Panto - The beginning.

gulp..

It's October - start of THIRD year :)
Third year at the Academy is essentially a year to have the chance to put all those skills aquired in the last two years into every opportunity that comes your way;  challenging yourself to make each thing better than the last. Hopefully at the end of it all, the resulting portfolio will get me some work :P

All you need is a lot of hard work, a love of what you do.. and a wee bit of good luck!  ..apparently..

So.. Pinocchio..




The design of the show was created by Susannah Wood, who lives and works as a designer in London.
She used lino cut prints to create a unique wood graining pattern which flowed throughout each component; everything looked like it was made from a paper collage.
Her model box was very like the old victorian paper theatres. Looking at it made me want to get some characters in on sticks and move them around the set.
It was absolutely beautiful.
And we had to all as a team come up for a way to make our bits of wood and cloth look like that!
oh.... my...god.. am just way too excited!!

As a side note - am beginning to believe in fate.. and how I have a determined path in front of me..

Me, Luisa and Karen

..I'm majoring in props this year but I intended to spend a little time in scenic, but after 5mins of Luisa and Karen (scenic art majors) drooling over this box and their enthusiasm for the challenge ahead, I felt a very strong urge to want to paint this with them.
We just moved into a new applieds arts building and its set up so that the props, carpentry workshop and paintshop all look into each other. So it's possible to keep an eye on what everyone's doing.
I'll write a wee bit about that laters.

oO the paint shelves are almost bare..

There was so much enthusiam from the paintshop team when I first went in.
Luisa was given the role of head scenic artist, aka 'The Manager' , aka head boss lady!
She'd basically spent the summer planning a schedule and thinking about how she'd delegate and monitor other people.
She did really well when she went through the model box with me on my first day in. She wanted everyone to understand what the designer was trying to convey and love it like she did and it wasn't hard to.

How long can it stay this clean???

The paint bridge!

Luisa, Karen, Maisie & Rachel.

 Luisa's schedule. FIVE cloths!
There was a LOT of scenery!
Luisa was also a little worried about time - she let us know to expect a lot of late nights ahead. It was indeed a challenge and there was a definate sense of determination in the group.
Other difficulties at the beginning included waiting for paint and cloths to arrive/ waiting for other departments to build - limiting what we could actually get done.
Luisa was determined to get one of the cloths painted. She'd managed to find an old cloth from last year that wasn't too crispy and reuse it.
Also to add to the stress, the brand new all singing and dancing paint-bridge broke down!
Luisa decided we could paint it on the floor, whilst we waited for everything else to arrive.

Journey continues in 'Cloth no1 - The Gullet'