Laura Pennell
Aspiring Performance Designer
The Magic Flute
Benefactors Court Arkwright
I chose to design for the Magic Flute, due to the operas light hearted nature and creative narrative. My design concept is ‘A subterranean dystopian society’ – the earth had become to polluted the ozone layer had been completely destroyed, causing the surface to be inhabitable. This forced civilization underground. Living in crowed tunnels still filled with rubbish. I wanted to address the current issue of pollution and encourage creative ways to recycle. In the day works for families would run in the old chemistry theatre – encouraging change in community. I chose to design for the Arkwright benefactor’s court; I hoped to get from this project a better understanding of sited theatre.
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Costume Designs
When designing my costumes I was influenced by upcycled fashion – garments that were made up out of recycled materials. I liked the different textures and structures the various materials gave the clothing. I also was inspired by technology and the power change/popularity between different music platforms. For Tamino and Pamina I wanted their costumes to stand out from the others however link to each other as well – I did this by using ties as Taminos waistcoat and ties up Pamina’s arms as gloves to show status. This also gives the connotations that these characters are tied to each other through love. I designed the Queen of the night’s costume to be made solely made up of video tape and tape cassettes, therefore implying her sexual nature through the moment of the tape when she walks and a low cut neckline. Also her head piece would be made up of tape cassettes and a broken record – showing that she’s lost her power to Sarastro whose costume would be made up of CD’s and blue rays as they are more commonly used now. The character under Sarastro reign would all have a CD in their costume as a badge of loyalty or ownership. I designed the caution tape to be on characters that were perceived to be bad, thus foreshadowing their actions and the ending. I wanted Papageno and Papagena to be comical characters so designed their costumes with rubber gloves giving connotations of rubber chickens. All of the chorus and character would be in recycled materials again encouraging the audience to be more aware and actively recycle.
