Month: April 2016

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And So It Began

I knew that I wanted to become an actress since I remember myself. From the age of five I would spend hours upon hours in front of a mirror pretending to be a thousand different versions of myself such as a nurse, a teacher, a singer, and even a pirate! My love for acting and theatre only grew stronger and I soon found myself studying Drama in the University of Lincoln. Here, I confirmed my love for the arts and I discovered that acting is not the only way to express yourself. In fact, there are various roles one can take when creating a piece of work such as stage manager, writer, costume, set designer, director and much more! Therefore, I challenged myself with taking on a role that I’ve never tried before and thus I became the director for the theatre company my friends and I created for our very final module in the university. It wasn’t easy and so much research had to be done but I knew from the start that I had one goal; to create and direct a piece that would not just entertain but it would provide food for thought. This is because I deeply believe in the transformative power of theatre which is able to educate us and shape who we are! Indeed, in his speech at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s Dinner on Stage event, Howard Shalwitz referred to seven reasons why theatre is so beneficial for us. Some of the things Shalwitz talked about were how “theatre brings people together”, how “both the making of theatre and attending of theatre contribute to education and literacy” and more importantly how “it influences the way we think and feel about our own lives and encourages us to take a hard look at ourselves, our values, and our behavior” (Shalwitz, 2011).  

Tom Bowetell also gave an inspirational talk about theatre and the ways it can affect us at a Tedx Stormont event:

(Tedx Talks, 2013)

 

It was a pleasant surprise that everyone in our theatre company shared the same thoughts and desires of creating something with meaning and so the beautiful journey of creating a piece of work from scratch soon it began!

 

Works Cited

Shalwitz, H. (2011) 7 Reasons Why Theatre Makes Our Lives Better. Washington, DC: theatreWashington. Available from http://theatrewashington.org/content/7-reasons-why-theatre-makes-our-lives-better [accessed 25 April 2016].

Tedx Talks (2013) Can Theatre Actually Change Anything?: Tom Bowtell at TEDxStormont. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4cSdM2Q0YY&index=1&list=LLHy_mvyUoI8QlB5ijz1Hh5g [accessed 25 April 2016].

 

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The History of Costume in Theatre – Final Blog – Post 1

The beginning of my process as costume designer for the production of Every Rose… begins with research into the history of theatre costume.

Greek Theatre

The most iconic item of costume that was used in Greek theatre was masks. Due to the size of the theatres, the audience members would have been seated far away from the actors. To emphasize the characters being played they would wear masks. These masks would be tailored to fit the characters personality; for example, comedic characters would have large smiles whilst tragic characters would have mournful facial expressions. Not only this, the mask helped the actors project their voices due to the way it molded around their mouths.

masks

Examples of Greek masks.

(Voronin, 2014)

However it is without a doubt the most powerful function of the mask was its ability to allow:

 

an ordinary man… [to] go beyond his real identity and become a mythological hero or a lusty satyr, a foolish old man or a beautiful young woman, a god or a slave. In this disguise he could say and do things that could not be said and done in everyday life, and could present to the audience events, actions and ideas that were horrifying or ridiculous, inspiring or fantastic. (The British Museum, 2016)

The influence these masks had on the actors’ performance was a driving point for me to achieve this impact with the costume I will create.

 The Middle Ages and Renaissance

Religion was prominent during this period and this was reflected in theatre. Miracle plays and the dramatization of scriptures were incredibly popular both inside and outside the church. When they developed further the plays were moved into other public places such as the market place, which allowed larger audiences to attend. These plays usually involved characters from similar backgrounds of the performers, such as townspeople. Because of this, the performers would usually supply their own costumes.

The renaissance period saw the visual production elements become as important as the script. The costumes became more lavish, colourful ad overall expensive, just like the fashion of the time. Due to the expense of these costume they were usually sourced by upper-class citizens, ‘Thomas Platter, a Swiss visitor to England in 1599, said that important people often left clothes to servants in their wills. The servants were not allowed to wear expensive clothes, so they sold them to actors.’ (Shakespeares Globe, 2016)

 

renaissance

Renaissance fashion.

(Costume History, 2014)

Sixteenth – Eighteenth Century

As well as being extravagant, costumes during Elizabethan era involved certain colours to represent the characters status. These colours and status in society would be understood by the Elizabethan audience, which allowed them to identify the character as soon as they enter the stage.

During the seventeenth and eighteen centuries, the actors began to wear costumes that were fashionable at the time. Certain items were added to indicate who the characters are, for example, a crown would signify a king or queen.

golden-elizabethan-dress

Example of an Elizabethan dress.

(Atanu B, 2014)

Nineteenth – Twentieth Century

Many periods of history has passed and costumes were now being made to fit the specific era the play. During this period, travel was beginning to become easier so people knowledge of difference cultures increased. The audience would attend the theatre and expect to see the representations of the cultures advertised. Because of the development of travel, costume designers were able to research and acquire the correct materials to create accurate costumes.

 

Works Cited

Atanu B. (2014). Elizabethan Stage (Unedited). [online] Available at: https://atanu4.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/elizabethan-stage-unedited/ [Accessed 19 May 2016].

 Costume History. (2014). Renaissance fashion in the Reign of Francis I. 1515 to 1545. | Costume History. [online] Available at: http://world4.eu/16th-century-fashion-reign-francis/ [Accessed 19 May 2016].

Shakespeares Globe. (2016). Costumes & Cosmetics. [online] Available at: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/01/costumes_cosmetics.pdf [Accessed 17 May 2016].

The British Museum (2016). Teaching History with 100 Objects – A Greek theatre mask. [online] Available at: http://www.teachinghistory100.org/objects/about_the_object/greek_theatre_mask [Accessed 19 May 2016].

Voronin, P. (2014). Smiley Face. [online] Loosely Analogous. Available at: https://looselyanalogous.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/smiley-face/ [Accessed 19 May 2016].

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First Ideas

Our Theatre Company has always been set on the idea to use the original story of Cinderella by Charles Perrault. We knew that we wanted to explore what would happen if Cinderella decided to get revenge on the sisters, but we were just unsure how to do it. The main idea was to have it in a surrealistic dream world, but we struggled to figure out what it was exactly we wanted to do. We were focusing on trying to get surrealistic elements into the play, when really we just wanted the aspect of the dream world rather than a full surrealistic play. Finally after a few weeks of struggling to create a story that would portray everything we wanted, we decided to pose each scene as a different genre and have characters that don’t fit in to any of the genres of scenarios. First we would start with shadow puppets to show the ‘real’ world and then turn to live action to show the dream world.

The puppet scene tells an edited version of the Charles Perrault story and ends with Cinderella snapping and not being able to cope with all the abuse from her sisters. The Monologue is read by a Narrator in a traditional way with fairy tale like music in the background. At certain points such as when the sisters “Laugh and goad Cinderella” a soundscape of sinister laughter begins in the background to create a soundscape that will lead Cinderella into the dreamland.

We took inspiration from clips such as this from YouTube, uploaded by Pegasus English Language School.

With this inspiration we created our own puppets to open the play.

Pegasus English Language School (2014) Sleeping Beauty – Shadow Puppet Theatre

. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1EGbNKBho [accessed 13 May 2016].