LILI - More Costume Designs!

 Marcus, The Magnificent in his street clothes and "Peachlips" his on again, off again infatuation.

 Rosalie, Marcus' assistant in the magic act, here in Part 1 and Part 2 outfits. I'm not trying for period accuracy here since LILI is a fantasy after all. Just a general inflection of another time and another place.

 Jarnac, the Notions Vendor who tries unsuccessfully to take advantage of Lili. And Corvier, the owner of the Carnival who's primary function i9n the play version is to order the set pieces to be moved into place and the lights to be lit for the......

MAGIC ACT! Here are Marcus and Rosalie's costumes for this pivotal sequence in the show. All white and red sequins these are designed to dazzle the audiences eyes so they don't notice those two figures in back, all in black, who are actually making the "Magic" happen!

LILI - Costume Designs !

 After a brief break for my cancer surgery I'm back in the final stretch of completion for my production of  "LILI" opening August 14th at The Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas.

Above are designs for the CARNIVAL GIRLS ( two identical young ladies who move the set pieces into place during the show ) and ACROBATS ( four Puppeteers clad all in black who adopt these and other costume pieces when they are needed on stage for prop and set movement).

 LILI herself has 4 separate costume changes within the show.
 Above is the plain gray dress in which she first appears in Part 1 of the play...and for Part 2 this more adult blue dress which comes to symbolize her growth as a character.

 Along the way to that growth, LILI has an unfortunate encounter as a waitress for the Carnival. Her ill-fitting uniform only highlights her complete ineptitude in that job. Later when LILI has come into her own somewhat, we are treated to her dream fantasy in which she is the ultimate alluring waitress who gets to dance with MARCUS, the magician.
The four costumes above were designed with quick changes in mind. LILI will have to zip in and out of these outfits very quickly indeed in order to keep the action of the play moving.
In fact, the ill-fitting waitress costume is a breakaway designed to fit over the original gray dress and is whisked off in a flurry of comic activity leaving our heroine dazed and confused!

PAUL, the puppeteer dresses in an almost Spartan manner, but with that extra bit of tailoring his inner vanity requires. This is a good example of costume as character builder. He will loom light and simple in and around all of the colorful carnival action.
JACQUOT, his assistant and companion is a much looser and unencumbered fellow. His causal style is the perfect bridge between PAUL and LILI as they navigate the rocky road to their final dance of love which ends the play.

More this weekend...

More Puppets for "LILI"

 Here is my sketch for the workings of the two Dog Marionettes which feature in my production of  LILI.
One Dog is roughly 22" tall and the other is smaller at just 14" tall. The two dogs are a part of a Carnival act which Lili witnesses on her first entrance into the carnival. They also feature later on in the show.

 This is the smaller of the two Dogs - "Pierre", a little white poodle, seen here in his test stringing on the "gallows" ( yes, that is what it is called!) and before his fur skin has been applied. The gallows holds the controller securely at the correct height for the puppeteer which  is just slightly above the waistline. A spool of black braided nylon fish line is positioned near the top which makes stringing the marionettes quite easy.

 The bodies of these marionettes were fashioned from pine and cedar, carved to shape with both a skill saw and a Dremel Mototool before finally being sanded smooth by hand. I built up the musculature on each dog by applying 5mm craft foam for head, ribcage and upper legs. This will all be covered with white fleece fur after the exposed sections have been painted white.

Pierre features a moving mouth animation which adds greatly to his fidgitty nature.
A small magnet is embeded in the tip of each dog's nose and a special string runs through the nose to a ring worn by the actor playing the Dog Trainer. At the right moment the Trainer tosses a ball into the air ( hollow ball with a tube running through it, string running through the tube )  raises his hand making the string go taut which allows the ball to fall right down onto the up turned nose of the dog. The magnet holds the ball in place as the Trainer lowers his hand and let's the string go slack.
A very simple but highly effective trick sure to delight any audience!

Even the Simple Things Need Designing

 The major set pieces for  LILI  have all been completed. Some minor things still need to be made, like these two small step stools. Not part of my original design, I realized  during assembly for the Puppet Booth that the actors who bring the Header in and attach it would need a bit of height assistance in order to do so.

So I quickly drew up this plan for the stools in a simple country style and cut them out of pine and lightweight cedar lumber.

 Here the various pieces have been cut and sanded, ready for assembly.

 And here is one of the stools fully assembled. I added the dowel brace underneath for extra stability. I will paint these to coordinate with the set, then disassemble and pack them flat for transport as I have with all of the rest of the set pieces.
Quite a bit of work for two props which will only be seen on stage for 30 seconds tops, but even the little touches require design, I believe.

This is also true of set dressing items such as the pillows which will be placed on the bare benches on either side of the stage when they represent the Caravans in which the actors live in the carnival. I found some commercially available pillows with texture and pattern that I liked and will use on the set, but I needed something a bit more special to go along with them.

So I found some stencil patterns that would work and used then to adorn leftover pieces of canvas as I am doing above. Sewn into a pillow with some yarn tassels at each corner and paired with the pillows i purchased, these will give a colorful and period detail to the plain benches during the show.

I will add stuffing when I get to Texas this summer so I can trasport them rolled up to save space in the van.