On a permanent sugar high from all the left over Birthday cake I have just started our final project of the year. Design for dance with choreographer Lea Anderson. To be fair it is on the abstract side and kind of tricky to explain, but basically we are designing for a range of movements that make up The Attic scene from Hitchcock's 'The Birds.' Ok.....follow me?

With our final crit next week we have steam - rolled along, so I have been spending my time drawing, researching, moodboarding and designing - all accompanied by rose tea, The Police and Eddie Izzard.....

Set Design. For the performance I want a really simple space so as not to detract from the dancers.  Black staging, with a projected square outline and a single domestic light suspended in the middle. It allows for movement, while also suggesting the attic space.

Hoping as the dancers become more animated while interpreting the movement of the birds, their actions will cause the light to swing which will make the light flicker and flutter adding to and mimicking the chaos and violence of 'The Birds.'

Costume inspiration: Red Indians, Leather, Sand.....

Trying to get an idea of how all six dancers will look on stage.

Have to think about the range of movement within the piece.

Initial costume ideas for Melanie stage. Leather jacket with fringing, inspired by my research, completely human, no suspicion of what is to come, but then.....

As their movements start to imitate birds, the fringing will  move like feathers, creating an illusion of wings. Also along with the single, swaying light the shadows cast should help make a fluttering effect.

Experimented a lot with make up, ah such fun! Hard as want a look with impact that works for both Melanie and the  birds. No time to change/re-do make up so it has to be quickly adaptable. My initial ideas were too bird based, this would mean the performers would be giving the plot away! Want to keep the curiosity right up to when Melanie enters the attic, so I came to this as a potential solution.....

Make up concept. Begin as a well presented human inspired by the glamour and style of the late 50s, then choreograph in a movement to smudge and distort the eyes to suggest a wildness and distress.

Make up idea in practise. Transformation from human, (Melanie), to bird.

 Ah, after a day of drawing I might take some time out and make some shortbread.....