Project Overview:

This was to be a piece of work included in the CSM Alive festival; we had freedom in what we created and who we worked with, however it was to be sympathetic to others’ pieces in order for there to be a flow between performances. I ended up creating my own project and working with performers as collaborators later down the line, as it organically evolved that most people on the project wanted to work on their own idea. Also, I have collaborated with others many times in my life as a performer and artist, and some previous collaborations during my studies have ended up with me organising and making someone else’s idea happen, so I wanted to try something different this time - to create something based on my own idea, and then invite others to join me later on. This would help me build on the directing skills that I had learnt during Psycho(ish), the workshop skills I had learnt during Facilitation, and the sewing skills I had been developing throughout the past few years - all coming together to create a live performance that I had devised.

 Recreating a community fashion show:

I knew what I wanted the emotions behind the performance to be, I just needed a genre of performance that would carry it. As Mum’s shows had fashion sections in it, I decided to recreate something similar as the base for my performance. I knew I would be designing and making costumes in this project too, so I also wanted to get planning this early on. I created some mood boards of different styles of clothing that was typical of the early 90s, similar to what would have been worn in the colour shows, as a starting point for costume ideas:

 1990s culture references:

Below are some of my initial references, expanding on the ideas of community, the working class, comedy/humility and nostalgia (personal things I remember as a child):

 Artistic references:

Below are some of the pieces of work/artists I found useful in my initial research, looking at similar references to above:

 Initial set ideas:

I decided to set the piece in a village hall, as it seemed the most relatable and of the time option - I designed a set with layers of hanging elements to create depth on the stage, and to emphasise a runway made of rostras. The feedback I got from this design was to question how I would use these hanging elements, specifically the notice board - it had to have a use. Upon reflection this made complete sense, so I readdressed my design and decided to have a plain hanging board which could be projected onto (seen as noticeboard in digital design) - this would give me more freedom to change scenes if needed, and to also help tell a narrative through projected footage - this was a pivotal moment in what I wanted the piece to say; I decided to focus back on my memories as a child. As I redesigned the set, I also thought of memory as an element; I designed the pieces to look like they were disappearing, like memories - this idea was influenced by Salvador Dali’s surrealist paintings.

Scratch performance: making decisions, sourcing performers and costume

 The scratch performance was looming, and we had some time to spend in the Platform Theatre experimenting with space, lighting and set pieces. I found some banners in the theatre that weren’t being used, and I felt they could be an effective way of bringing elements of Mum’s colour shows into the performance - I could project the footage of the shows onto banners, which may give a sense of the women in the footage being on stage.

I also had to source some performers and costumes for the scratch, and as I had yet to define a clear narrative with no cast and no costumes at this point, I felt the most realistic option would be to ask others in the group if they could step in to act as “models” - I sourced some bits of 90s clothing from the costume store for them to wear, and we rehearsed a quick runway to a 90s track. I wrote a short piece of writing that described my memories of the colour shows, in which I performed as part of the scratch - I didn’t plan to perform but this was the most effective choice at this point to convey my idea for the final piece.

I also experimented with projection mapping for the first time; I had the idea of projecting footage of myself in the colour shows onto myself as I spoke. I asked Raf to stand in during tech so I could see the overall look, and to make any changes if so. Below are some images showing these points:

Adding joy, humour and campness:

After the scratch, I decided to have more fun with this project - I knew I could still push myself whilst staying true to my values as an artist. I was still referring to my initial influences but I added more, which were based on joy, humour, campness, and 80s/90s nostalgia. I also looked at Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliot, 1994), To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (Beeban Kidron, 1995) and We’re Here (HBO, 2020) as key references for the themes of community, humour and drag:

 Final costume designs:

Mixing iconic 80s and 90s runway with Bauhaus influences

My designs here are messy; there are a few where I have shown my trying out designing digitally. This is still a skill I am working on; with these designs I wanted to get the main shapes of the costumes onto paper - they were heavily influenced by the playfulness and sculptural elements of the bauhaus movement. I decided to blend this with 90s runway looks; I was inspired by costume designer Sandy Powell in how she tends to mix two historical periods when designing.

 Costume making process:

My first experiments in the making process were playing with inflatables - I had the idea that they would add volume to costumes similar to the Bauhaus designs, and had been inspired by Engdahl’s The Normal World. I played around with using fabric over them to extend parts of the body, before settling on using them on one main costume (Betty’s) and then bearing in mind I may create more headpieces if required with them later on.

I ensured I measured everyone as soon as I had the cast; this enabled me to start sourcing materials as soon as possible.

I decided to try to use whatever materials I already had at home, aiming to be as resourceful as possible especially when whatever costs there were for this project were being paid out of my own pocket. I gathered everything I wanted to use, allocated materials to designs, saw where the gaps were and bought what I needed. I went for a consistent colour palette, to reflect the influence of a fashion show. This linked both back to Mum’s colour shows and also the references for the project. Once I started making the costumes, I would have regular fittings depending on who’s costume I was working on, moving between the seven costumes as I went. Here are some main points that happened during the making process:

• I used a 2-way stretch velvet for Betty’s dress as it was what I had in; I had to put in a zip and the whole thing didn’t fit properly. I bought 4-way stretch velvet and it was much better; no zip needed

• I used pom poms to create Chloe’s bustle and Flo’s epaulettes, creating a crinoline from ribbons and wire for the bustle

• I had to be resourceful when cutting out material as I didn’t have much for some pieces

• I switched a few costumes around the performers due to fittings, what they felt best in

• I had to make changes and amendments up until the first performance; ensuring things didn’t break and were comfortable to wear/get changed into quickly

Below are some pictures demonstrating this process:

 Devising workshops and collaborating with performers:

Key reference Kane Husbands/The PappyShow

I had learnt alot in how Kane ran his workshops through the faciliation project, and I had seen the outcome of this way of working when watching BOYS - Kane then helped me in finding my way of how to create content through workshopping. Together we devised a list of exercises that I could try out with the cast, and see where that lead. I knew I wanted the main theme of these workshops to be transformation, so the ideas stemmed from that. Some of these ideas were as follows:

• make a routine as a group

• changing - putting clothes on in the room; how does that look?

• write something - resolutions?

• dull to fabulous/one to all

  I was very nervous before the first workshop, as I had never worked in a show where the content of the show was produced collectively by the cast, and so as a director I didn’t know what the show would be until we had workshopped ideas - in all honesty, this terrified me. This was a completely new way of working for me, as I felt very uncomfortable not having a script, or even really a plan for the show.

  The workshops surprised me, in that ideas were generated quickly and pieces of performance developed between the performers - it was great to see how the relationships between them formed these pieces of work. As a director, I guided the cast loosely in arriving at decisions they were happy with - this was important to me, as I wanted them to have had as much creative input as me. Also to note was that we only had three sessions from starting the workshops to the final performance, which like I say was terrifying but in the end amazed me at how quickly performances were generated.

Before the final rehearsal, I devised a journey that the performance could take, looking at what pieces had been created between the performers during rehearsal, as well as curating a dynamic journey throughout the whole performance - moments of humour balanced out with more serious moments, loud versus quiet moments - I tried to use my intuition and past experience of working in theatre to build a strong end piece. This then gave the cast a foundation to work from and build their confidence in rehearsing their parts.

 Reference: John Cage’s 4’33” (1952)

“the absence of intended sounds.”

Composer John Cage’s 1952 piece 4’3” involves Cage coming onto the stage, sitting at the piano and then not playing for a long period of time - he intended to allow the audience to become a part of the piece by the way they create sounds in their awkwardness of Cage not playing the piano. I was inspired by this to create a moment in the performance in where the audience feel like something should be happening but it’s not, and no one really knows if it’s intentional or not; they then become part of the work, just as in Cage’s piece. Timing is key, for awkwardness and for comedy. During rehearsal we played around with leaving long, awkward poses in between moments, as there was an unintentional bit in Mum’s show that had a really long pause which I wanted to recreate - how long until the audience feels uncomfortable?

 Editing footage and creating a track list:

As we were still using the banners for the piece, I had to think about how best to use them - I still wanted to keep that feeling of community and nostalgia, so I chose to use parts of the footage from Mum’s shows to help break up the performance. We devised parts where the cast would talk as if they were on stage with the women in the footage, which made them feel more real and they were a part of the show as themselves.

I also created a UV video section to be projected onto the banners for a small UV section that Flo and Lesley had devised, and created a track list for those parts that needed it. We ended with a live song, sung by Pam, which was the same song that was used in the colour shows in 1992 - I timed the footage to play along in time with Pam’s backing track (I had edited the track down from almost 5 minutes).

 Final costumes:

Project Reflection:

What did I learn?

• techincal skills in costume making - sourcing fabrics, adding structure, using unusual materials, making multiple costumes at once, curating a collection, ensuring they were comfortable to move in

• directing - managing a group of people, asking for help when needed, delegating during workshops and organising rehearsals, making creative decisions based on my own initiative, explored new ways of working through workshops

• Evoking joy and recreating memories - I felt I had achieved this, as the feeling at the end of the performance was very similar to how I’d felt during those clothes shows - surrounded by women celebrating themselves and each other.

What did I have to overcome? My own self-doubt, especially when leading a team - I could not afford to be less positive than they were; I had to lead by example. I also had to overcome doing most of the work by myself, which at times felt lonely and overwhelming - in hindsight this was not a healthy way of working, however this time I achieved what I set out to achieve by creating a piece of my own.

What would I do differently if I were to do it again? I would definitely collaborate more with others, especially with the technical aspect - I felt the piece could have been more effective if I had done so. And also asking for more help when making the costumes, as it was alot of work on top of running the show. It would also have been beneficial to have worked alongside someone from the start; looking back I would have benefitted from either having someone on board or allowing the idea to evolve between two creators.

How can I move on from this/take it further? I had good feedback that this could be a show that evolves; that it has legs to become something even bigger. I would love to expand it by developing my practice through further workshops, and perhaps taking the idea into communities to create performance.