The final performance of If An Orchid Was All You Had went fantastically well in my opinion; working on this performance has been a whirlwind of creativity.

The final costumes had colours added to them with the same spray paint used on the set. This last minuet addition tied the set and costume together beautifully, along side the make-up which also complimented both other aspects.

We stuck with the same notion of “showing the stitches” as mentioned in my previous post Making the Costumes, an idea which bled out into the rest of the performance. Initially we had wanted the tech box in full view however for practicality reasons we had to resort to it being off stage. However, as a company we did not want to hide the seams of our performance and so the tech box could still be viewed by the audience, just not as clearly as we had first planned. We also had to compromise the logic of our play in parts for logistical reasons in that a few of our entrances and exits of The Creatures had to be away from the tree. Our earlier discussion dictated that The Creatures should only enter from the tree but that was simply not possible for our final performance.

I performed as one of The Creature’s in our production. The Creatures are extensions of The Man’s inner-psyche which is a really fun concept to play around with. The Creatures are adaptable and portray varied emotions. When playing a Creature I need to make swift changes between contributing to a very serious atmosphere to a scene which is much more up-beat and humorous.

We’ve been working as a company on experimenting with our devising process, taking on different personas to form our characters as The Creatures. We tried becoming physically monkeys, an animal so close to being human yet still different.

We’ve also worked on our Memory scene in which we have taken inspiration from Beckett’s Play, specifically the 2001 film version (Minghella, 2001). We have a representation of The Man in the centre who speaks a beautifully written, poetic recollection; then the Creatures start to slowly enter with an unnerving presence. When The Creatures begin to speak it is now fast and deadpan as not to draw attention away from what is being said. Originally we moved with the words however the text was lost among the movements.

We have also been working on moments where The Creatures and The Man do the same motion at the same time for example in The Awakening erratic movements we synchronise movement such as wiping the forehead or pushing the hair back to show that we The Creatures are as much a part of him as he is of us. We’re working hard on showing that connection so that the audience can easily understand what/who The Creatures are in relation to The Man on The Bike.

Works Cited

Minghella, A. (dir.) (2001) Beckett on Film: Play [film].

Actually making the costume proved to be much more challenging than anticipated. Hessian is a difficult material to work with as it is far from opaque and had no elasticity. We had to attach the hessian to cheap clothing so that it was no longer see-through, though the final product has the desired effect as when cut the hessian frays creating an interesting effect.

The first piece I worked on was Jacob Kay’s top to be worn while he was one of The Creatures. I followed the design drawn up by our head costume designer Aiden which consisted of a vest top with a tail-coat inspired tail and one loose sleeve. I used varying styles of stitching on this top to create different appearances and textures, for example I made a thick strip down each side which added an extra dynamic to the top.

(Fig. 1)                                                    (Fig. 2)

A major part of our aesthetic for the show is showing process and development. Any mistakes such as a dropped stitch or an uneven hem were left to be a part of the costume. We also did the stitching on the outside keeping the process visible. This came into play when a huge oversight was made with Rolo’s top. With her undershirt being stretchy, once the hessian was sewn onto the undershirt it was far too small. A quickly thought-up solution consisted of cutting away at the sides and adding on four small strips of hessian to hold it in place. I used the mistake which was made and turned it into a positive whereby I could make something even more visually stunning to look at with an interesting display of progress and process.

(Fig.3 )                                                   (Fig. 4)

The boy’s trousers are made from excess pieces of hessian, rather than throwing these pieces away we glued them to the base trousers creating a patchwork style effect. I used larger pieces of excess hessian to fashion wrap skirts for the girls. This idea of using things which would otherwise have been thrown away again relates to the creation process of our set, finding the beauty in the rubbish.

 (Fig. 5)

 (Fig. 6)

Works Cited

Fig. 1 – 6:

Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].

I worked as Aiden’s assistant on the creation of the costumes for Rubbish Theatre’s debut performance. Our original themes we were working around were the circus and a dystopian world, so we both created some quick designs based upon our initial reaction to these themes. My design focused on the ability to quickly change a costume to create something new, starting with a dystopian world base, and it being transformed into a circus-esque, elaborate costume.

As visible in the above photo of one of my early designs, the base is a slightly dirty, ripped outfit made with burlap or hessian as per Aiden’s final material decision. Our set is so versatile and adjustable so I thought that our costume should be on par with that. Ruffled collars and sleeves which can be added on and taken off with ease are a pivotal element of my vision, with inspiration from traditional clown costumes.

 (alyssa sonley-cooper)

 (New Line Cinema, 2017)

Clowns are interesting to me because of their extreme contrast between bringing joy and evoking fear. To some people clowns bring back memories of childhood parties and fun, and to many others clowns are terrifying. Their true identity is concealed in thick make-up and elaborate costumes which is scary as they could be anyone (or anything) underneath the outfit.

I also recently visited a more modern circus in which I took inspiration from a trapeze artist who had lights underneath his costume which were not visible until they were turned on and shone through his trousers. I love the idea of something being there the whole time, yet not being able to see it until the artists wants it to be seen. The notion of hidden messages waiting to be revealed links again to our set in which UV and glow in the dark paint is a feature we are working on incorporating into the set. We have looked at a scene from the film Orphan in which paintings seemingly innocent are revealed to be quite horrific when looked at in a different light, from a different perspective.

(Caitlyn Keefer, 2015)

Works Cited

alyssa sonley-cooper Whiteface Clown Designs [image]. Available from https://uk.pinterest.com/alyssasonleycoo/whiteface-clown-designs/ [accessed 28 May 2017].

New Line Cinema (2017) Pennywise [image]. Available from http://www.mlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2017/03/it_is_back_is_bill_skarsgard_a.html [accessed 28 May 2017].

Caitlyn Keefer (2015) Orphan | ‘Esther’s Paintings’ Scene . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0mSLDeHce0 [accessed 28 May 2017].

As the dramaturge for our play, If An Orchid Was All You Had, I worked along side our director Jacob Kay to map out, create, and justify the logic of the world of our play. This was a complicated task as our play ultimately consists of three worlds. The real world in which our audience lives in, the world in which our central character The Man lives in, and the internal world which is imagined inside The Man’s head. Initially this idea of separate worlds was confusing, especially when the worlds start to collide. Myself and Jacob had a meeting to carefully create rules we as a cast and crew needed to follow and consider while crafting our performance.

The World of the Audience: This is the world we all live in, the world in which we woke up and brushed our teeth. The world in which we went to work, and the world in which we chose to go to the theatre. This is real life, however real life and the fictional world of The Man intertwine during the installation when the audience get to walk around the set. It’s an opportunity for the audience to feel a part of The Man’s world and see what he sees.

The World of The Man: This is The Man’s reality, where he spends his time day to day. When he is tending to his orchid he is in his real world, and The Bike represents his menial daily tasks he has to complete.

The World of the Mind of The Man: This is the world which complicates the production slightly. This is the internal world of The Man where The Creatures reside. The Creatures are extensions of The Man’s inner-psyche. Their world is powered when The Man is on The Bike which is connected to The Tree. The Creatures can only enter from The Tree because of this connection it has to The Man. The Creatures demonstrate The Man’s madness.

As the play goes on, The World of The Man and The World of the Mind of The Man start to seep into each other. Slowly The Creatures are able to start entering his regular world, showing that he no longer can escape his madness, it is consuming him. However, The Man does not see The Creatures, it is their disruptive presence which is detrimentally effecting The Man.