Breathe Ensemble

Breathe Ensemble in Detail

This document has been adapted for the makers who will be making the costumes previously designed by the desining pathway in the previous project....

You are required to follow a series of ensemble designs in order to re-create a collection of 6 Breathe characters from Battle for the Winds performance. This document gives you further detail about these characters. This has been developed in conjunction with the director and incorporates his vision for the characters.  Though each design will demonstrate individual ideas remember to consider these as an ensemble. You will have a number or workshops to support the development of these designs including working with the Director and Design Managers on conceptual and practical ideas.

Habitat: The Breathers natural habitat is the beach, the beach is part of them, and they are part of the beach.  They exist on, and survive by the elements of the beach. They are timeless, and the invasion of Weymouth, the Olympics and Doldrum’s presence, is to be their first interruption for centuries.

Period: The characters are timelessness and made from washed-up debris suggesting that costumes and design could incorporated a range of styles, the director likes the ideas of scavenging clothing through the periods, (The other BFTW costumes are based in the 19^th Century so it might be a good place to start) and adapting/customizing with other artifact found on the beach or washed up by the sea. Junk and alternative materials should be considered as part of the vision.

Colour and Pattern: The Design Manager working closely with the director will present suggested colour pallet to you in January. Remember to consider the texture of the costumes and also that the costumes will be seen from a distance by a large audience who will be quite a distance from the performer.  Consider your ensemble as collective spectacular and maybe a collective colourscapes.  Remember that the ‘Breathers’ need each other to survive, and function as a chorus. 

Base Costume: The design team will be developing a base costume design with some 2^nd year volunteers. You should used this to base your design on. The reason for developing a base costume is that this will be supplied by the individual performer and adapted/dyed painted by the design team. You have £50 budget per costume (which does not include the base costume).

Performers: Though you will not be designing for specific performers but you will need to consider different body shapes while you are designing your costumes and you will be given a portfolio of performers from the company to consider when designing. It is the responsibility of the Design Manager (working with the director) to assign costumes to performers once the collection has been selected and adapt / tweak the designs to fit the performers needs. 

Who are the Breathers?

•      A tribe,collective   group whom only function when they are together.    
• ·        Borrowers/beach combers/debris collector. 
• ·        They are and ensemble
• ·        At one with their natural environment.
• ·        Timelessness (mix of past fashions/objects)
• ·        Eroded/worn down/broken down
• ·        They are the secret custodians to the Southwest Wind

·   The Breathers are an organic collective who are pure and innocent and wish no harm on anyone

·   No one really takes notice of them (They are part of the natural environment)

·   The Breathers live the winds, as a collective they are the winds whereas the regional wind gatherers collect the winds. (Organic vs. Artificial)

Other things to consider:

• Consider building the costumes to make visual impact – this performance will be seen by  10,000, & to prevent them from restricting performer’s movements (e.g. getting caught in wheelchairs)
• Must work both individually and collectively
• Texture is really key
• Exaggerated shapes to help them stand out/visual spectacle