Trying to juggle this job, my summer job, Much Ado About Nothing, learning to drive, and general life, has made the past month extremely difficult, culminating in me running myself into the ground, getting a horrible chest-infection preventing me from working OR moreover, traveling with the company to Edinburgh for the opening nights (an option they did offer me, which was amazing seeing as they would be covering my travel and accommodation)- really gutted I couldn't go with them, and I had to stop working with some of the tasks unfinished, which is never a nice feeling. But I guess these things happen and I couldn't have risked getting the company ill too.
The whole experience was great, really interesting. My main role was essentially to continue sourcing the costumes whilst the designer was away in Denmark. I'm not sure how much I can say on here, as it is yet to open, so I don't want to spoil anything, so I will update this post with photos etc once the show is underway.
Needless to say, with a production like this which is still in constant development, I had to be very flexible; you would spend all day sourcing, thinking you'd finally got a costume sorted, then you'd get back to the rehearsal space and in the time that you'd gone, the whole vision for the play had changed. Not to mention sizing issues and all of that. As always, most of my job was returning stuff I'd bought. I also did a little bit of sewing and a lot of research.
Given that 'PEEP' contains 3 plays, each along the theme of 'sex', both reading the scripts and attending the rehearsals were interesting processes. And I had to do some fairly questionable research into some interesting shops.
I never thought how much of a problem it can be to get women's shoes in men's sizes- so that was an issue I'd never though of before....
There was a lot of that typical issue where you have to try and dress a character realistically, but it's a character who may not be very good a dressing themselves, so you want them to look realistic, but you don't want the costumes to look 'bad'... and trying to work round that issue- finding the balance between aesthetically tacky and actual tacky.... It was all tricky at times, but I got on well with the team especially the Designer who I think was relatively pleased with my work.
I was required to do a lot of the costume sourcing on Oxford Street.... during 3 of the hottest days of the year... just days before the Olympics, and that particular part of the job was not pleasant. But everything else, considering my job was mainly logistic rather than creative, was actually a really good experience. I feel like I've made good contacts and have learnt a lot from my work with this company. I just really hope they don't come away with a bad impression of me because I had to duck-out right at the end... I did try my absolute hardest.... but when you start getting feverish in Primark (more so than normal), it's a sign to throw in the towel.
Here is are some links to some info about the shows, will post more when PEEP has opened:
http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/peep
http://wefund.com/project/peep-edinburgh-festival-2012/p44339/
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/the-arts-diary-come-to-the-booths-for-a-cleaner-peep-1-2313040
http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/255981-peep/
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