The first idea I had for our fantasy subject costumes was one that was made of paper. The paper is some that I have saved for a number of years and comes from a business called Replacements, in Greensboro, NC. The paper has been cut in a pattern that allows the paper to stretch so that it can be wrapped around china or glass ware and yet expand to form a cushion for the fragile product.
My next step was to determine what character I would become and black and white came to mind. The paper was white and I knew I had black velvet ribbon that could be used. Black and white are sophisticated to my mind and so high fashion came to mind. Then the diamond pattern that the paper formed when stretched reminded me of harlequin, so I looked up harlequin illustrations. Harlequin is named for a servant in early Italian history who would be used to amuse the nobleman and was dressed in a colorful costume that employed bright colors. The black and white version has developed over the years as well as the colorful. Since the traditional hat of the harlequin sported bells, what fun to use them as the noise component on my cape, hat and shoes.
It was all coming together, and I felt so good about what this was going to look like, but when I put it on, there was not the high fashion character I had envisioned. Penguin came to mind instead, and so I constructed a beak early the next morning and became a fancy party penguin who felt whimsical and like a fun loving character that connected with what I like to be.
Our performances consisted of the class being divided into groups of four with each group performing as a single unit. Each person would act out his character yet react with the other people in his group. The first group had three people with weapons plus one other and they acted out a battle, swinging their swordsas if in battle. The second group which I was a part of, had a wind blown character that I loved, myself, a penguin like persona, another character I don’t remember and a hooded character carrying chains. We started off calmly enough as I was trying to play along with the wind character and I then was attacked by the hoodie who seemed to be carrying out group #1’s violent leanings. It all got out of hand and I realize that hoodie was carried out of control, but it was more realistic than not and was pretty scary as hoodie actually got very physical and pushed me so hard I was afraid I was going to fall. I don’t remember the third group as I was trying to recover from my groups performance. The fourth group had one character who was dressed as an explorer and seemed to be a swashbuckler out to prove to the world that he was the one to save everyone. It was a fun experience, seeing what classmates came up with and for the most part how people reacted when they were “in character.”
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