I hope this blog will give an insight into my personal and professional experience working within a theatre company and alongside some exceptional people to create a performance we can all be extremely proud of.
Suiting up.
Having had some previous experience in the role of costume I decided that I would again like to take this back stage role alongside performing. Mary and I shared the role, which was useful as we were able to come up with more ideas as a pair. After forming our company many ideas of what type of piece we wanted to create were thrown around, as we had to have a solid idea for a performance before decided upon anything else. As we didn’t know what type of show we were going to put on the thought of costume wasn’t addressed until much later in the company’s process, though everyone’s roles were established at the start of the company’s formation.
After many ideas of what type of piece we all wanted to multiple concepts were considered, until we all decided on a piece that would involve physical theatre and movement. This was where some initial ideas for costume came together. When thinking of a physical theatre piece, I first and foremost think that the performers should be able to move well and easily and be comfortable in their costume. Nothing restrictive and overly tight or uncomfortable as all these elements will hinder the able to perform at their best.
I believe that “[w]hat the director thinks, sees and feels about the play is of the utmost importance. It is essential that you should take these ideas and impressions on board, exploring and developing them alongside your own” (Thorne, 2001, 52). I feel that throughout the process Mary and I maintained this outlook on our roles in costume, understanding the vision that our Director (Harry) and Assistant Director (Emily) had in mind before acting upon our own ideas.
Sam (Nick)
It was always the intention to have Sam in pyjamas as we thought that this would illustrate and represent that of a young child, we also felt that the style and colour of them were appropriate with the connotations of 1960’s children’s clothing. We also decided on bare feet opposed to socks or slippers because we thought that it would be more ‘childlike’, pushing the idea that we wanted people to see nick as a child. We also chose a light colour as one of the initial ideas was that we were going to project onto him, therefore we needed something relatively plain and light so the projections would be seen.
Crow, P. (2016)
When designing Sam’s badge from the first scene in the show I used ideas from pre-existing badge designs, I looked at space and army badges for my inspiration and then created some of my own. I showed them to the company and they chose this design, but change the words from NASA Astronaut to Sam.
Bingham-Davis, L. (2016) Badge Design
Crow, P. (2016) The Badge
The Ensemble
The initial idea was for each performer to wear something different to the rest. We decided to go with a base costume of all black, long-sleeved t-shirt and leggings, with either a dress, skirt or shorts over the top. For most of the skin to be covered with clothing other than head and neck, hands and a small section of the ankle. All performers were to wear jazz shoes, this type of shoe allowed graceful and fluid movement and less noise when moving on the stage. We had decided at the beginning of the process that all of the Ensemble were going to have their hair plaited the same, we used plaiting because it effectively moved all the hair away from the face, allowing no facial expressions to be missed.
Crow, P. (2016)
The Mother & Sally
Choosing the costume for the Mother and Sally were a slightly longer process than that of Sam’s and the Ensemble. We wanted something that would stand out from the base costume but also something that was conservative and subtle. In a sense the Mothers and Sally’s costumes were a prop, as they were used in the fashion of representing a specific character at certain points in the performance and not continuously used. Before deciding on the cardigans for the Mothers costume we had ideas of glasses, a bag, gloves and also that associated to her job, so a nurses hat or watch, but we thought that a cardigan would be more fitting and a big enough gesture for the audience to understand who she was. It was between these two cardigans:
Everything £5. (2016)
Everything £5. (2016)
We then decided on the cream cardigan with the golds buttons, but removed the buttons as the made a lot of noise when putting them into the boxes but also because they looked quite tacky, here is an image of Tania as the Mother in her costume.
Crow, P.(2016)
Again we had multiple ideas for Sally’s costume, originally we were going to use a cardigan for her but decided that it was too old for her character as she was supposed to be around the age of 21, I also considered a piece of jewellery, such as a necklace but decided that there was a chance that it wouldn’t be physically big enough for an audience to see. We then thought of a bow in the hair but as we had already decided on plaits, it wouldn’t have looked right over the plaits. So we decided to tie it around the neck as this also echoed the time period well, it was a simple paisley scarf that I already owned, it was lucky that we only needed on scarf as it is a vintage piece and we wouldn’t have been able to get once exactly the same. Here is Charlotte as Sally, in the scarf.
Crow, P. (2016)
Overall I think that the costume choices for the Mother and Sally were very effective in representing and differentiating between the two characters with clarity and that they were fitting for both of the characters backgrounds. I think the base costume was effective, in that everyone looked uniform and that it was constant throughout other than changing into the Mother and Sally.
If we were to perform again or take the show on tour I would be inclined to change the base costume of the Ensemble, since the performance I have been contemplating alternatives for the base costume, I thought that maybe a loose-fitting black shirt would work, maybe even the same as the original but in a different colour. I just feel we looked very formal for a child’s imagination, especially that of Sam’s, as we see he has such a vivid imagination and I think that the ensemble should have reflected that more. Though I have had this thought I keep coming back to the fact that the black base was so simple that it may distract from the rest of the piece if we were to change it.
Performing in ‘How I Got To the Moon and Back’ as an ensemble member.
Improvisation has been a key factor in the process of creating our piece, each week were given different tasks to undertake, games to play and stimuli’s to build from. Harry made the creating process so enjoyable and fun. In one of our first rehearsals we were asked to draw pictures as if we were Sam, which was such a good way to get into the head of an 8 year old boy. We also kept a diary of sorts, each week we would write letters to Sam’s dad for example we would telling him about all the exciting things we had done and how we wanted his help to build a rocket. Even though I wasn’t playing that character it helped me understand what was going through his mind and how to act when we were to do a scene in his imagination.
In another of our earlier rehearsals we watched YouTube videos of the moon landings, from both the real moon landings but also that of science fiction films of the era. We used it as a stimulus to replicate walking on the moon, how it would feel to actually be on the moon and how we would move around.
This video taken from the 1965 science fiction film Luna, we used this a a stimulus as it has a lot of over exaggerated movements in that were simple enough imitate and develop.
Admirabilis, R. (2014) “Luna” (The Moon). USSR, 1965. Fragment 3 – On the surface of the Moon.
The footage of the Moon Landings in 1969 which we referred back to throughout the whole creative process, used as a stimulus in the ‘walking on the moon’ scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4
beanz2u. (2006) First Moon Landing 1969.
Using these as stimuli we created the ‘walking on the moon’ scene which ended up in the show. I found when we used this process of ‘watching’ and ‘doing’ we were able to create material much easier than when we had no stimuli.
Crow, P. (2016)
In Dymphna Callery’s book Through the Body A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre (2001) she states that “[p]ractitioners practice first, and make discoveries on the studio or rehearsal-room floor in much the same way as the scientists conduct experiments in a laboratory” (13). I couldn’t agree more with this statement, experimentation has been the basis of our work in this theatre company, if it worked then fantastic, if it didn’t we would try something new and this was our mind-set throughout the whole process of creating our piece.
The practitioner Jacques Lecoq and his work on ‘play’ (Le Jeu) had, I think, an overwhelming presence in our work, not only in our final piece but also in our rehearsals as “without play there can be no creativity” (Keefe and Murray, 2007, 147) which I think our piece was full of. The use of ‘play’ emanates in scenes such as the ‘book stealing’ scene and also the ‘negative spacing’ scene in our piece as Lecoq believes that being successful in ‘play’ the actors must attend to “rhythm, tempo, space and form” (2000, 29). Which I think we used properly and successfully in not only those particular scenes but throughout the whole piece. Lecoq also said that “[t]rue play can only be founded on one’s reaction to another” (ibid, 30), which I feel needs relating to our work as an ensemble, throughout the rehearsal process and in the final piece our reactions were a major key in the audiences understanding of the piece and the characters within it.
Personally I found that reactions, especially on the face, were difficult for me to consistently deliver, as I found that omitting the correct emotion with my face was much more difficult that I had thought it ever could be. Stylistically the piece thrived on consistency of movement and faces throughout the performance, which is what gave the piece the overall air of symmetry and regularity in the sense of the piece as a whole. One of the lecturers at the university, Andy Jordan notes that we had “tight choreography [and that] everything [was] honed and polished” (Jordan, 2016).
I found an interesting quote about muscle tension and using the body in Niki Flanks book Acting with Passion: A performer’s Guide to Emotions on Que (2015) that brought me to think about the scene in our piece wherein Sam is attempting and then subsequently then becomes successful in his multiple attempts, to walk on the moon, Flanks states that “our hands are all about needs and communicating our needs” (19). Sam’s hands would clench when he was trying his best to walk but unclench when he felt defeated, which I think shows that he is trying to communicate to his imagination (the Ensemble) that he needed their help to succeed.
Crow, P. (2016)
Throughout the whole process from the first workshop to the final performance, I believe that our work as an ensemble was boundless, I have come to understand so much more about working as an ensemble over the past five months, than in any other experience in my life. It has been one of the hardest yet most rewarding performances I have ever been a part of and I will not forget it in a hurry.
Works Cited
Admirabilis, R (2014) “Luna” (The Moon). USSR, 1965. Fragment 3 – On the surface of the Moon. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr2g5vzeqMI [accessed 21 May 2016]
beanz2u (2006) First Moon Landing 1969. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4 [accessed 21 May 2016]
Bingham-Davis, L. (2016) Badge design.
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books.
Everything 5 Pounds (2016) Gold Button Cardigan. London: everything5pounds.com. Available from http://www.everything5pounds.com/en/Gold-Button-Cardigan/p/54501 [accessed 10 April 2016].
Everything 5 Pounds (2016) Speckled Button Up Cardigan. London: everything5pounds.com. Available from http://www.everything5pounds.com/en/Gold-Button-Cardigan/p/54501 [accessed 10 April 2016].
Flanks, N. (2015) Acting with Passion: A Performer’s Guide to Emotions on Cue. United Kingdom: Methuen Drama.
Jordan, A. (2016) How I Got to The Moon and Back [email] L, Bingham-Davis, 22 May.
Keefe, J. and Murray, S. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction. Great Britain: Routledge.
Lecoq, J. (2000) The Moving Body. London: Methuen.
Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts (2016) How I Got to the Moon and Back. [image] Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/albums/72157668377551582/with/26568716353/ [accessed 24 May 2016]
Thorne, G. (2001) Designing Stage Costumes: A Practical Guide. United Kingdom: The Crowood Press Ltd.
