Tuesday 30 March 2010

Under Milk Wood promotional posters and flyers...


Here are the finished posters and flyers for Under Milk Wood, at Mansfield Palace.





Monday 15 March 2010

Saturday 13 March 2010

Looking for the Rainbow..


I have reworked the floor, though may change it back to yellow, the model shows all scene changes, I have changed the river so it comes from up stage rather than down stage right. I have also added circular coloured mats for the children to sit on.

Opening scene, ironing in the house

The cave

The hook a duck fairground game

The River

Back at home..the Rainbow
 

Monday 8 March 2010

Under Milk Wood..

I am working with the Mansfield Palace Theatre, designing Under Milk Wood, which is on in June, here is the first stages of the scale model.
The play centers around a small welsh village, we see the comings and going of the villages occupants over a 24 hour period, from their private dreams to their daily routines.



Dream Play

I am designing the set and costume for a play called Dream play, originally by John Steinbeck but adapted by Carol Churchill, it will be on at Lakeside in July.

The play is quite surreal and disjointed, it has many locations and a lot of theatrical challenges, for example flying children, two lovers sailing on a boat, a tower that grows throughout the play and then burns down at the end!

Here are two possible solutions for the flying children and boat scene.I think the play would work well being told in a storyteller style, with characters obviously creating small scale locations and manipulating props. Some of the locations include a cave, a seaside cholera quarantine station, stage door, solicitors room, class room, ballroom etc etc
The play is set in a dream and I would like the set to reflect the fragmented and blurred quality of dreams. Elements of each scene/location will be incorporated into many suspended square windows, stretching back into the distance. some will be practical, for example in the class room, one of these windows with have a chalk board within the frame that can be written on.

I really like the style of writing on the play, it has many great lines, here a a few of my favorites!

"Time flies while we speak. so time is something that flies while I'm speaking"

"I once asked a child whose Father was at sea why the sea was salty, and he said because sailors cry. Why do they cry? Because they are so far away. And they put there handkerchiefs on the masts to dry. So then I asked him why do people cry when they're sad? And he said because they have to wash their eyes so they can see better."

"What's poetry? It's not real but maybe it's more than real. It's dreaming while you're awake."

Looking for the Rainbow..

I am designing the set and costume for a show called Looking for the Rainbow, with the 'Big Window Theatre Company'.

Here are some initial sketches I have drawn, this image shows Mum revealing the Rainbow to Kirsty at the end of the play! It is rolled up in her laundry bag and she pegs it on the washing line, as she lets go it unrolls to the floor and a rainbow appears!

Here are some characters we meet along the way, the purple rabbit and blue fish drying on the rack! and the duck, he is a character in the story, his yellow t-shirt is collected to represent yellow in the rainbow, along with six other coloured t-shirts, one for each colour of the rainbow.
Here is the scale model I made for the research and development week, this helped the actors to understand the space they are working in and helped the creative and production team to work through ideas and how the space can be used. The design is still evolving and I will re make the model soon more accurately and with the changes and ideas that we developed during the R and D week.
The images show three of the set changes, the river, the cave and the rainbow finale!






Those magnificent men

Here are some images of the finished set during a performance.