Progress and paint

Since the last post, things have moved on. At last we've had all the required cast members in the same place at the same time and the show is beginning to take shape in a very promising fashion. I'm confident that we will have a really top class production and I'm thrilled with how well Emily, my year 11 co-Director, has taken to the task.

Emily directing in a directorial kind of director-y way

Now we need to make sure the tech matches it!

Jack on the lights has loads of fabulous ideas and I'm delighted to have him working with us. The costume is bugging me a little - it's definitely not my forte. We need to nail it down. The dresses for the A-team are fantastic as Sophie demonstrates...

Sophie / Alice 

 ...but the rest of the costumes need to be of similar quality.

It also became obvious to me that asking for help painting the flats was a logistical nightmare. Lisa offered the use of her as yet undecorated office area which has been a godsend so I've been up and down the A414 to Potters Bar a number of times.

I am no artist, but my (rather artistic) son talked me through how to create perspective and how to use tones to create effects. So I bought a load of paint and gave it a go....

First I had to strip the flats.

Old paper all over it - this was 30 mins into the task

Now clear!

A base of a nice Vanilla colour

The eventual landscape of dead sunflower stalks

My son said he was 'pleasantly surprised' by my efforts - this is high praise indeed.

Next I will use stencils cut by my son (clever chap) and spray paint on the decaying sunflower heads and leaves. Pics will follow once I've done that. Then I'll load them back in Lisa's van...

A tight squeeze

and they'll live in my garage until March.

The biggest problem was the sharkstooth gauze which we are using for a couple of visual effects. It is 4m x 3m and we had nowhere to hang it. Instead I had to stretch it on the floor and it was an absolute nightmare. If I never have to paint one of those again it will be too soon!

More reports to follow...