GRADE 9 AQA GCSE DRAMA DEVISING LOG. This is for a costume designer, rather than actor, so will be useful for anyone with a design specialism - as there are not many resources. All three sections included.
Section 1: Response to a stimulus
My group were given a selection of short stories from David Walliams’ ‘World’s Worst
Teachers’, to choose one and eventually transform it into a piece of physical theatre
(a style of performance that places more emphasis on the movement rather than
dialogue). We decided on ‘Mr Pent’s Balls’ – a story about a maths teacher who’s
scared of balls. This was the story we believed gave the most scope for
physical/children’s theatre and inspired me with costume design ideas for Mr Pent, as
it has potential to be made into a comical costume, reflecting his character.
Our class watched a group of A level students from Queenswood school perform
Oliver Lansley’s ‘Flies’, in a Berkovian style (actors using a Steven Berkoff style). The
ensemble was connected by a uniform costume of grey trousers and a black leotard.
Key characters were highlighted easily with quick change accessories e.g the lady
wearing a pink scarf. The show had lots of theatrical techniques as seen in this style,
such as background movement, repetitive actions, and mime which we wanted to
include in the piece. My group aimed to create multirole/characters effectively, so I
will distinguish between characters by using key accessories, e.g Rebel with a skirt
and Mr Pent with a tie.
For the children’s theatre aspect, we watched clips of pantomimes online. Children’s
Theatre is a genre that is specifically created and performed for children - it is very
engaging but also reinforces meaning. The costumes are often large and vibrant to
create comedy and catch the audience’s attention, like the pantomime dame in
Cinderella who wears a frilly, turquoise dress with a wide, bouncy skirt. Recurring
techniques we saw were multiple levels, exaggerated gestures, travelling across the
stage and chorus work. My group aimed to take on a similar approach with a highly
creative/inventive piece of physical theatre. So, I knew that I needed to design
costumes that didn’t restrict this and allowed them to be flexible & comfortably
move freely.
As the costume designer of the group, my role was to design and either make,
purchase or gather a costume for the main character, but also making sure the
ensemble’s costumes worked well. For the main character, Mr Pent, I aim to make a
comical costume but creates the stereotype of a typical maths teacher (which would
be quite reserved and conservative). I also aim to add details that correlate to maths,
e.g number or shapes, as this will reinforce clearly to the audience his job.
, Mr Pent is a maths teacher who is scared of balls. My first inspiration came from this
fear and I thought about the cowardly lion from the children’s film ‘The Wizard of Oz’
(who’s yellow colour represents fear) & yellow/black striped warning signs and aim
for a similar colour scheme.
Due to my aims of making Mr Pent’s main colour yellow, as a group we decided we
wanted the actors in something in similar colours to compliment Mr Pent’s costume
and connect them as all going to the same school. I hoped to achieve a professional
but school like costume which makes Mr Pent stand out as the titular role. This would
be effective as I think the children in the audience watching will be able to relate to
the children and would laugh at the teacher – so it would engage them.
Due to the fact Mr Pent is an older man, I aimed to dress Theodora (the actress
playing him) with a costume that will demonstrate this, through sourcing and
adapting existing clothing to suit purpose. I am inspired by the 70s era of clothing as
it is outdated and would show Mr Pent as old fashioned as his clothes haven’t
changed since he qualified as a teacher.
I also aim to research teachers in children’s theatre and tv further. On first look I saw
a teacher called ‘Mr Tumble’ on the children’s TV channel CBBC. I aim to create a
similar costume as it’s brightly coloured, comical and oversized (like in children’s
theatre). It also has circles on it and that has inspired me to possibly use the shape of
squares to juxtapose with Mr Pent’s fear of spherical objects.
Section 2: Development and collaboration
As rehearsals went on, our group realised some ideas were not going to work.
Therefore, I
had to adapt the costume to get the best results.
I started working on the main costume of Mr Pent. I decided to use the colour
yellow as it’s associated with fear, as seen by the cowardly lion in ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
Unfortunately, I found yellow too vibrant for Mr Pent’s mild, meek and boring nature
to use on its own. So, I decided to mainly go with shades of orange and red which
were more underwhelming to match Mr Pent’s personality. Red is also associated
with Mr Pent’s other emotion - anger. I decided I would use these colours in flashes
to create highlights e.g yellow buttons, red braces and an orange graduation hood.
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