Wednesday 1 April 2009

Theatricalities Past...

Since I'm attempting to string out the boat-race pictures for as long as possible, today's post is a wander down memory lane to my days as a costume wench at Cambridge's ADC theatre...

This performance of Mozart and Salieri (February 2007) was my first foray into costume design, after initially doing lighting as it's what I'd done at school, and really set in stone my love for creating a character and for working in theatre in general... 

The production was brilliant, selling out a lateshow slot (absolutely impossible to do!) and the people made my entry into the horrendously cliquey world of cam-theatre extremely easy. 

Theatre is no longer a part of my life in a meaningful sense, as to be involved, you basically have to sacrifice degree / college life / friends / sleep / health - if you're me... It's actually in the CUADC constitution that if you get more than a 2.2 then you're not doing enough theatre! Totally true. Hehe. But I don't regret a single second of it. 

There were many other productions I was involved with, and each one makes me feel proud to have been involved and to have produced such professional quality work. It's a real team effort and Cam does produce some outstanding actors and directors and technical people, but I don't regret leaving it behind. I still have great friends from doing it, learnt loads of skills I'd never have had another opportunity to develop, and still occasionally work on the theatre box office. But not doing shows has given me and my health a bit of breathing room.

Heart-to-heart aside, this production was hella-fun. Despite breaking up with my long-term boyfriend the weekend before the show went up, it remains in my mind as one of the most positive experiences Cambridge has offered me (as well as providing a great rebound boy lol). And there have been many. (Not rebound boys ;-D honest!)

It is probably the darkest show I costumed, but its small scale and period costume coupled with freaky scary make up really made it fun... I'd been briefed with descriptions of Japanese theatre - particularly Kabuki, Kyogen (there were masks involved...) and Bunraku

The director had also expressed a wish for the types of coats for Mozart and Salieri to wear and the general colour schemes. For make up, I had Edward-Scissorhands meets child-playing-with-facepaint on Halloween with a bit of climbing vines, mould and rot thrown in... Haha.

And working with actors does make you open your mind to the ridiculous in life a little more...

And sitting in dressing rooms gossiping for hours with some of my closest friends, playing with green face paint isn't exactly the biggest chore in the world!

Ah... Here comes the "costume wench" photo! Don't I look so nervous! Ah to be a first year again. Sigh. Got to love all the costume repairs I did for that show, though it wasn't as bad as the show I'm going to show you next time when I had to fix the entire inseams of one of the boys' trousers with gaffa tape for the whole second half of the opening night as he'd been dancing so enthusiastically!

***Please excuse the crappy quality of the photos - the originals are on my removable hard drive which is currently at home, so these were copied off facebook, with resultant reduced number of pixels. I did my best!!!

I hope you enjoyed that little foray into my theatrical past... I'll show you some more shows and chatter about theatricalities in general in upcoming posts!

Xxxc

16 comments:

GraceFace said...

The make-up looks amazing =D
Ah, the joys of theatre taking over your life...my mother forced me to give up all dramatic activities this year to focus on school...
But I'll back doing it the minute school is out, spending my entire life at rehearsals xD

FASHION CHALET said...

face paint = fun <3

xx

What is Reality Anyway? said...

that looks so fun!!

Anonymous said...

wow, it soundsed like such an exhilarating experience! I am breathless just reading about it :-)

Francheska L said...

WOW how awesome!!!!!
I enjoyed reading this!!!
You´ll do great things soon!!!!

Ellie said...

I have the same sentiments about theatre. I love it so much, but couldn't sacrifice everything to make a career out of it. I do miss it though.

Madeline said...

costuming is so much fun. i totally miss the theatre. it looks like you have way too much fun doing it

Unknown said...

Great job on the costumes and the make-up...everything looks gorgeous.

Thanks a lot for your comment, I was invited by a friend that works in the tourism industry.

xoxo
Stephanie
www.modernantoinette.blogspot.com

Karen said...

oh i love costumes, they all look great, as well as the makeup.. holy so good :)

Lily said...

Stage makeup is always so freaky when you see it up close!

Must have been such hard work being a costume wench. Sooooo much potential for wardrobe malfunction!

indigotangerine said...

this sounds like such a fun job. I'd love to get involved in theater, i'm thinking about playing in the orchestra pit, for my school's musical next year...
-indigo

Imelda Matt - The Despotic Queen of Shoes said...

I can share a little of your pain, last year I fell into a gig styling dancers. Up until early hours workn' that hot glue like it was rent day. Although, not nearly as stressful as being the costume wench!

eluv said...

ooh i love theater it is so inspiring

Unknown said...

thanks for linking up!

i actually did professional theater for awhile and ironically, i've never been one of the costume designers--always either the director, or the actor, or both. but now that you mention it, that should be a cool thing to try.


much love


eden
http://chicinthetropics.blogspot.com

franki said...

Argh! I know all about it - extra-curricular theatre funsies + a degree do not go hand in hand!

Loving the makeup in the second photo!


http://thelittlecurlygirl.blogspot.com

Posh said...

You look beautiful!