Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 4

This past week, we have started to collect props and fabric. Mei had contacted the "Yokohama Theatre Group" asking whether we could see if there were any props in their prop-shed we could use. We went on Sunday and although we could not find suitcases or the candlestick phone we were trying to find, we did find four items that could be used as either set decoration or props (mainly personal props).




We also made modifications in the set design:




* Drawn by Sara Suzuki

The only thing we have to figure out now is the balcony where act 1 scene 11 and act 2 scene 2 takes place.

Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 3

Rehearsals have been going smoothly (although it could have been better, it was a good start) and so far, I've attended rehearsals, took notes and made the register, gathered personnel to help with the jobs done behind the scenes.

Our class has decided on the portfolio heads:
Andrea - Assistant Director
Mei - Lighting and Sounds Head
Maria- Make-up Head
Sofia - Costumes Head
Sara - Props and Set Head

Portfolio head just means that if there is something wrong, we go to the responsible.
For example, today, Sofia came to us to say that we did not design costumes for the minor roles and so she assigned some character to each person again.

Here are the characters in which I drew the costumes for:

-Rodney
-Kenneth
-Daphne
-Dexter



-Ms. Flannery
-The Pearl Lady




By the end of this week, we had to also calculate the Budget Projection.
For this, we have to put into consideration the costumes, make-up, set construction, props and also how many audiences will come. This is to see how much we will profit from it and how much we will lose.

Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 2

Already into week 2, we have discussed about costumes, props etc. For costumes, we designed the costumes for the main roles and the minor roles as well. However before this, we did some research on 1920's fashion. I found a good site that shows the types of outfits they wore in each year.
http://www.fashion-era.com/C20th_costume_history/1922_silhouettes_1.htm

Using this as a base, we discussed and exchanged ideas, and then assigned each person (who is doing costuming) a character or two. I was in charge of designing Millie's costume and Mrs Meers' costume.

Millie:

Millie has a total of 5 outfits.
- beginning where she is not a modern yet (1.1)
- Beginning where she turns into a modern (1.1)
- Muzzy's party (1.9)
- Scene where she tries to seduce her boss (2.1)
- When she goes on her date with Jimmy (2.4)




Mrs. Meers:

Although Mrs. Meers is the antagonist, we decided to have her wear only one outfit since she does not come out that much.
However there is one scene where she comes out in the middle of the night to attend to Muzzy. I thought that a night gown on top of her dress would do.




This week, we also decided on our portfolio. I am going to do Assistant Directing as my major and Costuming as my Minor.

As an assistant director, I have to:
- Attend rehearsals.
- Take note of blocking, staging, problems etc.
- organise paper work (such as registers, lists etc)
- Take actors through rehearsals when the Director is not there.
- Assist the director in any way.

This is kind of similar to Robin Hood, however in that play, I was more of an assistant stage manager.

Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 1

Although being the first whole week since school started, we already had work to do. Before rehearsals start we discussed about the set. We decided to have the musical as a vaudeville or a cabaret style, which is a production with a restaurant set-up, where food and drinks are served.
There were various ideas such as dividing the stage into areas, having the audience at a diagonal, raising the stage a bit etc. My ideas was to have the audience in the middle and the stage around the audience.



However, after looking at various set ideas, we combined the parts that work and came up with this:



We eventually ended up with this (with Mr. Meiklejohn's modifications):



I'm very pleased with this stage layout because it breaks out of what the stage originally is (with the audience sitting on the bleachers and the actors performing in front of them). However, the only issue we have is the amount of space. For big musical numbers, we must keep that in mind, especially when the audience is going to sit at tables.

We also discussed that since we are going to make this production like a vaudeville set-up, we thought we might get the ushers to dress up as the maids and butlers from that time. So when the audience walk into the auditorium, it is no longer 2009 and no longer Japan. It will be a hotel in the states in 1922.
For this, I also researched slang for the ushers to use, and I found a site where it has a long list of slang:
http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm