Evaluation- production role costume

 

 

For our FMP of ‘Great Expectations’ I was given the production role of costume for act 2 along with Ella and Chloe. In our first meeting together we all discussed our individual ideas for how we wanted the costume in the show as well as how we wanted to achieve it, moving forward from this we looked at compromises between ideas and developments on them. I believe this was a very good way to start our production role as it allowed us to all be on the same page as we went forward. However to have improved this first meeting I think we should have made contact with departments such as make up, finance and props quicker to allow us to know what kind of budget we were working with as well as telling other design team departments our ideas and hearing theirs.

Whilst being in this production role I believe I have used listening, artistic and compromising skills as well as having developed skills in areas such as design, IT and teamwork. I believe I have used all of these I believe I have used all these skills whilst being in the production role as I have had to communicate effectively between departments as well as in my own. If I was to continue the production role further I would hope to develop my IT and design skills as I feel these are some of my weakest skills.

In my production role I am most proud of our ability to have got costume for the show without having a budget as our limited time frame made it very hard to fundraise we instead went to the costume department in school and sourced costumes for characters with the help of Miss Niven and Miss Goodall. These costumes ended up and as there were a limited number of bold costumes it made them stand out even more. Another way we sourced costumes was with the help of our great expectations Facebook page which all cast members were a part of. We were able to post a list for each part/gender saying what we needed them to supply themselves and we were also immediately made aware if anyone couldn't supply something by their comments.

Over all I think the costume for the show turned out extremely well as we were able to dress everyone in costumes that effectively showed their character to the audience as well as stuck closely to the description of the characters that are given in the script. It also looked very bold on stage and showed the contrasts between classes, ages and areas. However there were some weaknesses as I feel not all actors costumes were properly dressed on stage and some shirts looked scruffy making them look out of place for some peoples roles, as well as this I feel some characters costumes were so bare that they didn’t show clearly who they were, for example chorus in our act didn’t have a single piece, such as a hat, that tied them all together like act one did. And if we had had more time I would have tried to source a piece that made them look more like a unit and more connected to pip.

Below I have done an individual evaluation of some of the key characters costumes in the play:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHORUS

 

                                         For the performance we dressed chorus in:

Black smart trousers

A white shirt

Traditional flat cap (act 1)

I believe this effectively communicated to the audience their link with pip as they were dressed very much like pip with the exception of pips waistcoat. The costumes were also flexible and comfortable enough for the chorus to move easily on stage as this was a point they had brought up in class mentioning they had lots of physically demanding blocking that their costumes needed to allow them to do.

The use of the flat cap in act 1 and the lack of it in act 2 was used to show the transformation of pip from the country to London, it also showed how he had matured and left parts of his childhood behind.

To have improved the chorus’ costumes I would have tried to get a piece, such as a coat or top hat, for the act 2 chorus to communicate further to the audience that he has become a gentleman.

 

 

 

PIP

 

For act 1 we dressed pip in:

Black smart trousers

White shirt

Black waistcoat

Traditional flat cap

This allowed the audience to see the lack of money pip had as well as the fact that he was just an everyday boy and the contrast between him and the characters of a higher class. This costume was also very similar to chorus’ which allowed the audience to make the link between the two parts.

For act 2 we dressed pip in:

Smart black trousers

White shirt

Smart blue coat

Top hat

This costume showed clearly the transformation of pip and him becoming a gentleman, it also showed a much more mature side to him which meant the audience saw the development in time and that pip was now much older. This costume also contrasted with the ones of his family, such as Joe, and made it clear that he wasn’t like them anymore and that he had possibly lost touch with them. The costume also fitted much better with Estella’s showing that pip had worked his way up to her class and was more eligible to her now.

 

ESTELLA & MISS HAVISHAM

 

 

Estella and Miss Havisham’s costumes stayed the same throughout the piece. We dressed Miss Havisham in:

White wedding dress

White veil

This costume was given in the script and was often described by characters so we tried to make the costume fit its descriptions. The bright white of the dress was very effective as against the black background it really stood out and showed the ghost like figure of the character. As the costume was very bold this helped in showing it was still the same character when actors switched.

We dressed Estella in:

Black tights

Pale pink dress

This dress effectively communicated her class to the audience as well as her relationship to Miss Havisham as they were the only too characters dressed in dresses like these. It was also extremely important for Estella to be easily recognisable during the play as 3 different actresses played her.