The whole cast in their costumes
What was the activity?
This activity involved designing and organising costumes for the entire cast of the senior production Blood Brothers. It was an ongoing activity which I have been working on since last half term. All this work led up to two final performances at the beginning of December which were a huge success.
What were my main aims?
My goals and objectives were to design costumes for every single member of the cast, to develop my creativity skills and to neatly organize all the costumes the drama department already owns. The two performances of the play were very successful and everyone was wearing appropriate costumes. No one was missing any of their clothes and they were all neatly hung on a rack with labels, therefore I feel that I managed to meet my objectives successfully.
What did I do?
During this project I was working with Eline and Ms. Redler who were also part of the costume design team. The first thing we did was collect design ideas from all cast members depicting what they wanted their costumes to look like. We did this by sitting down with them, posing questions and asking them to draw a design idea on a piece of paper we handed out to them. As a member of the costume design team I have been attending all the rehearsals, researched into attire appropriate for this play and I have watched a version of the play done in England. On the nights of the performances Eline and I made sure no one’s costumes were missing and that everything was in place. We were also asked to help out with microphones. This was a new experience as I had never been involved in the technical aspects of plays before.
Were there any problems along the way?
There were admittedly quite a few difficulties which we encountered during this project. Firstly not all the costumes we needed were available in the drama department. This was quite an easy fix though as we hired a tailor to come into school and sew us some costumes. Also when we were checking all the costumes the weekend before the play we realized that some of the clothes which the actors had picked out for themselves weren’t in period or appropriate for the play. We solved this problem by searching through pre-existing costumes in the drama department. On the night of the play Eline and I found out that we would also be helping out with microphones as well as costumes. During the second performance of the play one of the lead actresses was having a problem with her microphone as it simply wasn’t working. We quickly swapped her batteries between scenes but unfortunately it still didn’t work. We finally managed to solve the problem though by using a microphone from one of the minor characters who didn’t really need it. As we were solving these problems I learnt that in stressful situations such as these one just needs to remain calm and communicate with the people around you. It is much easier to fix situations when you work as a team.
What have I learnt?
I have learnt that preparing for a play requires a lot of time and effort, even if you are just helping out backstage. I now have a new found respect for people involved in plays as I’ve realized they aren’t very easy to organize. I have also been able to work on my communicative skills while discussing costume designs etc. with the cast. If I ever get involved in working backstage in a play again, I will know that before you get started you need to do some research to get background information on the play. I also now know how to arrange and design costumes.
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