Cloud 9.
Presented by WA Youth Theatre Company
Directed by: Jeffrey Jay Fowler
Venue: Studio Under Ground, State Theatre Centre WA
Costumes for changing eras…
Cloud 9 requires the costumes to jump from Colonial Africa in the Victorian era to America in the 1970s. Besides the obvious change in silhouettes of the clothing, I also used a contrasting colour pallet to show the change - keeping the colours of the Victorian era costumes almost monochromatic whilst bringing in brighter colours and a higher level of contrast in the costumes of the 1970s.
With such a stylised set design, I chose to keep the costumes in the realm of realism.
Setting locations
Both the set design and audience seating lay out posed a challenge for me for this work. The set needed to symbolise multiple locations and flow between the Victorian era Act 1 and 1970s of Act 2. The audience was placed on two joining edges of the square playing space.
I decided to outline the playing space using a thick, solid white line up to the edge of my set piece. The performers made all their entrances and exits through the gap created by the set piece. This piece was used to represent both the house in Act 1 and the park pavilion in Act 2 with removable window frames and a park bench that came on at the start of Act 2. With the constant change of locations, this set piece stood as a simplistic reminder of the importance of home and family in Act 1 and the gathering of individuals in Act 2.