No Pasaran! Show week!

Over the last few days my roles on No Pasaran! have been dramatically altered! I was asked to crew the show, but over the last few days I have become wardrobe assistant, dresser, make-up artist for opening night and I have built a last minute part of the set!

To explain - during the get in on Monday, part of the set that was needed was to make the piano that cannot be removed from the stage look like a pile of rubble. Unfortunately the company that built the rest of the set didn't have one, and so that job came to me. I am proud to say I managed to make it in the required two days and it was on stage and working last night for opening night!

Starting the rubble cloth - a 3.6m x 3.6m loose weave cotton drop cloth

Texture effect created by using a mix of black and white matt emulsion sponged directly onto the cloth

 

Half completed, showing the texture effect in the light

 

With the weather turning cold, the cloth wasn't drying and so I used a heat gun to dry the last and worst of the wet spots!

The completed rubble cloth in the theatre doing its job! (hiding the piano that we couldn't remove from the stage)

I bulked out the cloth and created texture by stuffing the underneath with news paper to create a more 3D effect

The costumer, Carol, is a lovely lady who was on her own in sorting out and dressing the entire 28 person cast, and so I was enlisted to help in as wardrobe assistant and so far have allocated costumes, mended costumes, altered them, pinned ripped seams and dressed for numerous quick changes during the show!

Example of my work on alterations - unpicking a seam and adding a popper for a 4 second quick change between the second and third scene!

On Wednesday night, the night before we opened we were hit with a problem. Our make-up lady had found out she couldn't make it the next day and with Carol busy on the costumes there was no one to do it and do I was asked to step in - and I am honestly very proud of what we managed to achieve for the opening night! Olivia Ling, one of our leading ladies and an absolute star, was able to help with our two children's make-up.

Now we have 3 more shows to go and things backstage are getting into a good rhythm!