Twelfth Night - Nuffield Youth Theatre - 2020
Just before the first lockdown, I was a member of Nuffield Youth Theatre (Now MAST). I received the opportunity to co-design the lighting and set with Jess Rowlands. Our director Liam Gifford, wished to re-imagine Twelfth Night through bars, parties and karaoke. Jess and I worked closely together to create outfits that resembled the characters, yet brought them into the 21st century. For example: gloomy, pining Duke Orsino wore smart trousers and a shirt, but then fell short at finishing getting ready, with slippers and a ‘silk’ dressing gown.
It was really interesting having to have Viola and Sebastian look the same, whilst having almost no budget to work with. Using items of clothing that could be unisex helped. We had both characters wear flat caps, so we could cover Viola’s hair with it and had them both wear dark green suit jackets, white turtle necks and smart trousers and shoes. I believe, for no budget, we managed to pull off a pretty convincing copy of the outfit. We relied a lot on the cast (with our help) sourcing the costumes from friends and family to complete the look, meaning there was some flexibility from the sketches and plans to the final costume.
