Write Place, Write Time: The Hotel Guests

The Three Horses Hotel guests comprised of 5 people, although technically JB was not paying to stay there...

Photo by Ashley Foster

Mr Pinkerton

The owner and editor of the 'Local Gazette' newspaper.

Staying at the 'Three Horses' hotel whilst his house was being redecorated; I decided to go with the look of a tired and jaded businessman.

Dark grey suit, shirt  and tie;- because of being a fed up businessman and owner of a newspaper he would be likely to own a well fitting suit, but he wouldn't be dressed entirely well, so his shirt was tucked in however his tie was a bit loose around the neck.

To emphasize the dull and tired nature of the character, dull colours were used. And of course he had an unshaven face.

Design by Katie Pollitt. Photo by Ashley Foster

The above photo was taken at the dress rehearsal, but what was a nice detail was that the actor brought in purple headphones to wear with the costume when it came to the performance nights. This was just right for the character who was redecorating part of his house with periwinkle paper. Yes periwinkle. Not blue. So it seems about right for the character to coordinate headphone colours with the shirt and tie being worn that day.

For the next day costume I decided Pinkerton should wear a darker shirt and complementary tie to represent his guilt, having played a part in the murder ruse at the hotel.

Original individual photos by Ashley Foster

                                 

Photo by Ashley Foster

Janine

Journalist at Pinkerton's Newspaper ('The Local Gazette'), staying at the hotel to be close at hand for Mr Pinkerton over the next few days.

The actress brought in a navy blue shift dress, before I had finished with designs, which suited her really well, however not the character so much at the beginning of the play.

I designed Janine  to wear a blouse, pencil skirt and heels, as I thought the shift dress seemed  a bit too smart and sleek for the Editor's ditzy reporter, and felt like the skirt and blouse combo would suit her better. However I would have gone for a girlier blouse, but as I've said compromises have to be made when we have no budget and the actors are mainly self-costuming.

Design by Katie Pollitt. Photo by Ashley Foster

Design by Katie Pollitt

For scene 2 Janine then had to make her way to the hotel in a storm wearing a cream Mac and struggling to carry her bags.  

However the next day change was going to be a very quick one for Janine, so we thought it would be best for her to wear her dress underneath the blouse and skirt, which was luckily possible due to the same lengths of the skirt and dress.

Towards the end of the play we notice that Janine  isn't as ditzy/dumb as she looks, and is rather good at observing the goings on within the hotel...more than she's meant to...

So as we start to see that Janine  proves herself to be smart, it seemed right to make her dress more smartly  as well.

Original individual photos by Ashley Foster

Photo by Ashley Foster

JB

Jamie Bond (JB) the drunken baffoon trying to impersonate secret agent 007, James Bond.

Now because of his James Bond impersonation he had to have the basis of the stereotypical suave James Bond...just a drunken James Bond.

Therefore I decided on black tie; so a black blazer, trousers and badly tied bow tie; wearing his white dress shirt tucked in on one side, un-tucked on the other. With smart black shoes - scuffed and dirty of course (not worn in the photos below). Oh and an unshaven face.

Design by Katie Pollitt

Throughout the play we see that his hair becomes messier, and his skew-whiff bow tie becomes undone (however this can't be seen in the dress rehearsal performance photos).

No changes were needed for JB...because I mean he's a drunken slob so why would he bother to change for the next day....he's probably too drunk to realise it's the next day...

 

Original individual photos by Ashley Foster

The Competition Winners:

Photo by Ashley Foster

Ed

One of the newspaper's competition winners; winning a stay in the 5 star 'Three Horses' hotel with his wife.

Photo by Ashley Foster

Holly

Ed's wife and the other competition winner/guest in the 'Three Horses' hotel.

The first time we meet Ed and Holly they are on their way to the hotel in big raincoats and wheeling along suitcases.

For the rest of the play it was quite a hard decision on what look to give the couple. I had to have a few discussions with the writer/director about them to figure out what sorts of costumes to give them.

Ed and Holly were to be guests that would look out of place in the five star hotel. So I immediately thought bad fashion sense, scruffy, wouldn't really know what to wear to a five star restaurant  and that people tend to change for dinner.

I thought for Ed perhaps an ugly short sleeved shirt, unbuttoned at the top, showing a dirty white vest underneath and a chain necklace. Matched with either a pair of jeans or brown trousers and trainers/pumps.

In that case Holly would be wearing some horrible fake velvet tracksuit.               

I then contemplated that they might not be all that ignorant of there being a standard to be upheld at the hotel. However, because they were entering a competition to stay in the local five star hotel, it makes you think they either haven't stayed at one in a long time or at all. So they may not have gone out too much and so don't have going out clothes appropriate to the location.

I took this and thought well maybe they could be behind in their fashion trends and perhaps go with 80s/90s clothes (just to exaggerate), from the last time they spent the night out somewhere. Putting Ed in a big collared silky purple shirt with perhaps a contrasting paisley print, black trousers and a big collared jacket. Still with the chain around his neck and a vest.

Holly would then be wearing really over the top makeup, a big puffy off the shoulder, ra-ra skirted dress in a light blue taffeta. With some of her hair up in a high ponytail at the side of her head with the rest of her hair down. I think it's probably a good idea I didn't go with this as I'm sure the actress would not have liked the costume...especially with all the makeup I was planning. Think stereotypical pantomime dame, and teenager that doesn't know too much about make up...

Design by Katie Pollitt

In the end I thought they may not have been able to go to one in the past but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't want to make an effort about what to wear whilst staying at the hotel. They may have gone out to buy something especially for the occasion in order to fit in a bit better, but with touches of their own style.

So with this in mind I still designed Ed to wear an ugly short sleeved shirt, brown trousers and chain, but with better shoes, when arriving. I then thought having an ugly tie would fit well for dinner, because at least he's making an effort.

The tie that the actor brought in worked well as you definitely wouldn't have seen it worn at a five star hotel. That's right your eyes are not deceiving you. In the photos he is in fact wearing a Star Trek tie with Captain Kirk on.

At the beginning of  the play and Act 2 we are to think that Ed and Holly are the murder culprits, because of where the murder weapon was found but also their fiery tempers. Therefore I dressed them in darker colours to portray their dark personalities, going with purple for Ed and dark red for Holly.

Lighter colours were then worn in their last costumes to represent their innocence, being wrongly accused of murder.

To help hint at this further for Ed, the actor also had a Star Wars tie with Darth Maul on, so we decided the Darth Maul tie would be worn as part of his first costume (the bad guy). He would then switch to the Captain Kirk (good guy) tie with the second costume accompanied by a short sleeved white shirt and black trousers.

For her second costume Holly switched to a pink and blue floral blouse with a white background, paired with black trousers and the same black heels.

The characters were also married in the play so wedding rings had to be worn by the actors.

Original individual photos by Ashley Foster

Links:

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the character portraits and performance photos, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the adult production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  The performance photos I have used I have cropped down to focus on individuals. Going to his website will allow you to see original full performance shots.

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers where there are more photos to look at as well.

Talk to you soon.

~K

Write Place, Write Time: The Hotel Staff

Photo by Ashley Foster

Photo by Ashley Foster

Ruth

The owner of the hotel.

Ruth's costume (acting as a work uniform) needed to look respectable to hotel guests so I chose a black dress as this would look suitable for business and would match the black suits of Geoffrey and Kevin but would still give her a feminine touch. It would also be something that with a change of accessories could pass as something worn on a different occasion. So I designed her to be dressed in a black knee length jersey dress, with 3/4 lengths sleeve and scoop neck. 

Design by Katie Pollitt. Photo by Ashley Foster

However the actress herself didn't own one, and we didn't have anything we could use in the stock shed. If we couldn't find anything in time she had a suit she could have worn which would consist of a jacket and trousers or skirt, with a light blouse, but this would have been too similar to what Janine would be wearing. Yet if worse comes worst she could have worn the skirt and a 3/4 length sleeve top, both black.

Although because the black dress would have looked so much better I routed round the local charity shops and luckily enough found a black knee length jersey dress, with 3/4 length sleeves and a scoop neck for £6.99! In a size smaller than the actress, however there was a lot of give in the dress due to the fabric, and it fitted the actress well.

Photo by Ashley Foster

This dress was then paired with a neck scarf tied on the right of the neck, as the name badge would be worn on the left, and a black belt. However in Act 1 Scene 3 a quick change was needed mid scene as the character was getting ready to go out to dinner. So instead of going for a full change, seeing as she'd have to make a quick change back into the work uniform after as well, I decided this would be achieved by changing the accessories worn.

When she went off stage to 'get ready for dinner' we changed the neck scarf for a pearl necklace, black belt for a white belt, took off the name badge and added a little jacket.

She was to meet John the mayor for dinner in Act 1 Scene 5  at the Italian bistro, changing mid scene 3, sat down to dinner scene 5 and then change back to work attire for scene 7. Scenes 4 and 6 were front of tabs (FOT) and were each less than a minute. Hence the change of accessories and not a full costume change.

Individual photos by Ashley Foster

Photo by Ashley Foster

Geoffrey

The hotel butler and porter.

The way his lines were written made me think he needed to be dressed very smartly, taking pride in his appearance as he would be representing the hotel. So I designed him to wear a black blazer, white shirt, tie, black waistcoat and grey pinstriped trousers with smartly shined shoes.

However obviously not everyone is going to have grey pinstriped trousers so, when asking about the trousers, I suggested alternatives as well, such as black or dark grey. The actor himself didn't usually wear suits but needed one a couple of weeks before so he had the trousers and white shirt sorted. We looked for a jacket and waistcoat as he didn't own one himself.

If we couldn't find one, this would have been quite an annoying thing to me because I don't think the personality of the character would have shone through as much without the waistcoat and jacket. Also without the waistcoat you couldn't have the pocket watch. These three items to me, showed authority, and showed the difference in hierarchy between Geoffrey and Kevin.

However we came to the decision that maybe what would be best was to look online for cheap second hand ones, that maybe we could try and sell on eBay afterwards if the group couldn't afford the price. However the actor had been wanting a waistcoat for a while and was happy to pay for the waistcoat and jacket himself as an investment. Luckily he found them cheaply so I didn't feel too guilty and he was happy. He couldn't find a black jacket in his size so bought a pinstriped one instead which was fine by me and meant we got pinstripes somewhere on his costume!

Design by Katie Pollitt. Photo by Ashley Foster

I'm very pleased with the outcome of Geoffrey's appearance. It's the little details like the pocket watch and name badge that make the outfit.

The main problem was finding matching ties for Geoffrey and Kevin; as their costumes were uniforms, sections had to match. After asking everyone in the group about tie colours and not finding any that came close to matching,  I decided it was better off to just order some cheap ties online, so we actually had them matching. I found some for £1.49 each which I thought was pretty good for ties price wise, and the quality wasn't bad either.

Photo by Ashley Foster

Photo by Ashley Foster

Kevin

The bellhop at the Three Horses Hotel.

From reading the script you could tell he's arrogant in everything he does, and clearly doesn't want to be at the hotel. The character doesn't treat the staff or guests with any respect.

So when thinking about what his costume could look like, I had to think of ways for his arrogance to be shown through them. 

When designing the costume for Kevin I couldn't decide between a white shirt (rolled up sleeves), tie (matching Geoffrey), black waistcoat, black trousers and black shoes or a stereotypical bellhop uniform.

Designs by Katie Pollitt

After discussing with the director we decided on the white shirt combo because even though we both really liked the idea of an actual bellhop uniform; we felt it seemed a bit too stereotypically American. The play was set in a small English village that was behind time in the way it appeared and was run.

I also thought that his arrogance could be shown through his costume a bit more with the white shirt combo as he could roll up the sleeves, top button undone and have his tie pulled down a bit.

Once the costumes were decided upon, some of the actors showed up in their costumes; but this meant that at the end of the rehearsal they would leave with their costume too. For future productions it's best if they leave their pieces of costume on the costume rail when it is possible; unless they would really rather not leave their clothes there, or they need to use them during the week. Otherwise you may come across the problem of some of the cast members misplacing part of their costume.

In the case of Kevin, he forgot his white shirt on opening night...which I completely freaked out about in my head. Thinking that now he's not wearing a white shirt he won't look like he's wearing a hotel uniform as he wouldn't be matching Geoffrey. However he did kindly find another shirt to wear, and didn't show up in a t-shirt or jumper or something stupid like that; it was just sadly not white. One of the other actors who lived locally offered to drive home and pick up a white shirt he could wear, but sadly it was 10 minutes to curtain up before I was aware of the situation, and there was no time for him to pick up the shirt as he was on first.

Luckily he managed to find his shirt for the next performance, so it wasn't too bad.

 

Individual Photos by Ashley Foster

Name badges:

They all needed name badges seeing as they work in a hotel. Within the script it was mentioned that the hotel was called 'The Three Horses'.

I took the icon image of the WPWT group conversation as it was of three outlined horses and used Photoshop to include this in the badge at the centre top. I then used the stamping tool on Photoshop to create the rest of the badge background from the icon image used previously.

Below the icon to the left is the name of the hotel, with a line beneath. This was then the badge template complete. The only thing that had to be altered for each badge was the first name of the staff member which appeared central beneath the line in a bigger white font.

I then cut out the ovals and stuck them to a card backing, and super- glued a broach pin to the back, which would make sure the badge would stay secure when worn.

Links:

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the character portraits and performance photos, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the adult production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  The performance photos I have used in this post I have cropped down to focus on individuals, going to his website will allow you to see full performance shots.

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers where there are more photos to look at as well.

Talk to you soon.

~K

Write Place, Write Time

Photo by Ashley Foster

The last performance of the Grange Player's adult production 'Write Place, Write Time' by Oly Edwards, took place last weekend and went really well, and sounded like the audience definitely enjoyed themselves.

The play is a black comedy set in modern times, so the majority of costumes had to be from the actors' own wardrobes however I still designed the overall look of the costumes. Giving lists of what they each had to bring in, accessories we had in the stock shed and anything I could provide myself.

The Characters are as below:

• Mr Pinkerton : The editor of the Newspaper, a tired and jaded business man, staying at the hotel because his house was being redecorated.

• Janine: Journalist at Pinkerton's Newspaper, staying at the hotel to be close at hand for Mr Pinkerton over the next few days.

• Ruth: Owner/manager of the Three Horses hotel, where the mystery takes place.

• Geoffrey: Hotel butler/porter at the Three Horses.

• Kevin: Bellhop at the Three Horses hotel.

• John: Mayor of the village.

• JB: Jamie Bond, drunken buffoon impersonating 007.

• Ed : Newspaper's competition winners, winning a stay in the 5 star Three Horses hotel with his wife.

• Holly: Ed's wife and the other competition winner/guest in the Three Horses hotel.

• Hag: A bribed gypsy playing the ghost of a murder victim.

• Policeman: Policeman

Now even though I didn't have to alter or make that many things for this production, there was still a lot of work to be done to make sure everything worked.

Going through the script looking at how many changes were going to be needed; which would be quick changes that they'll need help with, or whether they have enough time to go back stage to change.

As the cast had to look within their own wardrobes to find the items I had suggested, I made it easier by creating a spreadsheet to show how many changes would be needed; which scenes; accessories we had in stock; anything I could provide myself, and what I was going to make for the production. These last three were highlighted in different colours. I don't know how useful everyone found this, but I found it extremely useful to get my head around where I had to be to act as a dresser or whether I could just hand people their costumes. It was also handy to refer to during the rehearsals and performances.

 

When making the first spreadsheet I made another alongside it that showed when actors were on

stage and whether a change was needed, which I think some of the actors found useful. It gave a better idea of changes at a glance; allowing them to see the gaps in between appearances.

Using these spreadsheets and the entrances/exits from the script I made a list of what my duties would consist of during the performances and where I had to be when acting as a dresser to the cast (e.g. SL, SR, Green room). Definitely something worth doing again if there are a lot of costume changes involved. Doing this meant the actors didn't have to look around to find me/me find them; I could be where they exit/next appear so that backstage would run more smoothly.

Over the next few posts I will group together certain characters, and talk about their costumes, changes, and the items I made and altered for the performance. The posts will hopefully be as listed below:

• The Hotel Staff: Ruth, Geoffrey and Kevin.

• The Hotel Guests: Mr Pinkerton, Janine, JB, Ed and Holly.

• John the Mayor

• The Hag and the Policeman

• Flashbacks

Links:

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the performance photo, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the adult production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers where there are more photos to look at as well.

Talk to you soon.

~K