space

Ultraviolet Spaceman

Emma Jane Haigh Costume Designer , , , , ,

Tom, the Handyman, wants to be an engineer. He wants to build something brilliant.

His delusion has taken the form of a physical theatre scene with him as the spaceman protagonist.We have spent weeks creating a beautiful piece of space movement and I wanted my costume design to match the movement we have created.

A pair of white overalls…

I knew that Sam would need to be able to move freely in his costume, so I had to consider this in my design whilst maintaining my desired appearance for the spacesuit. I also wanted to echo his ‘real life’ costume by having his spacesuit as a pair of white overalls similar to the blue ones he wore in the original scene.

I found some sew-on space patches on eBay which I thought might add a nice finishing touch to the white spacesuit.

I drew out a design as I thought about how I might like the costume to turn out:

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I found a very reasonably priced pair of white overalls on eBay and bought the sew-on patches. I stitched the space patches and union jack patch to the suit by hand.

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UV Stars…

Our Stage Manager, Dan suggested using UV paint to create star gloves and a galaxy suit for our Choreography, Holly. I found a bulk pack of black mime gloves and began creating the UV gloves with fabric paint.

For our technical trial session, I painted one glove with the UV fabric paint with the white paint. Under the ultraviolet light the white paint was difficult to see. I tried painting over the star design with yellow paint and the star showed up very well under the lighting.

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For Holly’s galaxy costume I bought a pair of black leggings and a black long-sleeved top and painted star designs all over them in the UV paint. I added a black mask and gloves which I had also painted. The design looked effective under the ultraviolet light. The stretchy leggings and top also made it easy for Holly to move.
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The ultraviolet fabric paint costumes took a long while to make but I feel that the end result really made the hard work pay off. The gloves stood out against the black background and Holly’s costume shone under the lighting. I’m pleased the paints worked as I hoped they would.

 

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The Finished Spacesuit

 

Howard Rees-Jones, G. (2017) Kalopsia. Lincoln: George Howard Rees-Jones Media.

 

 

The First British Man on the Moon

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer , , , ,

Since our performance has developed from focusing on moments of love to moments of life, we have found that the daily delusions of everyday people provides a fascinating representation of individuality and great opportunities for moments of artistic creativity. We have hence integrated another full scene of physical theatre, this time with dance incorporated movement.

The main scene that I am now choreographing is the Handyman’s delusion, also known as the ‘space scene’; this involves the character building a rocket and flying into space. It holds elements of escapism, as well as him chasing his dreams – all executed through the means of physical theatre. When thinking of movement, I began by researching ways to represent anti-gravity. I considered that the best way to represent anti-gravity was through the use of lifts, leans and balancing methods. For these to be implemented, ensemble work is necessary and therefore teamwork is crucial.

To prepare for choreography, I watched many spacewalk videos to analyse the speed, pace, and the physicality of astronauts.

After watching videos such as these, I noted the height, bounciness and floating elements of the movement and started to use the ensemble to practice ways to represent space walking. Our experiments can be seen from the video below.

 

After experimenting with base movements, I had to find a story within the choreography. Through discussion and character analysis, I worked with the director to develop the scenes narrative to hold representations of the Handyman chasing his dreams, but unable to reach or touch them. To portray this in a visually stimulating way, I incorporated a female dancer into the piece to represent a personified embodiment of the galaxy. The act of chasing his dreams can then be more clearly portrayed through a series of chasing sequences, as well as creating a magnetic draw between the Handyman and the Galaxy, yet having no contact between the dancers. Below are some video examples of this: here you can see the ensemble experimenting with leans and lifts, whilst incorporating the chase and non-contact elements.

 

We also often film in slow motion to analyse our intricate movements in more detail. This helps each actor clearly see where they need to improve, and how every part of their body works throughout each movement.

 

Graham and Hoggett talk of the importance of filming rehearsals when creating physical theatre. For their rehearsals with Frantic Assembly, the choreographers explain how “the video camera became a necessity in the rehearsal studio” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 33). The media provides actors to reflect of how their movement looks to an outside party; “[i]t is there to show you what you don’t yet know” (ibid, 35). I will continue to film videos for the actor’s benefit, so we can continue to improve and develop the movement scenes, and analyse the details of the choreography.

 

amovees (2013) Astronauts tripping on the surface of the Moon. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2adl6LszcE&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 19 April 2017].

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly book of Devising Theatre. Abingdon: Routledge.

NTDTV (2012) Neil Armstrong – First Moon Landing 1969. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwZb2mqId0A&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 19 April 2017].