The Rocky Horror Show starring Duncan James, Ben Adams and Joanne Clifton was at the Alexandra Theatre recently and I covered a shift as dresser on the 2 show day. It was an enjoyable shift, it was a bit intimidating jumping in but the Head of Wardrobe was very nice and accommodating and helped me out a lot which was appreciated. He talked me through my changes on the matinee then left me to it for the evening performance. I learned how to attach stockings to suspender belts, and how to do up corsets on other people. It was different from the tone of the other shows I've done but it was nice too, refreshing to work on something with a less serious storyline. It was also fun to work on this show on Pride Weekend.
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For a friends birthday recently I made a notebook, but tried including embroidery on the front and back cover. I did a simple floral design with her initials in the middle onto dark green cotton, which I used as the cover instead of patterned paper. It worked quite well and she liked it, but I realised it is more difficult to stick down and it wont lie flat because of the differing height where the stitches are. I then tried again with a different size book, A5 instead of A6, I did a lion design n the front and the Lannister motto from Game of Thrones on the back "Hear me Roar". The embroidery looked great but once again the difficulty was it lying flat and me effectively sticking it down. I tried using PVA glue but this wrinkled the card I was backing it onto, so tired again with hot glue as I'd used on my friends, but again this made it unsmooth where the glue was underneath. I ended up using glue stick and double sided tape and this seemed to work better. I also put thick interfacing behind the embroidery to try and get it lying flatter. I haven't yet added the pages but plan to. I might try a cut out with the embroidery in on the next one, like cross stitch greeting cards, this way I can still include embroidery but have the stability of a paper cover not a cotton one.
Having been to Comic Con in Birmingham this year I realised I really enjoyed making mine and my brothers costumes out of the fabric I have left over from university projects. So I decided to continue doing this while also practicing my corset making skills. I have been designing corsets based on some of my favourite characters and making them. I hope to find an effective path to sell them eventually. The first corset I made was this one based on the Disney villain Maleficent. I had some purple and black two tone fabric that was perfect for this character. It was a difficult fabric to work with as there were two layers that kept sliding over each other, but the final result wasn't the worst. I used felt to applique the dragon and horns and some black fabric to make the binding for the edges. Unfortunately I don't have a eyelet tool the right size to put on the black eyelets I wanted to use, so had to use gold ones instead which don't really match. I was pleased that it came out looking like my paper design sketch, seeing the final thing in reality was satisfying. The second corset was based on my favourite princess, Cinderella. I have seen many iterations of her story growing up and tried to combine them in this design. I had some blue and silver linen that made me think of the character. It is the first time I tried the sleeves and putting embroidery on a garment, I have more practice to do in this as there is still traces of the pen I used to sketch out the design on the front of the corset. I need to find a way to trace patterns on. Apart from that I am pretty pleased with it, I even added pearls and sequins to a pretty effect. Adding the sleeves was also a challenge as I couldn't tuck them into a seam due to the piping along the top edge so had to try and stitch them as neatly as I could over it. This made me think about how I need to consider the practicality of making while doing my design sketch. I am pleased with my designing, I took the peplum from the film starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, The black elements were a tribute to the Disney animation and Cinderella's black choker necklace, the embroidery pattern also has the carriage from that film within the design. The fabric shimmer nodded to the more recent live action Disney film starring Lily James, and the embroidery is inspired by the film Ever After; A Cinderella Story starring Drew Barrymore.
I have more designs I have done and I hope to make them in the near future. I am trying to design them so they could be an outfit in themselves, so you could wear them with a skirt or a pair of trousers but people will still know who you are dressed as. This occurred to me when I made my brothers costume onto a waistcoat so it wouldn't be complicated with lots of little elements to put on, he could just put on the waistcoat and be ready to go. I have been enjoying the stories that are being played out in my soon to be brother in law's D&D campaign and the images sparked off a desire to create, naturally. I used photoshop to illustrate one of the scenes and also create character designs for all the players. It was enjoyable to create these and practice my drawing skills on CAD but I think there is room to expand on designing and drawing detail in the costumes, which is something I will continue to explore in my future projects.
I have been practicing my sewing skills and creating products with the fabric I have built up over my time at uni. Once I'd built up a stock I then created an Etsy page to sell them from. I am in the hope that I can sustain and grow my skills and career experience by working for myself between theatre/ other jobs and learning to drive. It also means I can try new crafts and expand my making skills. For instance so far I have been able to learn how to handmake notebooks. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MadebyRachelW?ref=search_shop_redirect I completed a night of work at the Birmingham Hippodrome as a dressing assistant on the Welsh National Opera production of War and Peace. I have gone to the Hippodrome as an audience member many times in my life and it was a mini dream for me to then be able to work backstage. I was assisting the dresser with the extra male chorus. It was a tone change for me as I had never dressed anyone much older than me before, but with this came a calmer atmosphere as with added experience they had less nervous energy. It was also a tone change as the scale was much bigger than I have experience with, the physical space backstage is huge compared to where I've worked and the fact that I was also working on my first opera just added to the tone of sheer scale. It was new territory for me and I enjoyed talking to the other crew about working there and working with them. I enjoyed the fact that I was just as amazed by the backstage of the production as I am when I'm watching in the auditorium and I hope to work there again in the future.
From doing Stage Experience I was offered the job of dressing on Motown the Musical while it was at The Alexandra. I was assigned 2 female ensemble members to dress (Olivia and Deearna). I quickly realised this was probably the most complex dressing job I've ever had, as there were many pairs of shoes and jewellery to contend with as well as dresses, which I've never really had to change before. I went through the rail with the wardrobe assistant Onai and worked out the order of the costumes throughout the performance and what shoes and jewellery went with them. This is when I realised the value of putting costume labels in everything. Thankfully the firs few days of work were the tech run so we managed to work out choreography with the actors and practice changes, which also gave the actors a chance to learn their costumes too. At the first dress run we altered the changes to different locations to give the quicker changes more time. I found it interesting doing this job in a professional capacity for the first time as it was a different atmosphere for me. I was used to there being people teaching me and giving me advice or marking my efforts throughout the run, of course the head of wardrobe (Suzanne) kept an eye and asked questions and gave advice but it felt like we were reaching a mutual understanding instead of her teaching me, which was nice as it felt like she recognised my training and we just altered my learned method so it fit her way of running wardrobe. I also learned extra pieces of the process that weren't really necessary at Stage X or AUB. Like that before and after each show we collected the baskets with their show underwear in them, and set the socks in the baskets in their shoes ready for the quick changes. I also filled out time sheets for the first time. I have also never had a cast swap in a show before, on a couple of occasions I dressed the swing when my actor was unavailable, meaning I had to quickly learn her costumes and give her a run through of the changes so she knew what she was doing throughout the show. I was able to learn a lot from Onai and the two other female dressers I worked with, Sarah and Hannah. They helped me a lot, talking me through the paperwork and just sharing experiences working in the theatre industry. It gave me an idea of what a job as a dresser was like. I also worked with hair and makeup for the first time, as me and the 'wiggy' worked round each other during quick changes. Each night when I came into work I would go up to side stage where my trundle was and pre set act one costumes on the chairs assigned to the actors I was dressing, then I would collect the baskets from wardrobe and set them in the dressing room, take the socks from them and pre set them in the shoes. I would then take the top of the show or beginners costume up to the dressing room. I would then complete all the changes for act one. At the interval I would hang all the act one costumes back up and set the act two costumes on the chairs. I would then complete all the changes for act two and during the finale would set their dressing gowns on their chairs ready for the actors. I would spray the costumes as they needed and take any costumes being washed up to wardrobe. Once the actors were changed I would collect the socks and baskets and take them up to wardrobe. We also filled out a change plot for our actors and handed them to Suzanne for the new dressers whenever the show moved venue on the tour. I didn't realise how it would effect me at home. As I was working late evenings I hardly got to see my sister while I was on this job, as she was already at work when I got up and she went to bed just as I got home. The schedule was an adjustment as when I wasn't at work I the morning I was just tired at first until my body clock adjusted. I also suddenly had less time to do my hobbies, and when I did have time I didn't want to because I was tired. I realised that I hadn't thought about how much time working took up and I don't think I fully prepared myself for that. But I enjoyed the experience immensely and found it very rewarding to support the actors. I have always thought of the role of dressing as 'look after the actors', therefore I do my best to make their job as easy as possible for them and give them a smooth and calm change track throughout the show, and if little things like setting their dressing gowns and slippers for them when they come off stage tired helps at all I will do it, because the job is rewarding for me when a show has gone well for them. https://motownthemusical.co.uk/tour/ https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/alexandra-theatre-Birmingham/ This week I experienced my first Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This involved creating a character and of course being me I couldn't resist drawing her. Therefore she became my next piece of CAD illustration.
I think the best bit for me about playing D&D was getting to create a character, as you can take the opportunity to be someone you could never be in real life. For instance my character, called Kelsie, was a druid so had magic, she could also connect with (and transform into) animals, this was nice for me as I'm not exactly an animal person in reality and it's something I've observed in others and wished I could do. I did make my character like me in other ways, for instance I chose that my character was a mountain dwarf who is a skilled jeweller and cook, things that are passions of mine. I am not the best at role playing games but Dungeons and Dragons is a great game to feed inspiration as every scene or scenario described to you makes your fingers itch to capture the mental images on paper. Once again this August I headed down to the Alex in Brum for Stage Experience 2018, this years production; Boogie Nights; The 70s Musical. Due to the refurbishments happening at the New Alexandra Theatre, we were situated in Wardrobe on the top floor, which I think was better than the dressing rooms we usually occupy as the room was bigger. For the first 3 days we organised the vast amount of costumes Jane had collected for the production onto rails, sorting a women's wear, men's wear and fancy dress rail ready for the cast to be costumed. As the cast came up we quickly realised we would need even more as each cast member needed 4 costumes; Daywear, Disco, Fancy dress and a wedding outfit. previously they have only needed 2 costumes each, this meant throughout the process we were bringing in more costumes almost daily. I made costume mood boards for the cast notice board so they could familiarise themselves with 1970s fashion. In addition to their 4 costumes certain groups of cast needed specific outfits for dance numbers, including sailor costumes and rock and roll skirts. This meant we had a hectic week but it was great fun styling colourful, clashing 70's outfits. We also made more than usual this year as we had to put flares into a fair amount of trousers, we made flare cuffs to put over the legs and arms and put flare inserts in modern trousers so they matched the period. I was more confident this year about helping Jane make garments. I made a bandeau top with fringe to match the hot pants we had styled on Isabella Kibble, playing principal character Debs. We chose a black stretch fabric with gold glitter pattern and I folded a wide rectangle of this into a tube and cased the top and bottom, threading elastic through the casing. I then found black fringing that I put around the bottom edge. Isabella loved the finished product and I was so pleased she was happy with her costume. We also worked out how to make a Princess Leia dress, which Jane then made for Melissa, playing principal character Trish. I watched the stagger through run to help me created a costume plot and change list for show week, once again taking charge of running wardrobe, which I was more informed about thanks to working on Fermented Honey. I printed out copies for me, Jane and Jane C in wardrobe, and all the makeup girls from UCB who again were helping us out, they were invaluable as we had lots of quick changes which included wigs. The change list meant Jane C could take charge of quick changes on stage left while I took charge of stage right. I detailed the scene, the character, what they were changing out of, what they needed to change into and where the change was happening on each sheet then highlighted all the changes happening stage left for her to follow. Having never seen any run throughs she did amazingly and we quickly picked up a routine for the show. The first dress rehearsal was the most stressful part for me as it was the first time I could put my paper plan to the test, but from experiencing the dress rehearsal for Fermented Honey I was more prepared for things to go wrong, meaning it was easier for me to then sort them out for the next dress rehearsal because I was in a better place mentally to deal with mishaps. I also knew how to support the actors, who were of course stressing when things went wrong as I gave the same reassurance given to me on Fermented Honey. This showed I had also developed as a costume dresser as I was better equipped to support the actors personally as well as professionally and build a trusting relationship. The second dress the next day went much better and we were prepared for opening night that evening. I took care of the principal boys this year, with Jane's help taking care of Elliott, playing staring role Roddy, and me taking care of Jonah, playing principal character Dean. We also had 1-2 make up students each side of stage to help us with quick changes and wigs. I also pre set for the other boys but their changes didn't need assistance as they weren't as quick. By the last show we had our little routine down pretty well. Though being a more hectic and costume heavy show this year I think it's been the best year for me as I took responsibility for running wardrobe on a full scale production and it went well, proving to myself I can do it on a professional level. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/review-boogie-nights-birminghams-new-15069889 http://www.blackcountryradio.co.uk/blogs/theatre/post/review-boogie-nights-at-the-new-alexandra-theatre/ https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-alexandra-theatre-Birmingham/
This year is the centenary of the Representation of the people act, which allowed all men over 21 and certain women the vote. Various events are taking place to commemorate the campaign of the Suffragists and Suffragettes who spent many years campaigning and fighting for this right that we take for granted today. I recently watched a documentary about the Suffragette's struggle by Lucy Worsley and this inspired my next piece of CAD illustration.
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AuthorMy name is Rachel and this blog holds the work I have done throughout college and university for a digital portfolio. Archives
June 2019
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