Castles of Crossed Destinies
This is a novel by Italo Calvino. The travelers lost their voice in the castle/tavern located in the midst of a forest. They then used a deck of Tarot cards to tell their stories and somehow, the stories were crossed by one another and all stories weaved into a huge web of destinies.
--------------
Designs:
*Based on the Visconti Tarot // The Star as Psyche, The Death+Queen of Swords as the doomed bride, The Lovers as Angelica & Medoro, The Sun as Cupid in flight that carries off Roland’s sanity, The Magician as the poet on the moon, The Hanged Man as the assassin
*Based on the Marseille Tarot // The Devil as the angel of choices, Queen of Wands as the female giant, The Fool as King Lear’s Jester
Realization:
The Star as Psyche (Madison Kiernan), The Death+Queen of Swords as the doomed bride (Rue Eubanks), The Sun as Cupid in flight that carries off Roland's sanity (Davis Campbell’s head, Lukey Klein as Cupid)
Builds:
A re-front wig+hair cape for the Star, a Moravian star, a skeleton chest prosthetic piece for the Death, a set of armor for Queen of Swords, a dummy head for the Sun with punched eyebrows and dyed&styled wig, a pair of Cupid wings, and a 4'x8' painted backdrop
(Photographer: Shannon Bartos / Costume Coordinator: Molly Doan / Sword borrowed from UNCSA DnP Stage Properties Dep.)
Betrayal At The House On The Hill
This is a B horror movie haunted house theme strategy board game released in 2004 by Avalon Hill. It's about a group of people going into exploring a huge mansion on the hill. There are 100 scenarios/haunts for this game in the rules book. 6 (or 12 I should say) human characters that the players can choose to be and many many monsters/ghosts/evil spirits/aliens in different haunts depending on what omen and which room in the mansion that triggers the haunt. After the haunt is revealed, usually 1 player becomes the “traitor” and the rest will be the “hero team”. The two groups will have to defeat one another by the special rules stated in the rule book based on each scenario.
The scenario I am recreating is #36 Better With Friends. However, I am giving it a little twig with The Handmaiden (2016 Korean movie) flavor : "A group of tourists are visiting a fusion mansion in South Korea, not knowing it is actually haunted by a pacific Mermaid until someone triggered the haunt.... They better run, before the whole mansion is flooded."
-----------
Designs:
I am choosing these three haunts: #4 The Web of Destiny (The Spider), #20 Ghost Bride, #36 Better With Friends (The Pacific Mermaid). It will be 6 human characters: Heather Granville, Professor Longfellow, Madame Zostra, Darrin “Flash” Williams, Brandon Jaspers, Zoe Ingstrom and 3 monster roles: the Spider, Pacific Mermaid, the Ghost Bride.
Realization:
The Mermaid monster (Cordia Rhoades), Brandon Jaspers (Laurence Brooke), Darrin "Flash" Williams (Drew Harris)
Builds:
A scar transfer for Flash, a set of fish fins and tail for the mermaid, 3 encapsulated silicone pieces for the mermaid, a 5'x12' ocean waves foldable screen, a 4'x8' tatami mat (painted)
(Photographer: Shannon Bartos / Costume Coordinator: Molly Doan)
Cronopios and Famas
“A Cronopio is a type of fictional person appearing in works by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914–February 12, 1984). Together with famas (literally fames) and esperanzas (hopes), cronopios are the subject of several short stories in his 1962 book Historias de cronopios y de famas and Cortazar continued to write about cronopios, famas, and esperanzas in other texts through the 1960s.”——Wikipedia
"In general, cronopios are depicted as naive and idealistic, disorganized, unconventional and sensitive creatures, who stand in contrast or opposition to famas (who are rigid, organized and judgmental if well-intentioned) and esperanzas (who are plain, indolent, unimaginative and dull).”——Wikipedia
-----------
In this piece, the challenge for myself is to put together something relatively quick but still have the visual impact. I figure since my first two shows are all very build heavy and requiring a long time to prepare, I want to attack this last fantasy piece with a different approach such as sourcing some pre-made pieces, build some craft pieces that are manageable within the time I have and still look very impactful. Also focusing more on the applications skills.
Design & Realization:
1 Cronopio (Mahalet Andargachew), 1 Fama (Aphrodite Armstrong), 1 Esperanza (Yoon Kang)
Builds:
A coral face piece for Fama, a horn hair piece for Esperanza, a spike-y mask piece and a balloon neck wear for Cronopio
(Costume Coordinator: Molly Doan / Ear pieces by Woochie)