Conquering Ebay

A-Roving has now been put in the programme for the Bournemouth Arts By The Sea Festival and it is all official. We have general performance times, a ruthlessly organised costume bible, and a good friend and peer of mine Tanya Pye as hair and make-up and also dresser as required.

 

So far I have been sourcing from a mix of the actors wardrobes, online shopping and charity shops - but thanks to browsing I am now using ebay. Sadly I have until now avoided ebay, but after I used it to source a pair of plimsoles for one of our actors with size 13 feet I have been surfing the search engine and finding it incredibly useful.

 

I have had a good bit of luck the last few days hunting the charity shops - I have had to hold off on buying the jackets due to the change of season and jackets being more expensive but courtesy of ebay and some luck in boscombe I now only have 2 coats left to buy!

 

All that is left now of the costumes are:

Shoe's for Richard,

Hannah's Hat

Alana's Jacket

Making Nick's Belt

SCARVES

 

 

The scarves are going to be a mix of sourced from borrowing (from home, the actors, crew, friends etc) bought and where necessary made. I am currently stockpiling scarves and accessories. After the costumes are completely sourced, it will be time to move on to the luggage component and props.

 

A-Roving - Costume Designs

Here are my costume designs! There have been some minor changes since they were finished - the black jackets are now blue, and Nick's shorts are different but that asside these are the costumes.



 

Alex







Hattie, Peter, James



For Hattie I wanted a slightly quirky but still modern look, whereas Peter is a contrast in more traditional fisherman's attire. James is more of a beach-tourist style, which works quite well on the actor.

 

Jesamine, Hannah, Nick





 For Jesamine I wanted a very quirky look, nautical but not quite cliche. For Hannah I wanted a more elegant, upperclass style to ballance Nick and James. For Nick the idea was very much surfer meets (for want of a better term) beach bum, as it suits his frame.

 

Richard, Joscelyn, Alana



Richard is the 'pair' for Hannah, another more formal style while still being blue and white and looking traveled while not broken down. For Joscelyn, I wanted something different from the others but still inkeeping with the look and feel of the production - keeping with the nautical theme with the colour pallete, headscarf and belt while being a more modern, casual style. Alana's costume is, in a way, a cross in styles between Nick and James, part beach casual part surfer while still being quirky.




Declan

Declan's style is very similar to Peters in the more traditional fisherman's attire, including the hat and thick jumper.



 There has also been another change in that there has been a new cast member added! This brings our cast up to 12. Due to the budget restrictions and the short time period until the show, our director has requested that I source the costume from the actors wardrobe. This is going to be an interesting challenge with the majority of the cast not returning until the week before the show, but in this email has been a saving grace.

Updating - A-Roving!

To update you on my costume supervising for A-Roving, let me take you through the developments since my last post on the subject.

Over the last few weeks sourcing has begun in earnest with what is now a cast of 11. Having been given now two thirds of my budget I have completely outfitted two of my performers, with the majority of the costumes for 2 more, partials for the majority of the rest of the cast and I am coming out (cautiously) under budget still having over half of the money I was already given left to work with. Charity shops have been a blessing. Have currently been scouting charity shops in Ringwood, Winton, Christchurch, Highcliffe and Boscombe. Strangely very little has been needed to be bought in a shop other then some of the T-shirts and shoes.

For the majority of the performers, after sending them their designs I have managed to find items from their designs that they already own and put them on their costume bible sourcing sheets, but as a few of them own nothing from their costumes it has come - where possible - to the borrowing stage. With almost any production with a low budget costume, where possible, is almost always sourced from the actor or a friend/family member where possible. This makes it possible to source some of the bigger or more hard to come by items from shops and free's up more of the budget.

There was a minor issue with one of our characters costumes in terms of shoes - they always seem to be the issue. Having a small budget and a performer with size 12-13 feet who has no suitable footwear whatsoever is a challenge. Thankfully ebay provided the answer with a pair of plimsoles that I will be painting with fabric paint donated by my sister to achieve the right colour and look. This method is one that I am also using for another character in the performance who I designed very specific footwear for. This project has been all about thinking outside the box.

There has been one minor design change to one of the costumes - where one of the characters the director and myself had decided on plain blue shorts but in a stroke of luck I found in a Charity shop in Ringwood a perfect pair of blue and white shorts patterned with compasses. With the blue and white pattern not to bold or busy they were perfect. After consulting with the director we have decided to use them.

In another stroke of luck after a meeting last week with the director we were able to get into the AUCB Acting Department Props cupboard. This was a treasure trove for luggage and also supplied, surprisingly, a stretch of offcut fabric that I am going to use for one of the performers head scarves.

Photographs of the costumes will be put up soon - keep an eye out!

Battle for the Winds Show Day!

The day of the show! The atmosphere back stage - excited and convivial. With all the Breathe costumes finished there was little to do but check that the costumes were all accounted for and ready and then lend my services to Battle for the morning, drying costumes, ironing and generally helping as and when required.

With the procession about to start it was time for us to watch the first part of the days performance - the procession of the Wind machines as the Battle regions made their way down the Weymouth promenade. There were far more performers and costumes then I had anticipated, as it seems each region had brought extras of both with them but it all added to the overall carnival atmosphere.

For myself the highlights of the procession were the unexpected moments, the most startling of which was when Jake, one of the Swindon performers, climbed onto a traffic light pole to juggle with his juggling partner who was on stilts.

After watching the procession it was back to getting ready, making sure that all the costumes were prepared and in their rightful places before the dressing began, and the last minute task of sewing wadding into some of the headdresses to prevent any slipping - with head gear you can never be too careful - and making sure the elastic of said headdresses was the right length and in the right place.

The dressing itself was for the most part very relaxed, though always efficient, since the performers for the most part already had their base costume on when they arrived as they had been permitted to take them home after the dress and tech run.

This time, as myself and Jessica had been with the aerialists during the run we were allowed to watch the main performance. After spending the last few minutes with the performers before they were due to start the show for a very emotional and rousing speech from Director Jamie to get the performers going, and a few words of encouragement to our aerialists, we were through the barriers to the side of the stage and into the crowd.

For all of us who were part of the wardrobe team it was an incredibly moving and emotional experience, not just to see costumes that we had helped design, make and been involved in for so many months used and brought to life but also to see our Breathers, after working with them and getting to know them, get their time in the spotlight was incredibly moving. I am so very glad that I have gotten to work on Breathe, and getting to work with the team - both backstage and the performers - has been a once in a lifetime experience that I feel privileged to have been a part of.

Battle for the Winds - Dress and Tech Run!

With 2 days until the main performance, it was the day of the dress and tech run! Arriving in Weymouth at the Wardrobe tent on the beach it was all go - but very relaxed. We had managed to get almost everything done before the costumes were moved to Weymouth, the only things left to do to get the costumes ready were any extra embellishments and some last minute adjustments to the headdresses.

Due to this we were able to go and watch the Battle for the Winds regional performances on the promenade! This was a wonderful opportunity after seeing the costumes being made from last year and various fittings in the studio to finally getting to see them being used. There was some quintessential British

In the evening with the performers set to arrive, it was all ahead to get the groups dressed as they were stewarded to us. There was a change to the original plan - initially myself and Jessica Howard were meant to be dressing the Brazilians in their hotel, but it was decided that it would be easier and more efficient to dress them in the wardrobe tent on the live site where the rest of the Breathers were being dressed. This worked out so well that it was decided that we would do the same thing again for the main performance on Saturday. Myself, Jessica and Lois were the main Brazilian dressers, while dressing the other Breather groups as well as they came in. It was a relatively relaxed process but with the run open to the public, we had to be very firm on scheduling.

With the last of the Breathers dressed and ready to go, we collected the boxes of contingency materials and headed to the backstage tent where the Breathers were getting ready to go on - at which point myself and Jessica were asked if, as they had never seen the performance, if we could go with the Aerialist Breathers to get them into the last items of their costumes once they were in the harnesses. Where we were we could see the main screens from the inside of the performance space, but most of the action was hidden and there were the standard technical problems that come with any teck run. However it was still an incredible taster to the final performance!

Aeolis, begining his ascent

From where we were stationed across the road from the fenced off performance space Aeolus, Father of the Winds and one of the principal performers, was air lifted over the road and onto the stage. We had time while he was waiting to go over to have a small chat with him before the crane took him up and over. I think this was very reassuring to our Breather Aerialists as a couple of them were quite nervous about going up. Myself and Jessica kept them occupied and reassured them as best we could, watching the screens of the main performance and waiting for the call for them to go up.

With the last part of the show looming it was time to get the performers into their harnesses and the past parts of their costumes. This proved tricky with one of our performers as since the last time I had helped dress him his cloak had been altered so I was not sure initially which way round it was supposed to be! There was also the added nerve wracking aspect that we were attaching parts of costumes while at the same time being very aware that we were attaching them over the top of safety harnesses, however we kept reassuring the performers and encouraging them, and they were hoisted safely into the air and into their performance. They were incredible, performing somersaults and acrobatics with ease. After arriving back safely on the ground and being released from their harnesses, it was time to take them back to the backstage tent to get changed out of their outer costumes - but we allowed them to take their base costumes home with them.

With this done, we took the outer costumes back to the wardrobe tent to be sorted into their individual bags and sections.

It was a long and busy day but one that left with it a feeling of incredible pride in our performers, and anticipation for the main event to come.

The Mad Hatters Weekend

Entering the Madness

Friday

In getting ready for any performance there is always a good deal of last minute preparatory work, and this was no different. I arrived in Portsmouth on Friday evening, and immediately started working with Tanya Pye - costume designer and wardrobe mistress - and helper Jeremy Emery on finishing the last of the costumes.

This involved making more roses to complete the White Queen dress, slip stitching the sleeves of the Red Queen dress, adding zips and numerous other small tasks.This was a good chance to use a range of skills that I have learned from my course at the AUCB and to utilise new ones that I have learned from this production - being the making of fabric roses. The atmostphere of the crew was one that very much suited the production, and though it was a lot of work to finish the excitement for the production carried us through.

Jeremy Emery, helper, making roses

Tanya hard at work

.

Saturday

Starting just after dawn, we were off finishing the tails of the White Rabbit and March Hare costumes, and then on to getting all the costumes, props and cakes ready to be transported to the show grounds. There was an additional task as well - finishing and painting a prop Tea Pot made of pappier mache. This was a task that required teamwork, especially when it came to painting and drying, and I can honestly recomend this as a team building activity for performance groups.

Wardrobe Team battling to dry the giant tea pot as the performance looms

This was a very time sensitive task, as we were dressing the actors at the performance grounds and would have very little time between arriving and the begining of the performance.

The performance itself was achieved brilliantly, the actors ready and excited. From the costuming side, the ears of the March Hare and the tail of the White Rabbit were issues that required problem solving during the performance. The March Hare had ears attached to hair clips and had unfortunately short hair. We used hair clips to hold the ears in place as best they could but in the end there was only so much that hair clips could do. The White Rabbit's tail kept becoming removed from the costume during the dances as his was one of the most lively characters of the performance. We fastened the tail on with safety pins, but in hindsight it might have been better to have tacked in the tail if only until the end of the show to hold it in place.

Entire cast 'on-stage'

Alice and the White Quees

The Tweedles

Thankfully due to the heatwave we did not have the problems I faced with outdoor performance before (in that it was cancelled due to bad weather) and the audience had a good time sat in the sun. We raised a very good amount for the charity Cystic Fybrosis Kids of Portsmouth.
I am glad I was involved, and hope to be involved again next year.

Breathe Week - day 4

Today Jess and myself finished dying the base costumes! This meant finishing the series of four dying stages, the remaining of which were all dip dying.

Stage 2

Dip dying 3/4 of shirt - collar first - and 3/4 of trousers or leggings - ankles first - into a mix of dylon dyes Scarlet red, Coffee, Golden Glow and Tangerine

Stage 3

Dip dying the shirt and trousers as above but to 1/2 in a mix of dylon dyes Madonna Blue and Arabian Nights

Stage 4

Finally the last stage was dying the shirt and trousers again as above but the shirts to the tops of the shoulders, and the trousers to 1/4 in a mix of Scarlet Red and Pagoda Red.

rinsing the dye out of the base costumes

In addition to this we were also set to breaking down belts and two of the 'hunter' tribe's cloaks. The belts we broke down with cheese graters, achieving a freyed, worn effect.

For the cloak (below) I used the remainder of the coffee dylon dye, heated in a saucepan, and sponged it on to get the below effect.

 

Pre - Breaking down



Post - Breaking down

I was also proud and happy to see the spades and rakes I made on the builders belts as we were breaking them down - photo below.