SHOW PREP! Remix Gold - 'Touched'

THE COMPANY

Remix Gold is the older branch of Diverse City's youth performance group Remix. The performance, comprised of 6 young performers and an interpreter, was held at the Southbank Centre as part of there 'Unlimited' festival to celebrate disabled artists and performers.

I was taken on just over a month ago as their costume designer and it has been an incredibly busy month!

This show has been an incredible one to work on - and now that it was performed on Friday, I finally have time to write about it in detail!

FINAL REHEARSALS

The final rehearsals and fittings at lighthouse went very well, with a dress run and as a twist I had been asked if I could also come on the performance day and do hair and make-up!That made this not only the first and last time for me to see the cast rehearse in costume, but also my last chance before the show day to practice 1950's hairstyles on the cast!


HAIR
I had been looking at a young, Grease meets Summer Holiday look for the hair, and had planned to do quiffs on both of the longer haired girls but unfortunately one of their fringes was too short to allow for a quiff, so for her I used a combination of twisting locks into curls flat to her head to pull her hair back from her face and neck. For the girl with the longer fringe I decided on a quiff and pony tail combination. Our last female cast member had a short bob and so I decided it would work best if her hair was curled with a hair clip of either feathers or a flower to hold her hair back from her face.

THE COSTUMES
With a relatively small amount of time to source, make and alter the costumes, I decided to source and alter all I could to give me enough time to alter and embelish all of them to a standard that I was happy with. This I was very sucessful with as I managed to source all but one of the female performers skirts. The costumes were all, with the exception of our interpreter, embellished with rhinestones to give them a touch of glamour that the company were keen to have and to help tie the costumes together. I also used rhinestones in the place of accessories as, for the aerial aspects of the performance it was important to have nothing on the costumes that could risk snagging and pottentially injuring the performers.

For the two of the male members of the cast, I used red and black rhinestones on one to create the appearance of a belt on the waistband of his trousers, and on the other I used lines of black rhinestones on his shirt to give the appearance of braces. The braces in particular I felt were visually effective, though I did have a problem on show day as there was a slight finish on the shirt that made the rhinestones more inclined to come off, thankfully not noticably and I was able to re-attach them in the breaks between shows.
For our third male performer, who the performance is based around, we wanted him to look smart, mature, separate but still a part of the cohesive look. Inially the idea was for him to look a little like a 1950's detective, but with the performers mobility aids this took shape in the form of a smart blue shirt and trousers. The trousers needed to be tracksuit/leisure trousers but look like smart trousers. I found a good pair of elasticated waistband black trousers in M&S, then pressed the fronts so that they looked like smart trousers, which was surprisingly effective. I had initially thought to use a striped trilby hat, but decided, and the team agreed, to not use it as a lot of the audience wouldn't be able to see his face.

On the ladies costumes, the rhinestones were much more pronounced. With the performer in a black skirt and red shirt, I used a thick band of red rhinestones around the waist to create the appearance of a belt, and a thin line of black rhinestones around the collar of her red shirt to give it definition and a bit of a subtle sparkle. The black skirt was a sourced long black circle skirt that, due to the acrobatic nature of the performance needed to be shortened so that there would be less risk of it tangling in her legs. the red shirt was originally long with long sleeves, and slightly loose. I shortened the shirt after marking its length during the first fittings, then removed the sleeves and took in the shirt so that it would not ride up during the performance and preserve the modesty of the performer.


With our performer in the orange skirt and black shirt, I had some issues in sourcing an orange skirt as they are incredibly difficult to find, so this is the only costume piece I fully made, using a poodle skirt pattern and then shortening it from the waistband once it was done. To the waistband of the orange skirt I added a loose pattern of black rhinestones for a bit of interest and subtle sparkle, and to the black shirt I covered the entirety of the collar in orange rhinestones. These I was especially happy with as the orange rhinestones in particular are incredibly bright, especially on black. The black skirt was a sourced stretch shirt, which came with the problem of the top button hole being slightly too wide giving it a tendency to pop open, so after establishing that the performer could pull the shirt on over her head when it was done up with no dificulty, I stitched up the front of the shirt so that it was secure.


For our performer in the yellow dress, who was a major focal point in the production, there were some very specific requirements. A removable back pannel was needed in her dress, to come off during the production to reveal a pair of wings. Thanks to some advice from Kate McStraw, an incredibly tallented costumer who very kindly helped me with one of the fittings, I used power net sewn to the dress to create the look of bare skin to paint the wings on to, as the production team had originally requested that the wings be painted directly onto her back. The dress I sourced was originally a 1950's style wraparound dress, but due to the acrobatics of the performance and the height of the performer there were some extensive alterations to be done! I began by shortening the dress after marking the required length in fittings, then stitched up a section of the skirt, removing the excess wraparound fabric so that the skirt was a single piece, though left open for 6 inches from the waist down to allow her to take it on and off easily. I then added snap fasteners to the front of the dress and the front of the skirt down to the stitched section of skirt. During the fittings I had marked out the size and shape of the back pannel to be removed, and I cut that section out, folding and stitching it to prevent it from fraying, then to the removed pannel I made a piece of bias binding out of the band of removed skirt from where I had shortened it, to widen it so that it would fit over the removed section of the dress. I put in a pannel of power net, and then took it to the final fittings and dress rehearsal.

Dress rehearsal at Lighthouse Theatre, Poole

From watching the dress rehearsal I saw that as the power net was stretchy, the pannel was coming out too big and ruckling when the performer moved, so in the two days before the dress run I tightened the pannel of fabric, and using pearlescent silver, blue, white and silver glitter fabric paints, and outlining in black fabric pen, I added the wings. I had gotten 3 different shades of gold rhinestones, with two colours of 4mm width and the more yellow gold ones at 3mm, and attached them around the collar, down the front of the bodice and then round the waist connecting again at the back. In adding the pannel over the wings, I put in snap fasteners, surrounding them with more rhinestones so that when the pannel was removed the snap fasteners would blend in with the rhinestones

For the three acrobatic performers, there was the additional part of shortening all of their shorts, as during the dress rehearsal, the bottoms of the shorts were visible.
For four of the performers, two of the male performers and two of the ladies, had gloves, all of which needed rhinestones put on the backs of them, an added point of interest on the costumes and emphasising the hands which the company especially wanted.

The reason I dont mention the costume of the interpreter until its nearly the performance day is that I only met her once before the show itself - she was a last minute addition and couldn't make the final dress run for a fitting, and so I found and ordered a suitable dress online in two sizes so that I could make sure the she had a dress that fitted, being only able to try them on her on the performance day itself and the other dress being returned to the retailer!

ON TO THE SOUTHBANK CENTRE!

Designing again! RemixGold

I am delighted to announce that the reason for my neglect of my blog (apologies) is that a very exciting job has come up that has taken over the last month almost entirely! I am now costume designer and maker for a circus/contemporary dance piece with a cast of 7 being performed by Remix Gold on South bank in a weeks time!

Bit of background info on the company, Remix Gold is an offshoot of Remix, which is an offshoot of the larger company of Diverse City! See the links at the end for more details on the show and the larger company!

It has been an incredibly fast turn around and definitely the tightest deadline I have faced as a designer before, going from starting designing to first fittings in 3 weeks! After a long discussion with the Director of the new, devised piece, I decided to keep the costumes relatively simple, striking 1940's/50's style of teenage rockers with a lot of colour semiotics.

While I have done carnival costumes and a lot of theatre and outdoor performance, circus is somewhat new to me so there were a lot of new considerations to take into account - not least of which being the risk of costumes catching on apparatus which could be disastrous! With this in mind, while still maintaining the look the costumes had to have the bare minimum of extras attached. Also, something the cast in particular was very keen on was a glamour to the costumes. With this in mind, I decided to use rhinestones to create the look of the accessories you would expect to see on clothes of the period, giving it some sparkle and glamour, preserving the look and making sure that the costumes are as safe as possible.

http://www.diversecity.org.uk/

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/diverse-citys-young-performance-company-1000571

More info to follow!

Model/Props Making - Final session!

This session was my final chance to cast from my mould and work on the rest of my pieces from the short course.

 

I started the session with casting in latex and expanding foam! This is something I was incredibly interested in doing with my mould as I wanted to try and create a prosthetic style mask with enough rigidity to hold its form and be able to last for a run of performances.

To start, I used a small amount of liquid latex (after spilling a fair bit down myself) to put a two thin coats of liquid latex inside the mould, drying it under the hand drier between coats. After covering a board to go over the mould in a thin layer of vaseline to stop the foam from sticking, I then had to mix the expanding foam. This was a fascinating process but had to be done incredibly quickly and so I did not manage to get any photos unfortunately. To make the expanding foam mix I had to use a two to one ratio of the foam to the catalyst, I then had about 8 seconds to mix it thoroughly before pouring it into mould and covering it with the board.

 

 

I then went back to the fibre glass version while I waited for the expanding foam to propperly set - while it is very fast I wanted to use all the time in the session to get as much as I possibly could done.

 

 

In going back to the fibre glass version, I got the chance to use my new favourite piece of workshop equiptment - the industrual sander! With this I managed to get all the edges sanded down beautifully in just 10 minutes, with the exception of a couple of interior sections that need cutting out. After this I got some wire wool and buffed the rest of the surface.

 

 

 Here it is in the sun, buffed and polished and held up against the wall in the sunlight (the photo has come up dark because of the glare coming off the shinier parts and the camera compensating for it) you can still see a lot of the detailing though despite the glare, and more so on the photo below!

 

 And here they are together - the copper fibre glass version and the silicone version! Just after this photo I cut out the eye holes and scooped a face shape out of the back, it needs tidying and painting before it can be propperly worn, but overall pretty proud of it and not a bad start to props and model making all in all!

 

Model/Prop Making - Casting Session 1!

Todays session was de-moulding and casting in fibre glass!

At the beginning of the session I took the master out the mould and cleaned the inside of the silicone to get rid of any embedded bits of clay in the detailing.

 

FROM HERE ON OUT GLOVES AND A MASK WERE DEFINITELY REQUIRED!!! The combination of fumes and metal powder are not good for the lungs! The next stage was to brush metal powder around the inside of the mould - I chose copper as I thought the warmer colour would suit the design. When finished this can be buffed into a shiny finish, not much is needed and too much can cause a powdery outside - not desirable! Then it was time to add the first coat - a gel coat that is enough of the gel to provide a decent coat with 2% catalyst added, and into this I added some of the copper powder (about a tea spoon) and a tiny bit of green pigment so that when polished it would have an antique copper effect.

Here it is with the gel coat!

 



 From here the next step was using fibre glass tissue, cutting it into pieces and small strips and putting the gel onto it - the gel started to break down the tissue and softened the fibre glass until it was maleable enough to stick to the gel coat. The job of the fibre glass is basically to reinforce the gel coat.

 

Here it is, after being de-moulded before any polishing and before the fibre glass edges had been sanded. For the last bit of the session I got some wire wool and managed to buff a couple of sections and below are the results on one of the acorns and a small section around it. 





Model/Props - Mouldmaking!

After an incredibly busy couple of weeks I'm back to write up the last two of my sessions!

 

Today was my last day to get my master finished, and to start making the mould in preparation for the first cast!

 

 After finishing the detailing on the leaves, I decided to add leaf 'veins' into the face to make it more of an integration between the human and plant aspects. And so here we come to the finished head!

I have to say the acorns are some of my favourite parts.

 

 After finally finishing the master, I built a 'wall' of clay around it leaving a rough 2 inch gap, then covered it in silicone with a catalyst.

 

After covering the master, while waiting for it to set I decided to do a little more work on my gun but unfortunately ran out of time on that before I could do much and needed to go back to mouldmaking but here it is!

 

I've gotten some of the marks put in place on both sides, and I hope to mark into it with a soldering iron.  BUT then back on to the mould making, as the solicone was dry I had enough time to cover the mould in a layer of thick plaster before the end of the session - next session will be time to take the master out the mould and see how its come out.

Model/Props - Casting and Costume props!

After discussing turning my master into a prosthetic like mask and casting in silicone, I started working in this session to extend the face down the 'neck' and to continue with the objective of finishing the surface detailing!

 

                                          At end of previous session                     Starting to add more surface detail

Extending to go down the 'neck'

 

I added more acorns as well as the additional different types of leaves for more variety. In order to get the details on the leaves correct I used research images to check the patterning.

 

Adding more detail to the surface using a silicone modeling tool. I find this gives a smoother line.

 

All but two of the leaves now have their surface details, and next session I will be covering the master in silicone and forming the mould, which I hope to cast in both silicone and fibre glass.

Models/Props - Moulding and Casting!

In the latest session of model and props making, we have started on casting and moulding. I have done a little of this before but not like this! We started by learning a little about the various methods and materials used and the pros and cons of them before starting to discuss and decide what we wanted to form in this and the following session.

I had initially thought to make something that was specifically intended as a prop but was inspired by two of the images supplied by the tutor as they were masks, but incredibly intricately formed which gave me the idea to try and make a costume prop mask/headpiece that at the moment I am debating either turning into a form of prosthetic face OR casting in a thicker silicone and casting a back as well to make it into a puppet head - either of which are possible after seeing some of the examples presented by the tutor! What I found so inspiring about the two images were how much they reminded me of an early idea I had for the fairies from the 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' production that I designed for last year. Now over a year on with more experience and a unique opportunity to explore this option I decided to go for it!

 

But back to the session - the first step was to create the master to cast. Using the two images (above) as inspiration was a good starting point but I wanted to make this a design all my own. The first task was to create face! This needed to be effectively the front half of the head, and considering the size and materials I used blue foam to mass out a large section of the centre, building onto it with ceramic clay. With the exception of vac forming during moving tides and prototyping for Breathe, the last time I used ceramic clay was for my A Level ceramics course and it was a lovely opportunity to use it again as it has always been a medium I have enjoyed.

Once I had formed the head, making sure that  proportionally it was correct, it was time to add surface detail. I decided that instead of taking a while to try and sketch out in detail what I wanted to do, I would treat my first try as an experiment and go with what I felt looked the best - and with that in mind I decided to make him an Oberon inspired mask/puppet and use the more masculine lines of vines and oak and ivy leaves with acorns amongst them.

 

Being that Oberon is the King of the fairies and has power over nature, I felt that mixing the leaves on the same vines was fitting as he governs all and so visually could be less restricted by the logical. The building of a master can take a surprisingly long time, and by the end of the session I was just getting to the point of adding the finer surface detail. Next session I will get my surface details added and extend the design downward, then get on to casting!