Theatre in Education (10) - Production meeting

We spent this lesson having a production meeting to discuss what we shall do in terms of costume, characters and style. As we have almost staged the whole of our performance, we didn't want to make any changes in terms of time or place setting - we have aimed to make our piece quite timeless (so not putting in anything that brings it into modern day) and we kept the traditional location of a forest. Although we could have been creative and changed the setting, we thought it best to keep the original location, as our purpose is to educate, and we don't want the Year 9's going into their English exam and writing how the piece is set in a school, for example!

Below are the ideas we came up with for costume:

• Traditional Full Costume:   Fits the entertaining purpose (will be funny to see the boys in tights!) /// Characters are clear /// Ideal for a larger cast as they wouldn't need to multi-roll, but not practical for our cast as don't have time to do a full change
• Timeless:   Not too modern to make the piece look modern day, but not traditional clothing /// No fashion trends to make it era specific
• Modern dress:   Would be relatable for the younger audience /// Playing off stereotypes would make it understandable /// Might require changing the setting of our piece, which we don't want to do as would lose the educational element
• Own clothes:   In the Elizabethan times, they would have worn for the performance what they turned up in. We don't want to do this as we would lose the fantasy element and the atmosphere. The characters wouldn't be as clear either.
• Moschino (Velcro cardboard clothes):   Used in the Milan Fashion Week // Good for younger children /// Entertaining but not overwhelming /// Stripped-back approach to Shakespeare makes it seem more simple /// Not practical for our very physical piece
• All blacks with representational items:   Ideal for the amount of multi-rolling we do /// Easy to move in /// Characters are still clearly presented /// Ideal for our smaller cast
• Shirts & trousers with representational items:   More aesthetic than all blacks /// Suitable for multi-rolling /// Could work for different groups of people (i.e. if we set one section in a school, or for gangsters... etc) 

We have decided that we are going to go for all blacks with representational items as it is easy for us to manoeuvre in, it isn't complicated, quick changes are easier and the audience still get a clear idea on characters. For representational props, we have decided to group certain characters. The high society characters (Hippolyta, Theseus and Egeus) shall wear waistcoats or a shawl, to show they are upper class - waistcoats are also timeless as they have been around since the Restoration Era. The lovers are going to be quite modern, but to reflect their rebellious attitude in not doing what their parents want, we are making them rebels - so they shall wear leather jackets or flannel shirts (they are modern and relatable to the audience, but not too common. These characters are most like ourselves).

We were planning on making the fairies gangsters, but we don't have much time to develop these accents, nor do we think it is suitable for our piece - it would be too weird to have a gangster Titania falling in love with Bottom. To make this love more comical though, we thought that we could have the fairies as extremely common, exaggerating the Medway accent! This would make the piece entertaining but still practical for us.

For the mechanicals, we are still undecided, but I think we should just wear all blacks (apart from I shall wear a hat as Starveling as I swap between Starveling and Snout whilst on stage) as the body language clearly shows that they are different people and the use of music as a motif for them. However, to show Bottom as an ass, we discussed using a full-mask, a hat with ears or a half-mask. We decided against the full- mask as it would hide his facial expressions. We decided to go with the half-mask as Ollie made a half-mask for when we learned about Commedia dell'arte, and this worked really well. We shall just add some ears to the mask he used. This way, his look has been totally transformed but we can still see his facial expressions and his voice is unaltered. For the Wall, I shall wear a sandwich board as this is the quickest way for me to transform into Wall and is comical in the fact that I could put my arms down but I don't. It also enable me to bring an arm forward to form the chink still.