Started the day by having a much needed meeting with Will, John, and Emily Cheetham- the Scenic artist. This was such a valuable meeting, and it was really good to get a lot of things straight in terms of dates and priorities etc. I am really glad to have Emily on board as she has such good experience with the AUCB productions, but also I know her well and I really trust her not only to get everything done, but get everything done to a good standard, I'm sure she's a real asset to the team.
We talked through A LOT of things, primarily logistical, but I was really very keen to bring-up something that I felt was worryingly glossed-over at the last meeting, and that's the question of getting everything BLUE. As I expected, this is something I'm going to have to make a huge compromise on- due to budget, but mainly due to time constraints and the every very fast change-over between Much Ado and Canterbury Tales.
Basically, the floor will be blue (tiles painted and stenciled straight onto the rough theatre floor surface), the rostra will be blue, the scaffold will be blue, the balcony will be blue, and a couple of boards at the polar ends of the theatre space will be blue. I've been told that whilst the play is in progress, the lighting will be as such that you won't really notice that the far walls are not in fact blue. Whether this is the case or not, painting them blue is not an option, and putting up boards is too expensive, labour-intensive, and time-consuming. There were another few things that popped-up that I need to think of design solutions for, such as the yellow plastic hats and feet on the scaffold- not very period at all- not very Much Ado- not very aesthetic. We talked about maybe putting decorative balls on top of the vertical scaff- a bit like bed posts, to hide their yellow hats, and perhaps sculpting some 'piles of powder' or spices or rocks of something to cover the yellow feet.
We also talked about the paint-effect on the pool, the positioning of the tiling, the sort of paint needed, and the tasks myself and Emily had to complete within the near future.
NOTES
- Make a mood-board/folder for Emily asap
- Rosco paint? will emulsion do?
- Balls on top of verticals- garden centre?
- Need somewhere to store the normal chairs.
- Don't forget to do my 'visual scene breakdown' asap too. Job for the weekend maybe?
Emily and I have agreed to go paint browsing/shopping on Thursday and bring back some blue samples to try.
I also need to get the stencil done before next week ideally. Maybe something I could talk to Kirsty about?
Straight after this meeting, I sat in on a meeting that Sarah and Emilie had arranged with Mandy to clarify their roles between them as buyer and supervisor. I am SO glad I sat-in on this. I really had no idea quite how much I can delegate without 'taking the piss'. It's nice to know that I'm actually not too involved in all the logistical stuff, as I know that logic and organisation are 2 skills that are fairly thin on the ground for me. It's also nice to know that if I miss something interpreting my own designs (like the need for socks of vests for example) it's not actyally solely my responsibility. Phew! After this meeting AND the meeting this morning, I feel so much more relaxed about getting everything done- I think I've learned that it won't just be me, in the Studio Theatre, with a paintbrush in one hand, a sewing needle in the other, the budget written on my arm in biro, covered in blue paint, in a pool of my own tears. I have got a team and I should use them, within reason.
This meeting also gave me the opportunity to chat to lovely Mandy about some things I'd been mulling over. Firstly, we made sure she knew that we'd potentially found Benedick's jodhpurs so that they probably won't need to be made anymore. Secondly, that I thought that Don John's uniform would be a good thing to make. This idea came from 3 motivations:
- It seemed such a shame to have all these beautiful uniforms shop-bought, that would actually be really nice to make.
- Anna had expressed to me that she was worried that she wouldn't get to do any 'proper making' and that her and Lucy may just have loads of alterations to do.
- Unlike all the other uniforms, this one really does seem IMPOSSIBLE to source, and if it wasn't made, it really would be a case of redesigning it.
Mandy had started to print the designs on the printer in the staff room, and I have never seen such an accurate representation of colour- they had printed so well compared to all the horrible printer issues I have experienced along the way. The CAD pad is still out of action, so I'm not sure what to do about printing my designs A3, as my printer doesn't seem up to the colour matching no matter how much editing I do.
Filled with printer-optimism, I headed to the library in order to print out A4 copies of the designs to take with us to Hire-rachy afterwards. But instead of being greeted by wonderful colour-matching, speedy printing, and a generally stress-free experience... it was quite the opposite. In the end I ended up with about 1/3 of the designs, printed all purpley and dark. But it would have to do. Lacking an i-pad, there's not a lot you can do when out sourcing other than just bring the paper copies with you.
Hire-archy
Shortly after the library printing fiasco, Sarah drove us to Hirearchy in Boscombe, which I have to say is one of THE most amazing places to be tucked away in Boscombian-surburbia. The lovely man who runs it had the most terrific tash, which made me trust him immediately.
I cannot describe how wonderfully surprised I was by simply HOW much we could source from here- all for what seemed to be quite reasonable prices. We couldn;t get a good look at too many 'specific' pieces because a lot of it is size-dependent, but we will get the actors' measurements tomorrow, then send them along with the designs and a wish-list to the guy who owns it and then have arranged to return on Thursday so that he can find us specific items which he will then put on hold until the show date- in the meantime welcoming us to bring the actors along to the shop for fittings and whatnot- what a lovely fellow!
So we found:
- The ALMOST perfect striped blazer for Benedick
- Everything needed for The Watch, Dogberry, and Verges- shorts, pith helmets, jackets, shirts.
- Black Jodhpurs for Don Pedro
- Military trousers with red stripe
- Blue military jacket for Don Pedro
- Hat for Don Pedro
- Tall Cream Pith hat for Don John
- Garrison caps
- military regalia- braiding, medal-straps, medals, sashes, sword-straps.
- Riding boots
- A green tweed jacket for Don John
Potential Jacket for Dogberry- more beige less green in real life.
Blazer for Benedick if size is right for Will. Unfortunately the middle stripes are black rather than blue, but I honestly think this is the closest we are going to get- at least without spending 5 times the money.
Whilst I was in the shop a very very very very strange occurrence happened. So as we talk to the owner about how it's a production of Much Ado About Nothing set in India, the radio that he has on in the background suddenly starts talking about ..... Shakespeare...... but not just Shakespeare... Much Ado About Nothing.... but not just Much Ado About Nothing... Much Ado About Nothing set in India. So whilst we were in the costume shop, with my designs, talking about the production, and how we're doing an 'Indian Much Ado About Nothing', the radio does a 10min segment on the RSC production of Indian Much Ado, focussing in on transfering Shakespeare into an Indian context, followed by an interview with Myra Syall.
Out of all the times we could have been in the shop, out of all the shops we could have gone to, out of all the radio stations he could have been playing, out of all the London shows they could be talking about, somehow we ended up spookily listening to Radio 2 narrate our actions as we bumbled round the shop trying to 'transfer Much Ado into an Indian context'. One of THE most bizarre experiences.
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