COSTUME MAKING WORKSHOP AT THE RSC

After we had looked at the costume exhibition I had the chance to learn about making costumes at a workshop. The workshop took place in a room where there were lots of examples of different parts of costumes including wigs, shoes and jewellery. We watched a video of a dresser helping an actor get ready to go on stage.

The people running the workshop were from a theatre company called The Wrong Crowd. One of the ladies was a director and the other was a costume designer who often makes puppets.They told us that we could have a go at making costumes and props of either a fairy or Bottom's donkey ears from a Midsummer Night's Dream or a witch from Macbeth. They gave us lots of ideas for making hats, masks and creepy hands using gloves and a special foam material. I decided to make a mask of a witch from Macbeth. I decided I wanted the mask to look really freaky!

First of all I cut off the mouth and chin from a plastic mask. I also made the eyes bigger.

I squished up lots of pieces of masking tape to form a big nose. I wanted the nose to turn up at the end to look like a pig.

I then shaped some eyebrows. I made one higher than the other to make the expression look questioning.

 

 

I then covered the whole mask in a thin layer of PVA glue.

 

When the glue had dried, I painted it a skin colour. I used yellow ochre, white and a bit of red to make the skin colour.I also painted black around the eyes to make them stand out.

I then used lots of strips of fabric that were leftovers from real costumes made by the costume department to make a headdress. I wanted it to look a bit like a veil. I thought the purple colours were quite witchy.

Here I am looking very scary!