Costume Making, Guys and Dolls

Here's a few snaps from some recent work making some costume pieces: many many pairs of bloomers and waistcoats, for Guys and Dolls, designed by Ryan Dawson-Laight. They are on their way to be fitted up on the cast now, so I'll look forward to seeing some photos!

Mashi Theatre Residency

Last week I was working with Mashi Theatre, as part of a creative education residency at a group of primary schools in Lincolnshire. Working with Parmjit Sagoo, a drama, movement and yoga specialist, we were leading workshops, sharing the tales of Birbal. The workshops are in preparation for seeing the show ‘The Tales of Birbal’ this week, as the show begins its autumn tour.

I was leading the puppet making section of the workshop, where each child makes a crow puppet, similar to those in the show. The children then spend the rest of the workshop manipulating and embodying the crows, having a wonderful time. Do try and catch the show at some point over the next 2 months!

COAL 2017 Autumn Tour

Over the past month, COAL has been on its Autumn tour in Scotland. We visited Edinburgh, Greenock and Stirling, and met some wonderful pit women, brass bands, and audiences. 

The miner’s ‘underground’ trousers were throuroughtly in need of some care, and a mend, so lots of patching and reinforcing was required for them. We also had a couple of new miners to fit costumes for, as well as 10 new pit women, and 2 returners, from Glasgow. The brass band jackets have also had a lot of wear over the past few tours, so I have repaired and restored the details on them as well. All in all, a busy few weeks, telling the story of the miners strike to lots of new audience members.

At the final venue in Stirling, The Macrobert Arts Centre, at the university, there was also an exhibition launching alongside COAL, where artist, Philip Gurrey, had worked with some groups at the local Miner's Welfares, rembering life with the colliery, and also the tumultuous time during and after the strike. More about this here

 

COAL starts again next year, when we return to Inverness.

Costume Detail, 'Into the Light'

Here are some wonderful pictures taken by Ryan, of a handful of our cast members, from 'Into The Light'.

More info about the performance is in the blog post below. 

Making 'Into The Light'

It was quite a busy few weeks, getting all of the parts ready for 'Into The Light'; flag making, shoe spraying, and word stitching... a really fun performance to have been a part of!

See the blog post below, for more images from the day.

Into The Light

To mark 50 years since the start of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, Gary Clarke choreographed a large, outdoor dance performance, in collaboration with Yorkshire Dance, and Duckie for Hull City of Culture 2017.

I assisted Ryan Dawson-Laight, in the costume design and realisation for our large cast of 50. Most of our cast had never performed, and it was such a joyful and exhilarating day all round.

Here are some of the wonderful photographs of the day, taken by David Lindsay.

More pictures of the day can be viewed here

The Gentle Giant

I've just got my hands on these photographs from January of this year, of The Gentle Giant. A PMLD show by Bamboozle, its a really special one, telling the story of the lonely giant who lives on his own on an island, and ends up saving the whole village. The original story was written by Micheal Morpurgo.

These photographs were taken by Martin Neeves.

The Great Gatsby

Here is another post from the archives, looking back to last summer, and 'The Great Gatsby' with YMT. These wonderful pictures were taken by Stuart Harrison.

COAL

So last week, Nottingham Playhouse hosted the end of the Spring '17 COAL tour. Our last troupe of Pit Women to costume arrived, and this time there were 6! It was a little more of a challenge, but we had 2 really wonderful shows to celebrate the end of the tour. They really did an amazing job.

I also found my best charity shop buy of 2017... this commemorative plate, for our french miner who has just left the company, who is from Saint-Etienne of all places...!

COAL returns to Scotland this autumn, so keep your eyes peeled for more tour dates.

The Tales of Birbal

Here are a few pictures that I took from the Dress Rehearsal of 'The Tales of Birbal' by Mashi Theatre. I worked as assistant designer,to Sue Pyecroft, looking after the costumes, and helping realise the props and puppets. It really was such a good looking show to be making, I just wanted to take everything home with me. Especially Sue's woderful crow puppets, made from bin bags!