My Game Plan

I had a total budget of £170 set by Lydia, our producer. This enabled me to dress our eight actors and source relevant hair and make-up products. I worked out that I could spend around £22 per character on their overall look, which meant that if I wanted good quality clothing, some of the outfit pieces would need to be things we already own. I therefore began creating mood boards for each character and sent each cast member a detailed description of clothing that I thought would be appropriate for their role. The cast then sent me photos of any clothing they owned that had a similar fit to how I described. This proved useful as Lydia’s investor costume was mostly work clothing she already owned and the red trousers Felicity owned helped inspire my final look for Inka. I also found it much easier to take each actor to the relevant shops so I could be there to give a final judgement on the clothing before buying it.

As our script adapted, I went back to taking inspiration from how our script writer, Marcus, had presented each character through language and stage directions. By studying the language each character used, I gathered a sense of the characters background, relationships, class, and style. I then experimented with colour to see how this changed their appearance and the overall look of the performance. For example, Isobel, the oldest daughter, is seen as the ‘perfect’ child and describes herself as “well-kept and reserved” (Regan, 2018). Therefore, I wanted her costume to reflect her calm and put together nature with pink colours. In opposition, her sister, Imogen, is described as a “rag doll” (Regan, 2018). This, for me, meant that my look would be tom-boyish and less fitted.

Clothing as Identity: Character ideas to final looks

I gathered together all the items of clothing the cast owned that linked to my character costume descriptions, along with anything that I thought was appropriate from online or in local stores. I had a meeting with our dramaturg, Rosie, to discuss each look and whether they effectively show off our company performance. This was useful as we came up with the idea of using pastel colours along with black would effectively show character parallels and the bigger themes of family versus business greed.

Attached below is a document containing my costume ideas and final looks of each character. More on my mood board developments and final looks can also be found within my costume book.

costume ideas and final looks

  My costume and cosmetics budget sheets

 

Character Name	Cost of Top	Cost of Trousers	Full Cost of Character Costume
Andrew	£17.99	£19.99	£37.98
Isaac	£8.99	£12.99	£21.98
Grace	£12.75	£17.99	£30.74
Imogen	£12.75	free	£12.75
Isobel	£12.75	£17.99	£30.74
Mia	£1.88	£17.99	£20.08
Inka	£12.75	free	£12.75
Lydia	£5.50	free	£5.50
Total costume cost
£172.52

 

Character Name	Cosmetics	Cost
Inka	Sports tape	£4
Inka	Got2be Glue hair gel	£4.29
Inka	Tres Ex HLD Hairspray	£3.05
All female characters	40 pack hair grips	£1.00
All female characters	60 pack hair grips	£1.00
All female characters	60 pack skinny hair bobbles	£1.00
Total cosmetics cost
£14.34

 

Total cost: £186.86

My original budget of £170 was upped to £180 with the contingency to ensure that I could source appropriate cosmetics for Inka.

My costume and cosmetics budget sheet helped me to see how much budget I had left when sourcing each actors costume. I found it difficult to not go over budget with the added cosmetics, as I wanted to experiment with more ‘out there’ colours for Felicity’s make-up. This meant that I didn’t already own the correct make-up and hair products so needed to source extras.

I am glad that I asked for an increase in my original budget, as sourcing appropriate costumes and cosmetics for eight cast members requires more money than the company and myself first realised. I also didn’t feel that borrowing clothing from all of our cast members or sourcing clothing from the cheapest shops showed the professional standard we wished for. I wanted to make sure the quality of clothing ensured there would be no rips from doing movement which would have been my main concern had I have bought cheaper materials. I do believe that I successfully used my budget to buy costumes that were both appropriate to our performance concept, as well as effectively showing our company’s mix between physical movement and narrative performance style. This was done while revealing insights into the characters relationships and foreshadowing events to come.

Things to improve

I would have also like to show the close relationship the sisters had to their parents, we therefore could have worn something in remembrance. Should our performance tour, I would like to do another fundraiser to buy extra pieces to improve the overall look of the costumes. For example, the investor could wear a blazer for a more formal look. Also, I would like to experiment further with make-up and costume for Inka, such as Felicity wearing a long flowing skirt with a dance leotard. 

My costume book

Throughout this process, I created a costume book filled with mood boards and designs. This has been vital in order for me to present all my ideas and to show the progression of my costume choices to keep the company up to date on my developing ideas. My costume book came in helpful especially to show our director and choreographers my ideas so we are all on the same page. I had multiple discussions with Felicity and Poppy with regards to how our costumes would fit in with the choreography, which inspired my idea of having everyone be a representation of their character from the opening instead of getting changed as we all stayed on stage throughout the piece.

Future aspirations

 As my costume budget came out of the company’s fundraising money, it has meant that I could keep everyone’s costumes should we perform Inka again. Arts Council England emphasise their goal for “every child and young person [to have] the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts” (Arts Council England 2018). I have therefore thought about costumes in regards to making them universal and approachable so that if we can take our performance into schools.  The company looks easily accessible for runing workshops that surround our performance ideas. Also, as Felicity was not made to look ‘evil’ or ‘scary’, I do believe that her look positively opens up questions surrounding how the younger generation would perceive the Inka device.

 

Works cited

Arts Council England (2018). Our Five Goals For The Arts And Culture. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-ilfa/10-year-strategy-alignment#section-1 [accessed May 18 2018].

Regan, M. (2018) Inka [live performance]. Performed by Bleeding Edge Theatre Company. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

 

– Molly Sharp, Costume designer