Spamalot - Diva's, Costumes and Props Ahoy!

A quick post today, and not as nautical as the title would suggest, it is none-the-less all go. After going through the costumes sourced so far and the pieces left to make/find with Lisa, I am delighted to be making several costume pieces, including one of the costumes for our wonderful Diva! So as not to ruin the surprise I will not be able to post photographs or a description of the costumes until after the performance dates, but suffice to say that it is by far the most complex - and possibly the shiniest - costume I have made. With final approval on designs and after collecting measurements and fabric, the costume block drafting and costume making starts in earnest today.

The results of just one of my fabric sample sourcing trips over the last two weeks!

The fun of experimenting with trick costumes is still to come today and tomorrow as we have a very interesting trick onstage that is going to take some working out - you will know it when you see it!

Spamalot - Its all about the timing, and its definitely all go!

Well we are now almost two months into rehearsals with just over three months to go, and it is indeed all go! You know when it is going to be a large show when even at this stage, there is very little time to write posts about the show so apologies for any long gaps!

Over the course of rehearsals, I have been taking costume notes and timing costume changes, beginning to take measurements, and in the course of the last few rehearsals costumes have been appearing in rehearsals with costumier Lisa Stead to be tried on by various cast members which I have been documenting, with fittings to come closer to the show. I have been given responsibility for designing and making some of the costumes which I am already well under way with and it is incredibly exciting! With a fabric sample sourcing trip last week, there are a variety of designs to choose from waiting for final selection. Due to not wanting to give away any spoilers, details of those particular costumes will not be being released until after the performances, but it is safe to say that there will be a few surprises during the show! In addition to this I have been given responsibility over designing and making various props, which is proving to be an interesting and exciting challenge - I have now started an itemised to-do list separated into costume and props.

In the case of the quick changes, timing is everything in both working out who needs a dresser, and how many dressers may be needed! With the amount and complexity of changes, I created another master document keeping track of who is onstage and what they are wearing, who is offstage and when and where they need to change, if they have a dresser who it is, and with a section for props locations so that if quick changes are needed for someone with props to take on, they don't change on the opposite side of the stage to their props! Another aspect of this is timing the quick-changes so that both performer and dresser know exactly how much time they have, and to make sure that we can practice and have the changes smooth and on time by the time we get to show week.
The master document will no doubt be refined a few times, with changes happening as people are added to or moved between scenes, but at the moment, it is working out the best way of keeping track of the wardrobe. The rehearsals are going beautifully, and already it is a wonderful show to watch!

Welcome to Spamalot!

I am once again working with the wonderful Bournemouth Musical Theatre Productions on their summer production which, this year, is Spamalot! A large scale musical with anticipated costumes numbering well over 100, this is going to be a very fun show to work on! In addition to wardrobe mistress, this year I am also assisting Lisa Stead, the costumer, in sourcing and making costumes. From attending the read through this is an incredibly strong cast, and the rehearsals have already begun.

For anyone not familiar with Spamalot it is a Monty Python musical based on the plot of their film The Holy Grail, and has an astonishing number of costumes and costume changes. With a large cast, this includes for almost all performers multiple costume changes, quick changes and VERY quick changes! With the complex amount and variety of changes, planning is already underway to ascertain how many dressers will be needed and when.

The sheer volume of different changes during the show has made my usual method of costume plotting impractical, so while I do still have a master spreadsheet, I have done each performer an individual costume plot and from there, once exact change times and locations have been established to accurately work out who will need help and when, I am going to do dresser plots so that each dresser has a scene by scene guide of exactly who they need to help, where, and when. In the mean time it is all steam ahead! Spamalot has launched!

Masking!

Recently, I did some costume workshops for the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton - if you have never been before it is a fantastic venue, a wonderful producing theatre with a fantastic programme of shows!

For one of the two workshops, I had my workshop group create a mood board from images I provided and, working from it, make a dragon mask. The most important part of the task was that, as it is a costume, they needed to characterise their mask - happy, sad, angry, comical, it needed to communicate a personality as well as being a practical, wearable mask. I found and printed 40 different research images for them to draw inspiration from, a wide variety of masks from different cultures and era's, shapes and purposes, from a variety of different designers. The idea was to give them as many options as possible to design and create from. They were on a strict time limit for it due to the length of the session, and in order to make sure they could do their mood board and mask in time, I decided to make a prototype in the same amount of time I was giving them.

I gave myself 15 minutes for the mood board, and then an hour and ten minutes for the mask, making sure I had exactly the same materials as I was giving them. I had selected two different mask shapes for the workshop, a full face mask and a Venetian style bird shape - very similar in shape to the Venetian Scaramouche mask! I chose to use a scaramouche shape.

The idea of a mood board is to be an inspiration and communication tool, to hold idea's to work from. Bypassing the drawn design stage and working straight from a mood board was, I felt, the best way to communicate their inspiration for their masks in the time frame we had to work with.

Selecting my inspiration photographs and making small notes on personality and design aspects to communicate, I quickly got started on my prototype - I wanted to make an angry dragon, but more sinister, and not to use red but green and gold instead. I wanted to get a lot of texture onto my dragon, and to try and create horns.

To start, I used hot glue to form spikes to add base surface texture. I selected my fabric, a muted green stretch fabric, then added more hot glue to the hardened spikes and pinched the fabric around them to add wrinkles and contour

To create the horns I rolled sugar paper into a thin tube and then twisted it into the shape that I wanted - very much taking inspiration from Maleficent in the horn shape - then using hot glue I twisted and formed the fabric around and onto the horns

To get the more prominent, sunken eyed look I used paper the same way as I did to make the horns, and stuck it onto the mask at the eyebrows before putting the fabric over it. Here is the mask before I dry-brushed a mixture of black and red acrylic paint onto the horns, snout, and into the eye sockets and onto the raised sections of fabric to make the contours stand out more, and then added gold organza underneath to further disguise and distort the performer adding to the characterisation. I felt gold also added to the 'fiery' and 'magical' impression of my dragon.

Here's the finished mask after it was painted, as you can see the paint has really added to the contouring and make it a much more visually impressive mask 

So there we have it! My dragon prototype mask, an angry, green and gold dragon with horns - taking exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes! 

The Princess and the Queen!

Apologies for being so quiet over the past few months it has been a very busy time, but rest assured I am still designing and making away!

I have been commissioned to design and make two dresses for a local company, a 'princess' dress in specific colours chosen by the company, and a Snow Queen dress. For this I have had company head Diana with me every step of the way. I began designing a few months ago, and after a very productive sourcing trip around some local fabric suppliers - I cannot recommend Hansons in Sturminster Newton highly enough, they have an the best range of fabrics that I have found outside of London and incredibly helpful, friendly staff - we sourced the fabric that we wanted.

The first to be made is the princess dress, and we have gone with a lilac tinted silver crepe back satin, to have organza gathered cap sleeves that sweep across the front, to be decorated with clear hot fix rhinestones. The deadline for this dress is in flux and is currently not required until early next year. 

While I am fast at hand stitching, it will never be as fast as machine stitching! However, the best way to get the pleats in the skirt accurate and stable before stitching to the bodice was hand stitching them in place and so that is what I did. The other hand sewing was slip stitching the bias binding - yes, once again it is the return of the slip stitching!

In the mean time, here is a photo of the dress as it stands now - please bear in mind that it will have embellishment, the sleeves and the neckline have to wait until the dress has had at least its first fitting. The skirt will also have structuring under it to give it more volume!

Goodbye to the 50's for now!

Last of the posts about the 50's teapot skirt! I was sent a photo of the lady at the roller disco hen party in her full outfit and makeup that she was more then happy for me to share, so here it is! I an really proud of how it turned out (and how much she loved it!)

Anyone out there looking for someone to design or make a 50's skirt or anything at all, just let me know!

Back to the 50's!

So yesterday I met with the lady I had made the skirt for (last post, making a 1950's style skirt from fabric chosen by the woman I made it for, for a 1950's hen party roller disco!) and handed it  over. It fit! The biggest hurdle, it fit her beautifully and she loved it, and better yet she immediately went and put it on and posed for some 50's style photo's for me at the bandstand nearby!

Fingers crossed I will also be being sent a photo of her in full 1950's attire at the roller disco, skates and all! Always nice to have a happy customer.