Directing - Week 10: Dress & Tech Rehearsal

Saturday 16th Dec

Also, for the character of Amy, I wanted Siobhan's costume to try and look like she had actually fallen down a mineshaft and been living outside in a hedge for an extended period of time. Siobhan brought in some old clothes that we then ripped and stressed using scissors to make holes and worn patches on her jeans and jumper to make her physically appear shocking to look at add to the effect of her reappearance in the play after she has been presumed dead. I also wanted to use stage make up to give her some kind of cut on her head for where the stone the rest of the gang threw had hit her, and give her bruises and be covered in mud etc to emphasise the violence she had suffered and again, clearly show the trauma and make her appearance more uncomfortable for both the audience and the rest of the gang to be able to see exactly what they'd done to this girl.

I experimented with different sizes and types of wounds to give her and decided a smaller cut was all that was needed as it would have had time to slightly heal over the time Amy has been by herself, but would not have healed completely so a big, gaping wound on her head might be too much and seem a little unrealistic.

(see images below)

Attempts with mostly bruising, I didn't think this by itself would be as effective under stage lighting and didn't have the realistic effect I wanted. I asked my friend who is very talented at this kind of stage make-up for help with some of her materials and we experimented together on different size cuts and amounts of bruising which were much more effective and realistic.