La Ronde

Character Ideas:

The actress should be bright, but not overly decorated. 1900 was right in the beginning of ready to wear clothing, working women were transitioning into simpler mass made garments. I'm thinking dark pink fabric. It's sassy, sexy, and easily transfers from day to night.

The poet is a shifty character. I think of him as a sleazy businessman having an affair. I'm thinking a suit, but not a nice one. Faded, worn, unclear color. Nothing about him is certain.

The scene is dark, candlelit. The costumes should have color!

POP Tutorial

Today was my first individual POP tutorial. We discussed possible essay topics and sources.

I brought up Victor Victoria as a possible base performance for my paper. My tutor focused on the cross dressing aspect, and from there we made a list of other performances with that theme.

Tootsie
Some Like It Hot
Mrs. Doubtfire
Bosom Buddies
She's the Man (12th Night)
Pantomime Tradition
-Judith Butler
Peter Pan

I'm going to proceed with my paper by watching some of these performances and taking note of recurring messages and themes.

"Peeling"

Thursday the 31st of March I attended "Peeling", at the Lighthouse in Poole. My original intent had been to use this performance for my POP essay, now I'm a bit unsure.

The set was an intimate one, with seating right up to the stage. The light and sound booth was visible to the audience. The seats were bleachers, covered in pink fabric. They clashed garishly with the red carpet. The set was not extravagant. There were screens as a backdrop, and three cage skirt contraptions in the middle of the stage. Above it all was a screen narrating the entire play.

The play started with three women filling the caged skirts. It took a few moments to realize that one was a little person, the second was in a wheel chair, and the third one was deaf. They play actors in a play about the slaughter of disabled people. Most of the dialogue takes place in between their character's scenes. The talk moves from simple banter to a confession of each character's personal struggles.

While the play offered many things to write about in my essay, I think I'd rather write about something I enjoyed more. I found this performance heavy and unsatisfying. It was interesting, but I don't feel I gained anything from it.

Learning Agreement

Description:

During this unit I will complete two separate projects. First, I will construct two garments for the National Theater Hire. The first is a woman's chemise, the second is a man's shirt. Second, I will design a scene from Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde". I will complete renderings for both a male and female character, then go on to construct the woman's blouse of my own design. Alongside these projects I will be writing a brief critical analysis of performance.

I have chosen to do this body of work to improve all aspects of my design process. Up until now I've only done pieces of projects, now I have to opportunity to start with a play and end with a finished garment. I also wanted to improve my construction skills. By working on the National Theater project, I hope to gain skill and confidence in my making abilities.

In order to complete this work, I have made a detailed work plan. I'm going to stay very organized and use my time efficiently. I'm starting with the simpler sewing projects, and then moving into the more complicated ones as I gain the skills to do so. I've spread out the design process steps to give myself a lot of time to consider each decision I make. I plan to do the critical analysis quickly, while the performance I attend is still fresh in my mind. This body of work fully meets the assessment requirements.

Cardiff

Today I went on the class trip to Cardiff. I saw a lot of truly inspiring work. I think I gained the most from seeing how people present their work. I love to draw renderings, I had never conceived of so many creative ways to present them. I got a lot of ideas for presenting my ideas, as well as creating an interesting portfolio. The picture to the left is of The Ugly Step Sisters in Cinderella. I thought it was a very clean, yet fun and exciting way of showing the costumes.

Disaster!!

There is a hole in my chemise. Right on the front. I have no idea how it got there! I tried to patch it, but it's horrible. I'm going to have to redo the whole front. The fabric is beautiful, but a real pain. Every time I sew anything the machine grabs the grain, making it look tortured. I can't stick any pins in it because they leave holes. You can see my yellow chalk lines through it. I'm afraid it's going to look a real mess after I have to unpick my French seams. I'm feeling very frustrated.

National Theater Hire

Yesterday we went to the National Theater Hire. I was expecting something very formal and commercial, but it wasn't. It looked just like any other University costume stock I've visited, a warehouse that's a bit under-loved. I found that strangely comforting, like a confidence that I know what I'm doing. They let us try on anything we wanted! It was incredibly fun.



I put on a real chain mail coif, it was heavy! I think it would be very distracting to try and act while wearing it!










This was my favorite dress, I think it was from Beauty and the Beast? It was velvet, with lace and beading.










This is me as a medieval queen! The cape was beautiful.