RESEARCH- THEATRE

[1]

In a tutorial with George she suggested I look at Jasmin Vardimon, a choreographer and director of amazing plays which feature interactive set and a lot of physical theatre. George mentioned Pinocchio in particular, and how a circus big-top style tent became a giant skirt for one of the main characters. Although I couldn't find any images or video clips of this scene, I found a clip from one of her productions 'Freedom', where loads of materials are suspended above the stage and one of the characters (seen above) waves them around creating different shapes. The suspended nature of the tubes and her interaction with them is something that I want to have in my own work, with the bear hug from the ceiling and the open cloth body something that the audience can climb inside.

[2]

Another artist George brought up was Marcel Dzama, who was already on my design board for his illustrations. I didn't realise he also created these amazing, almost Bauhaus inspired costumes, as well as bears and balaclava clad girls taken straight from his drawings. The above clip is taken from a music video called ' A Game of Chess', and the eeriness of his costumes is definitely something I would like to achieve with my own work. I think I would like my audience to be a slightly older one, just as the costume will be a bit creepy and the illustrations maybe a bit odd and dark, possibly abstract.

[3]

The above image I found whilst searching for suspended costumes, and I believe this is taken from No Fit State circus- where the huge skirt almost becomes a tent itself. Again this kind of suspended, dual action costume is basically something that I want in my own work. With the bear cloak I want the space inside to become a place where you can hear the stories being told (via layered audio) whilst visually you have also become part of the story by being 'eaten' by the bear.

[4]

Several years ago I went to the RSC to see 'A Midsummer Night's Dream (As You Like It)' by Dmitry   Krymov- and it featured these giant puppets that were put together on stage and operated by the actors. I am particularly inspired by the scale here, and also the combination of different methods of storytelling- bringing together puppetry and Shakespearean theatre, just as I want to combine the idea of illustration, verbal storytelling and costume.

References

[1] VARDIMON, JASMIN- 2012
[2] DZAMA, MARCEL- 2012
[3] NO FIT STATE CIRCUS- 2013
[4] KRYMOV, DMITRY- 2012

Vardimon, J. 2012. Freedom. [Online].[Screenshot]. [Accessed 12 Oct 2016]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To98AF7LlPo

Dzama, M. 2012. A Game of Chess. [Online]. [Screenshot]. [Accessed 12 Oct 2016] Available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Xg1nWM4qI

No Fit State Circus. 2013. Bianco. [Online]. [Accessed 15 Oct 2016]. Available from:

http://www.nofitstate.org/story

Krylov, D. 2012. A Midsummer Night's Dream (As You Like It). [Online]. [Accessed 15 Oct 2016] Available from: http://eng.krymov.org/about/retsenziia/son_v_letniuiu_noch_kak_vam_eto_ponravitsia_michael_billington/