Costume, set and props

Costume:

Our costumes where simple our director wanted us to show as much skin as we possible but  within our own comfort zones. We had a colour scheme of nudes, creams and badge to give the illusion of nakedness. After we fist brought in all out costumes there was a lot of disagreement on what else we needed some of thought we looked too clean fro farm animals, it didn't feel like we where in costumes which really change the atmosphere with all of us. We though that we had a good show but when (for me anyway) we where in costume we didn't have the moment of "this is my character". We didn't want to just be animals we wanted an abstract way of looking using objects to be a representation not the thing itself. For example for ears like the sheep we didn't want literal ears so we experimented with the use of hair. This is a techniques commonly used by Brecht as he believes that elaborate costumes might mean that the sense of pretending of being something else would be lost.  As the show has no time setting we where not restricted in what we could or couldn't use but also didn't want the realism to come from the set, props or costume all of that come from our acting. As the costumes where so simple the audience where most focused on the story and understanding the message we where trying to say. By time the dress run was about to begin we all spoke together in the following days to make s decision of what was missing (our tutor didn't know what was missing upon seeing out costumes for the first time) with a but of experimenting I we all had to look more dirty and worn down. As for make up there was a lot od disagreement on what the pigs should do regarding noses. Some people wanted to use latex and even though it did look good we though that the amount of sweating, singing  and talking it would have been more of a problem than what it was worth. We also looked at using cardboard egg boxes but again it just would work with how

 physicalized we had to be for the show. In the end we decided on just a plaster across the nose this would have worked well but buy the end of  the first  act all the glue on the plasters had worn away and they would not stay on. We then didn't use them as it would just look unprofessional if they fell of on stage (this happened to me repeatedly) the three main pigs stuck to just having as gold ring on their noise to give the illusion of pigs.

As snowball dies in the fist act an came back as a hen I had a costume change, I knew I would have a lot of time to have a full change so settled on taking my hair down and changing my top. I think that this was the right call for me as I needed time to relax in the interval to control my blood sugars and the last thing  I needed to be worrying about was an extensive costume change.

My costume changed from initial idea, at first I wanted to only wear my nude leotard with my top

 and this didn't necessarily looked bad but as time went on I just felt more uncomfortable

 performing to an audience in only a leotard for bottoms. Hence why I decided top wear shorts that I had "destroyed" with rips and stained with tea.

Set and props:

As I had previously mentioned some of the actors in the cast decided to help build and paint the set after rehearsals. In the end the set looked stunning with the three pallets making a slight semi circle facing the audience. The only detailed part of the set was Mr Jones's house which I think was the right decision as he was one of the only character who was a human. The rest of the set was kept minimal with only the pallets, barrel's and righting in the floor. Another technique used by Brecht also that the audience always know that they are watching a performance. The writing on the floor confused us all a little at first but it's a slow realisation that the writing forms two pigs facing each other. Even though some the audience wont have realised this while watching the show the few who did had an almost "eureka" moment that added to the overall experience of the show.

Regarding props we used indirect objects to add to out animals, like the horses who used crushes and the pigs who used bandages to created a hoof. Like what Brecht says the prop became apart of us as the props become just as important as the charters. Nearly all the props where symbolic apart from our personal props, for myself I used gold rim glasses that I used a lot while performing my speeches. This was a suggestion by the director as she though I was "missing something" and I completely agreed. The glasses in rehearsals added to my character especially the aspect of him being more intelligent that the other animals, but also glasses being a human invention shows a very subtle way of being corrupted.