GoreFest: The Gruesome Tale of Penny Dreadful
Improv Boston, September/October 2014
Dir. Matt Chapuran
GoreFest has become an annual Halloween staple in Central Square, and this year's script was The Gruesome Tale of Penny Dreadful. As a gothic, Victorian, steampunky, raunch-and-gore-ridden farce, how could I resist designing?
Although this wasn't my first bloody show (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, for example, was a Bloody Bloody show), it did have its own unique set of challenges. First off, actors had to stay in one room for all costume changes and clean-ups, so character changes had to be simple and fast. Secondly, rather than theater in the round, this was theater in the weird, immersive, many-sided polygon. Actors were never more than five feet away from the audience, and were often in the audience themselves. Costumes needed to be detailed enough to stand up to scrutiny and maintain the illusion. Thirdly, the blood the blood the blood. And the vomit, pus, and bits of tissue. Not only did all costumes have to be sturdy enough to hold up to nightly washings, but there were some two-show nights where there was no time for cleaning in between shows, so all costumes had to be--you guessed it--DOUBLED. Since most of the period items needed to be built, this was a bit of a character-building exercise.
Time-consuming parts aside, I got to work in a couple funky motifs, like skulls and skeletons and lots and lots of stripes. I also was featured on the IB blog as part of a series of interviews with the design staff.
My sketches, and production photos courtesy of Josh Garneau.
Dir. Matt Chapuran
GoreFest has become an annual Halloween staple in Central Square, and this year's script was The Gruesome Tale of Penny Dreadful. As a gothic, Victorian, steampunky, raunch-and-gore-ridden farce, how could I resist designing?
Although this wasn't my first bloody show (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, for example, was a Bloody Bloody show), it did have its own unique set of challenges. First off, actors had to stay in one room for all costume changes and clean-ups, so character changes had to be simple and fast. Secondly, rather than theater in the round, this was theater in the weird, immersive, many-sided polygon. Actors were never more than five feet away from the audience, and were often in the audience themselves. Costumes needed to be detailed enough to stand up to scrutiny and maintain the illusion. Thirdly, the blood the blood the blood. And the vomit, pus, and bits of tissue. Not only did all costumes have to be sturdy enough to hold up to nightly washings, but there were some two-show nights where there was no time for cleaning in between shows, so all costumes had to be--you guessed it--DOUBLED. Since most of the period items needed to be built, this was a bit of a character-building exercise.
Time-consuming parts aside, I got to work in a couple funky motifs, like skulls and skeletons and lots and lots of stripes. I also was featured on the IB blog as part of a series of interviews with the design staff.
My sketches, and production photos courtesy of Josh Garneau.