Raining Dragons and Trolls

One of our Dragons

One of my 'day jobs' is working on Prism Arts Studio Theatre project and we are about to start touring our latest production 'Raining Dragons and Trolls' which is linked to the national Family Arts Festival. We will be performing in a variety of venues, including Keswick's Theatre by the Lake, and we are all really excited about the tour. Since we began Studio Theatre back in 2012 we have come a long way and I never cease to be impressed by the ideas, work and commitment that the group shows.

Initial designs

Developing characters with drawing

Set design ideas

Our starting point for this production was the BBC 10 Pieces, ten pieces of classical music selected to encourage and inspire creative responses. The project was mainly aimed at schools but we thought it would be an interesting starting point and this proved to be the case. From the music a story grew, we use a lot of drawing to help develop our ideas and it is often not until very near the end of the production process that we have anything solid written up.

Mecamecal (mechanical camel)

Castle

A lot of things change over the course of making a production, characters come and go (sadly, the mecamecal or mechanical camel did not make the grade this show) story lines change and evolve but eventually a piece of theatre emerges. The constant changing can be difficult for some people but overall it is a positive thing, keeping the group inspired and fired up and allowing new and better ideas to come through.

Felt making: in our productions we use a wide range of techniques and materials. 

Felt making

This production has a strong environmental message, something we all feel very strongly about and which is an important issue. Although there are a lot of fantasy elements in our productions (dragons, trolls, a friendly minotaur) the story is very much about humans and how we interact with each other and the world around us. The main characters in the show have to convince people that unless they change their ways and live in a more sustainable way the world will be in serious trouble.

Making prayer flags for one of the scenes

Prayer flags

I work on the backstage elements of the show, the drawings, props, scenery and costumes. Theatre Skills runs two days a week, one day being focused on production (the day I lead) and the other day focused on performance (led by Vicki Maxfield.) Obviously the performance day leads what we make on the production day but there is a constant flow of ideas back and forth, the two days are very much connected.

We make and use a lot of puppets. Here are the Trolls!

And two mini dragons in a boat

And one of the main dragons (detail)

And we use a lot of shadow puppetry as well

One of my favourite pieces that we have made for this performance is the Sea Guardians cloak. In the story the sea guardian has become trapped in discarded plastic waste and fishing nets and in struggling to escape he is creating huge waves and terrifying the fisherman. To represent the waste he is trapped in we used my favourite technique of crocheting and melting plastic bags to create a large net like cloak that the actor wears. We added further strings of crocheted plastic to give a really tangled up look and add movement. I think this piece of costume works really well and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

The Sea Guardians Rubbish Cloak

Crocheted cellophane

Melted plastic

I'm not going to write any more about the production but I hope that if you're near where we're performing you will come and see us and be transported to another world!

Art Gallery Take Over at Tullie House

Fancy Dress Life Drawing

On Thursday evening I ran a fancy dress life drawing session in the art gallery at Tullie House as part of their art gallery takeover for the Museums at Night project. It was such a fun evening; there was a great DJ, a big Minecraft project and other cool activities. The atmosphere was really good, energetic and fun with lots going on (and cocktails!) For my activity Tullie House had got hold of some great costumes, wigs and hats and so I encouraged people to get dressed up and then other people to draw them.

Some of the costumes

Set up and ready for people to start drawing

I was quite nervous beforehand as I wasn't sure whether people would want to get dressed up and draw each other but I need not have worried. People were happy to get stuck in, dressing up in some great costumes, wigs and hats and posing so that other people could draw. It was fun and I liked that people were willing to have a laugh and not take it too seriously!

The admiral jacket was a popular choice!

Because it was a bit different to my usual calm, quiet life drawing sessions I'd taken along lots of marker pens and highlighter pens for people to draw with because I thought they fitted the fun and funky nature of the event better. It was great to see people getting really into the drawing and some fantastic work was produced. Over the course of the evening I stuck the work up on the gallery walls which was great with all the disco lights and at the end of the evening we had a great collection of work.

A few of the drawings

I was very flattered that a couple of people asked if they could have some of the drawings I'd done, it's always exciting when someone wants something you've created. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening; I talked to some great people, saw some beautiful drawings being created and soaked up the atmosphere. I hope Tullie House do more events like this!

The gallery at the end of the night

Caterpillar Costume

Next Monday is May Day. Which means parades, which means costumes. I run an art group every other Monday evening for adults with learning disabilities and for the past few weeks we have been working on our costumes and scenery for this years May Day Parade. The theme is Alice in Wonderland so we've been having fun creating psychedelic swirls, madness mushrooms and mystical flowers.

Psychedelic colour experiments

I've also been busy making a Caterpillar costume for one of the people in the parade. The person in question came to me with a picture of a costume she'd found on the Internet so we made a pattern and (temperamental machinery excepted) I've cracked on and made it. I'm really hoping that it fits because I'm not going to see her before the parade so if it doesn't work we could have a small problem! The body is made from jersey, with clothes line appliqued to the edges to give it a wiggly caterpillar effect. The feet are velvet and the collar, supported by vilene and garden wire, is a heavyweight cotton fabric that I found for very cheap. When I told the shop assistant what it was for she looked at me like I was insane, I then tried to explain which I think made me sound even more crazy so in the end I gave up! This is the costume spread flat, hopefully next week I can show you what it looks like on. If you happen to be in Penrith on Monday come and see it for yourself!

Flatepillar!