Whose Shoes

Our first project this term was to create a travelling set for a children's production of the play 'Whose Shoes' by Mike Kenney. We were given a production budget of £5000 and restrictions on the size of our set, as it had to fit into a certain sized van. I started with a rough sketch of a circular stage with flat panels at the back half with a bright blue sky and clouds painted on. I wanted the main focus to be on a huge barren tree at the back as I was inspired by the theme of change in the play and wanted to show the changing of the seasons.

This is my first draft of my design.

I then built a small model of my design out of cardboard just so I could test it. I played around with the model and decided to split the panels apart so the actors could move between them.

Now I had a good idea of a set I needed to storyboard to see how my actors would move on stage and how I could incorporate the panel movement. Whilst I was storyboarding I had a meeting with my tutor and a director for the Red Earth company, and they suggested to move the tree out of the back as it would be a distraction, and to have the panels move around the whole circle. For this to work it would be a tricky piece of engineering so I got to work on a new model.

Meanwhile I was also designing my costume for the play and I was mostly inspired by pantomime costumes as they are so outrageous. I also realised I could only have three actors in the play and so some costumes would have to be interchangeable. I ended up with some designs that I really liked. I added fabric swatches as an idea of what fabrics I would want. After my presentation I realised my designs needed to improved for the future as they were not as professional as they should've been.

Moving onto my final model, which was rather difficult to make. I was very pleased with how it turned out and I made it moveable so I could demonstrate how the panels would turn around.