Thursday 29th October 2020
At todays session we had a guest speaker called Nikki Meredith to talk to us about her life experiences and how she became to work for the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. This is one of the most prestigious theatres in Manchester. The theatre was originally built as a cotton trading building and in the late nighties was transformed into a theatre. The layout of the stage is a 360 degree circle which makes it an amazing and unusual experience. The stage design was based on a rose and the set bounces creating a unique experience for the actors on the stage. In World War II the building was destroyed but as the set was central to the building it had very little damage. The shape of the stage created new challenges for the actors and crew members. Having no backstage, costumes are less secure and more likely to be stolen. Nikki was happy to share a few stories where this happened and an expensive costume was stolen and never found; which resulted in the theatre having to reimburse the company. Nikki then went on to explain about costing, set design, 3D designers and the different roles in costume design for example cutters, pleaters, dressers, designers, wardrobe and makers. I was quite shocked to hear that in smaller theatres the costume department can consist of one person who is also in charge of several other departments such as set design and wardrobe. I was amazed how detailed her costing sheet was and the detail on her costumes. My favourite costume was the golden costume with the workings of the human body down the back. It was a great opportunity to see the progress from an original sketch to a final costume. This was a very inspiring talk, I had never really considered working in a theatre before as I have always wanted to work in film or T.V. But following this lecture I will look into volunteering in my local theatres to learn new skills and this will give me an insight into theatre productions. This is quite frustrating due to the COVID restrictions this may have to wait until later in the year.
Commenti