Staff and students from BA (Hons) Technical Theatre & Stage Management, BA (Hons) Fashion and BA (Hons) Musical Theatre collaborated with a professional costume designer (Helen Symonds) to learn and sustainably produce garments from existing materials, with the work showcased in the public-facing BA (Hons) Musical Theatre final degree show production.
Facilitated through the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Teaching & Learning Innovation Fund 2023/24, the Sustainable Costume Reinvention project ran over two days enabling students to work in mixed discipline groups to discuss character concepts from the musical production The Grinning Man and creating preliminary mood boards for their chosen characters.
Professional costume designer Helen Symonds demonstrated a range of reinvention techniques using existing costumes from the Lincoln Arts Centre store together with found, discarded and surplus material. Students were guided to practically explore these new techniques, pausing regularly for group feedback.
Subsequently, the student creative team in charge of directing The Grinning Man production were invited to a show-and-tell feedback event, where the students presented their concepts, the techniques used to create them, and the progress still to be made. Following feedback from the ‘directing’ team, students then further developed and completed their innovative garment creations.
Once the costumes were completed, the students styled and arranged their costumes on mannequins for display and photographs for their portfolio alongside their design work from the workshop. The garments were then handed over to the Head of Costume student on The Grinning Man to use as a baseline for the other costume designs.
All garments from this funded activity were featured in the public-facing BA (Hons) Musical Theatre degree show production in the Lincoln Arts Centre in June 2024.
Feedback from the students on the project included the following quotes:
- ‘This has definitely made me want to look into costume design as a career.’
- ‘I loved learning more about costume creation and the process of design from someone who has worked in the industry.’
- ‘As a Fashion Student, working with Technical Theatre & Stage Management students helped me to understand [how to] work with people I haven’t met before in a group work environment.’
- ‘As a Technical Theatre & Stage Management student, working with Fashion students helped me to understand costume and outfit construction better. It was also helpful to have insight on design from students who have more experience.’
- ‘I learned how we can all work in a team together with different skill sets.’
All the students that took part in the project said they would like to collaborate with other disciplines in the future. This cross-disciplinary working mirrors the daily working practices of the industry and significantly enhanced the students’ understanding of the industry, and developed their skills, knowledge and employability.
