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