that she has completed a good amount but she has now run out of aquafilm - something to watch out for!

Venue 2 - we hope

This was our second visit to the Lighthouse Studio Theatre in Poole, and we are still incredibly impressed with the venue. This visit gave myself and Producer/wardrobe mistress Tanya Pye and myself not only the chance for a second viewing of the venue but also gave me a fresh set of idea's for the set and how to use the space. Expect to see the initial sketches soon!

 

The other outcome of this visit is that it seems that we will be able - barring any unforseen complications - to book the space for a June performance as hoped! This will give us three solid performance dates for 4 performances - one at the Lighthouse and three at the Swanage Amphitheatre.

 

3 Months to go.

The Dresses arrive!

Awaiting me upon my arrival home was the package with the dresses for Helena! This means that, as Rebecca approved them from the site, we now have the main costumes for our four lovers sorted! This is provided that when we have all four costumes together they all still suit. This is becoming a big issue as we have only just over three weeks after returning from the Easter break until the show opens, and with the studio's shut - with the costumes inside - until the 2nd of April there is no way of checking until then.

 

With that in mind, we have just over 5 weeks now to get everything together and finished. With the wigs now no longer an issue, the rest of the costumes stand as below;

 

FINISHED

• Lysander main costume and underwear
• Demetrius Main costume and underwear
• Helena main costume and underwear
• Hermia main costume and underwear
• Hermia Wedding Dress
• Snout, Snug and Starveling Mechanicals-as-fairy's over-costumes

IN PROGRESS

• Helena Wedding Dress
• Hipolyta Wedding Dress
• ALL fairies
• Flute - Mechanical-as-fairy over-dress

STILL TO FIND

• Military Costumes for Theseus and Philostrate
• Hipolyta opening dress
• Wedding Suits for Lysander and Demetrius
• Athenian Band Costumes

 

With the suits still to be sourced from the hire companies, I will be going with Grace to a hire company later this week to see what they have found for us!

Mini Meeting!

This will be the last meeting before the holidays, the next time the full team meet will be for the read through on the 2nd of April! Also in spectacular timing just before the meeting started I was able to get the lobster pot (thank you again to Jim the Fisherman for selling it to us!) delivered to the University and give it to Oliver.

Meeting Outcomes;

• Helena's dress - found and sourced, now just waiting on delivery
• Lizzie on breaking down - discussed materials and effects for the breaking down
• Fairy fabrics split  for the dancers into 4 and bodysuits taken by myself, Grace and Sarah

Actions from this:

• Write up a breakdown schedule/backstory for Lizzie for breaking down the suits!
• Making Sasha's fairy bodysuit over break

Fitting - the White Queen!

Thanks to a wonderful volunteer who has requested to remain anonymous we were able to fit the dress for the White Queen today! The fit was beautiful and due to some changed in the shape of the skirt due to the crinoline I have decided that the overlay of draped fabric over the skirt would only detract from the costume and it should not be included.

 

Before alterations

 

After pinning

 

With this decided there are only three alterations left to be made - the sleeve was much too long (see pinned above), the skirt seams need to be moved to the side to make it look seamless at the front and the back had twisted slightly. Now Tanya Pye, the costume maker, just needs to alter the costume and it will be ready to be started in top fabric!

Wig Relief and the trouble with Helena...

The main problem of today has been that, after finding the brilliant suit for Helena and bringing it in today...alone it is fine, against Hermia and Demetrius it is fine BUT it is too similar to Lysanders. It is different enough that it was something I was willing to overlook as they work as a group, but the tutors were worried that the similarity was too great and the suit has been vetoed. With time running out and in acknowledgement of the difficulty of finding a suit for Helena in budget that we could get three multiples of, Rebecca has asked me to try re-designing Helena as a problem solving effort and to consider maybe putting her in a dress.

This is going to be a challenge as, looking at the differences in character, I put Hermia in a dress as she is - at least initially - the sweeter, more free thinking of the two, whereas Helena is more led by love and frustration, and is trying to attract the very much more , abrupt Demetrius.

However, I shall be researching again and designing Helena today in the hopes of finding a solution. The show must go on, and I will be doing everything that I can to make sure it is the best it can be for everyone.

 

At the latter part of the day, a potential issue arose that filled me with dread - the Wigs and the Budget. According to the costings, the wigs even with the best efforts of Louise our brilliant make-up team leader were coming out dramatically over the budget she had been given. Due to the small amount of budget she had, a meeting was arranged for Louise, myself, the two costume supervisors, Mark our wig overseer and Oliver, fellow costume designer and the set designer, to see if any funds could be allocated to Louise - OR to cut down on the amount of wigs.

I had begun to consider which of the wigs could be cut in favour of just dramatically styling the actors/actresses own hair where possible and had come up with two when the meeting began - mainly due to quick changes making the majority impossible. However, the announcement at the beginning of the meeting was that Louise had found our production manager, John Cambell, and explained the situation and I am delighted to announce that she has been granted the budget she needs to get EVERYTHING we wanted! So now the wigs are more then back on track and Louise has given me the breakdown of the wigs by section and in the case of Oberon and Titania by character of the dreadlock types, colours and amount and they are as discussed and set to be beautiful, I am very excited to see what she does with them.

Suits and Jim the Fisherman

It has been one of those days that makes me love my job more then I ever thought possible. This morning began with a trip to Mudeford Quay to see Jim the Fisherman about a lobster pot for the mechanicals. After looking around for a good one for us, he came back with a weathered, traditional lobster pot - price £10. This was an absolute bargain, and after putting it in the boot of the car for me, I was off to the second sourcing job of the day - looking for suits in Bournemouth. I was going to go with Grace but she had a shift at work and had to cancel, so I headed out alone and within the first ten minutes of being in Debenhams I found a taupe ladies suit jacket that was just about perfect.

The idea of the Athenian world to start is that its a very neutral looking, cold environment, very harsh and austere. This suit for Helena, I feel, will play well off that. It has the wider collar that will date it and make it more 70's, while having a very definitely upper class feel to it. Also - it is only £15 over budget, and considering the other suits we have had to look at this is very good.

The Second Years!

This morning was the meeting for myself, Oliver, our supervisors and tutor Helen and the five second years that have been assigned to work on our production for the next two weeks. At the meeting last week between Oliver, our two supervisors and myself we had decided that we wanted the second years to help with the two headpieces from Olivers' designs - the Lion and the ass head for Bottom - and the fairy overlays for the mechanicals-as-fairies from my designs.

 

After going through the designs, the second years split off with three working on the masks and two working on the overlays. The two working with me on the overlays are Sophie and Becky. After going through the designs again we have split them so that Becky is doing Starveling and Snout with Sophie making Snug. The reason that Becky is doing two and Sophie one is that Becky, while she is making three garments, has less of a surface area to texture. If she has time Sophie will also be making the base for Flute's fairy-dress overlay.

I will be meeting with Sophie and Becky on Thursday to go over the textural technique that we are using on the rest of the fairies. As Helena and Danielle, our two main fairy makers, are both busy and I did the textural experimentation with them, this will mean that they will be able to carry on with their main costumes while I am able to work with the second years and show them what is needed.

Suits again!

Helena's suit is swiftly becoming the bane of this production. Grace managed to find another suit in budget, a grey suit from H&M, and we had asked Maya to come up for a fitting to try it on. While it was similar to the design I was not overly happy with the jacket as I feel it did not sit properly, but I feel that with a larger jacket to hopefully improve the fit it is worth at least asking the opinion of the tutors for this suit as an option. The darker grey does work well with Lysander and Demetrius' suits.

 

We are going to keep looking for now but keep this suit as an option!

Fittings Ahoy

After a morning spent working on re-doing my designs - a long process in order to document the changes and to get them ready for exhibition - it was time for the fittings for Walter and Helena's suits, and to get Alex into his bodysuit for his fitting.

Walters suit fit well apart from the trousers, which were too large, but other then that I like the look of the suit on it suits the character and the actor and when worn properly reads well as seventies (for Greece).

Helena's suit I was less happy with, not liking the cut and fit of the jacket as I felt it sat wrong on the upper torso, however we are going to get a larger jacket and see if that remedies the problem. I did like the look of the sky blue shirt Grace had found to go with the grey suit as I felt it gave it that bit of colour.

Alex was a worry when it came to putting him in his bodysuit as he is a very tall man - however the bodysuit fit almost perfectly thanks to the skill of our bodysuit maker Lucy Anderson. There were only a very few alterations to be made, predominantly the sleeve and leg length and around the knee where the usual bagginess tends to occur, however all of this was very minor and was able to be pinned quickly. When origionally dyed, the lycra had gone almost patchy, not hugely but with a subtle variation in tone, and with a slight green tint that meant we were going to redye - however, when the body suit was on this altered and looked like the pattern on a forest floor when the sun shines through the leaves. I know that sounds like a very dramatic and poetic discription but I dont know how else to describe it, and I have decided not to re-dye as it is set to work incredibly well with the textural sections to be stitched onto the suit and will mean less painting into the suit is required to create the graduated effect that I want.

Now that we have our fabric and bodysuits well underway, we were able to split our fabrics into groups for how much of which fabrics I wanted on each character, splitting between;
- Titania
- Oberon
- Robin Goodfellow
- Fairy Dancers
- Mechanicals-as-fairies