| rumplestiltskinprognotes.docx |
Rumplstiltskin Programme Notes
The Set
A forest of wooden poles, angled outwards from the floor of the stage, is joined together by a platform of planks five feet above. It’s rather like a drunken, adult-sized climbing frame. There are a couple of ladders behind the poles which ascend to the platform above. The shallow semi-circular wooden structure which is concave at the front, fills the entire stage. The climbing frame like set remains on stage throughout.
Three long lights and two footlights are at stage front. Circular spot lights hang above the stage.
When we are in the miller’s house it is represented by a tea chest with a motif of a sheaf of wheat on the side. On top of it is a small metal milling machine with a handle which can be turned (it’s part of an old mincing machine) and a metal funnel. On the floor beside the chest is a yellow enamel jug.
Three prison rooms in the palace are also represented under the climbing frame. The first room contains three large rectangular bales of straw. There is a wooden spinning wheel, with a four legged stool to sit on. The second room contains more bales of straw to spin, and a huge cable drum round which to wind the spun gold. The third room contains a huge pile of bales of straw, stacked haphazardly, behind a black curtain, which the king raises with a zapper
In the second act, to show the change in the kingdom, two chandeliers made with plastic bottles arranged in a circle, descend from above the stage and four hang down above the auditorium.
Festive pennants are attached sideways to diagonal uprights above the walkway—two have serrated edges, one is curved, three have straight sides, and are coloured green, yellow and orange.
Later a baby’s cradle, on metal legs, handles at each end, containing a closely wrapped baby arrives on the set. The queen brings three clipboards with paper, and then carries on a wooden piano stool with a red velvet seat. The miller has a red plastic water bottle and white towelling cloth nappy. Later, the poles of the climbing frame represent the dark forest. Rumplestiltskin dances around the baby cradle which has now become a camp fire.
The Cast and Costumes
This is a recycled production. The costumes, the set and most of the props are made from recycled materials. The costumes use fabric from clothes bought in charity shops, the set is composed of recycled poles and planks of wood.
In the first half of the play the costumes tend to be monochrome, in beiges and creams. In the second half of the play they are far more colourful.
The King
The king, played by Michael Lavery is a neat, well-proportioned man. He has blue eyes, a small nose, high cheek bones and blue eyes. His mid brown hair is short and wavy. His beard and moustache are closely clipped. In the First Act of the play the King wears a shirt with narrow blue stripes. With this he wears a pair of pale blue trousers, decorated with gold braid down the side. His blue jacket is made from material patterned with checks of a darker blue. It is embellished with gold on the shoulders, gold braid on the side of the sleeves and in a v shape on the cuffs. It has a stand up collar with gold buttons decorating it. Various gold chains and a gold front door key are attached to the right hand epaulette and drape over and under the right hand sleeve hanging down heavily. An enormous gold star decorates the left shoulder. Two recycled ties hang from the other epaulette, back and front, and form his sash. One tie is cream with blue and brown stripes and has gold braid sewn down the middle, the other is brown and is partially hidden. He carries a black walking stick with a golden top. In the Second Act the king wears a bright red velvet jacket, embellished with gold. It has gold epaulettes on the shoulders, with gold fringes hanging down. Gold bottle tops adorn the epaulettes, a gold striped tie with recycled gold braid is his sash, keys and buttons and chains are all painted gold to make the outfit more splendid. Under the jacket he wear a white shirt with pink stripes. He has maroon trousers embellished with gold braid down the outside of each leg. He wears black Chelsea boots.
His crown is formed from all manner of objects also sprayed gold. There are forks, leaning out at an angle from the cardboard band that goes round his head which is decorated on the outside with all sorts of gold stars. Some are shaped like snowflakes and glitter as with diamonds. Four silver trees are spaced around the circlet of the crown. For the wedding the miller puts a cream sash over the king’s other shoulder so he wears two sashes. After his adventure in the woods the King arrives in disarray with no jacket and his shirt unbuttoned to reveal an off-white vest covered in dirty hand prints. He wears a tie around his head Rambo fashion.
The Miller
The part of the miller is played by Tom Giles. He is a tall man, slender and bald on top. What hair he has is dark and matches his thick moustache and beard. He has a square, tanned face and wears small round, gold-framed spectacles. The miller’s shirt is made with bits from 3 different shirts. All the shirts are white with beige. One has beige stripes, quite close together, another has bold checks and yet another piece of fabric has small checks. The scarf he wears round his neck is made from recycled fabric with wide beige and white stripes. Over the shirt he wears a waistcoat made from bits of two waistcoats. One is teddy bears in blues and browns and beiges, the other is a more staid grey tweed. His trousers are brown, his shoes beige. He also wears an apron made from an old sack. It has a large pocket across the front, divided into two, and is printed with sheaves of wheat, in grey. The apron is smudged with something that looks like flour. In the second act of the play he is transformed into a devoted follower of the king and wears a beige linen jacket printed with rows of red crowns. The jacket has a cream patch at the left shoulder. With this jacket he wears a red tie which matches the colour of the printed crowns. He wears maroon trousers and beige shoes with this jacket.
Emily
Doireann McKenna plays the part of Emily. She has large dark eyes, a tip-tilted nose, oval face and expressive features, with mid-length, curly dark brown hair, tied back from her face. In the First Act Emily wears an outfit in creams and beiges. She has a beige linen blouse with a scarf of beige, patterned with soft pink and blue flowers sewn down one side of the v neck. It has three-quarter-length sleeves frilled with the same fabric as the scarf. With the blouse she wears a short flared skirt in brown, beige and soft pink checks. The skirt has other pieces of fabric attached to it in swathes. A cream swatch of light-weight fabric, printed with blue butterflies, hangs down on the left hand side; a deeper brown piece of checked fabric, lined with grey check, swishes down the back, whilst a tan coloured piece of velvet is attached to the right hip. A frill embellishes the waist, at the back of the skirt. A gold pendant hangs around her neck. With this outfit she wears beige leggings with bold blue stripes and brown leather ankle boots, with cream lace attached at each side.
Emily’s wedding dress is a vision in white. Like all the other costumes it is recycled from other dresses. It is made out of two different wedding dresses and various other recycled materials and is a froth of white lace. Its long sleeves are trimmed with lace. Its bodice, also lace, is cream coloured, and pulled in at the waist and the skirt is formed of many tiers of different types of lace, including lace curtains. The back panels of the dress sparkle as though sprinkled with glitter. The right side of the dress is made fuller with some sprigged cotton fabric patterned with leaves, branches and flowers. With this splendid dress Emily wears a soft net veil with embroidered edges which is held in place with a tiara of flowers made from buttons, with sparkling crystal buttons as their centres and bits of another tiara in gold sparkling metal attached to it. The wedding dress is pulled on hastily over Emily’s short skirt, which can be glimpsed underneath the froth of the long cream dress which has a split at the front revealing the short skirt underneath.
As the queen, Emily is resplendent in red. She wears a separate bodice and skirt. The bodice is pale pink, with darker pink flowers and small capped sleeves. A row of gold bottle tops, spiky side out, decorate the top, forming a v with gold trimming stitched from the other shoulder diagonally downwards. The gold v shape is repeated on the back of the bodice. There is gold spray above this line and the bodice extends to the hips. Beneath this the full, wide skirt blooms out, in various shades of red, some shiny satin, some matt. There is also a swatch of white fabric patterned with sprigs of pink and grey flowers. The right hand panel is formed from satin, with red poppies on a black background. A beige swathe of fabric also has red poppies on it. The tiara worn with the Queen’s outfit is silver and sparkly with upright safety pins of various sizes adding to the decorative effect. Emily wears neat flat gold pumps with pointed toes and a star pattern.
Rumpelstiltskin, played by Jo Donnelly, is a strange creature, who looks rather like a punk. Her hair is made from black wool and black, tightly-curled false hair ringlets, mixed with plaited white wool. It hangs down long at the back and on top is a mass of black plastic spikes reminding us of a Mohican style haircut. . She wears a black leather biker jacket, zipped and studded, with a fringed waist On the shoulders a multitude of gold spikes form epaulettes. The tops of the arms are spiked with the same black plastic spikes which are on the top of his hair. A row of black and grey spikes run, porcupine like, down the centre back of the jacket and softer spikes project from the waist. Her fingerless gloves are a spiked shiny black.Her legs are covered with tight, trousers striped in two types of fabric, sparkly black and dark grey with soft spikes. Her black Doc Marten boots are patterned with scales. Her eyes are heavily outlined in black and the top half of Rumpelstiltskin’s face is face-painted black, with glitter on the forehead and her lip appears to be sneering. Her teeth are also blackened. She is a small squat figure, whose knees are always bent and who walks with a slight stoop, though her movements are springy and agile.
THE BAND
The band plays behind the black curtains at the rear of the stage, on a platform high above. They play keyboard, cymbals, and drums. Only at the end are they revealed when the black curtain rises.
The Set
A forest of wooden poles, angled outwards from the floor of the stage, is joined together by a platform of planks five feet above. It’s rather like a drunken, adult-sized climbing frame. There are a couple of ladders behind the poles which ascend to the platform above. The shallow semi-circular wooden structure which is concave at the front, fills the entire stage. The climbing frame like set remains on stage throughout.
Three long lights and two footlights are at stage front. Circular spot lights hang above the stage.
When we are in the miller’s house it is represented by a tea chest with a motif of a sheaf of wheat on the side. On top of it is a small metal milling machine with a handle which can be turned (it’s part of an old mincing machine) and a metal funnel. On the floor beside the chest is a yellow enamel jug.
Three prison rooms in the palace are also represented under the climbing frame. The first room contains three large rectangular bales of straw. There is a wooden spinning wheel, with a four legged stool to sit on. The second room contains more bales of straw to spin, and a huge cable drum round which to wind the spun gold. The third room contains a huge pile of bales of straw, stacked haphazardly, behind a black curtain, which the king raises with a zapper
In the second act, to show the change in the kingdom, two chandeliers made with plastic bottles arranged in a circle, descend from above the stage and four hang down above the auditorium.
Festive pennants are attached sideways to diagonal uprights above the walkway—two have serrated edges, one is curved, three have straight sides, and are coloured green, yellow and orange.
Later a baby’s cradle, on metal legs, handles at each end, containing a closely wrapped baby arrives on the set. The queen brings three clipboards with paper, and then carries on a wooden piano stool with a red velvet seat. The miller has a red plastic water bottle and white towelling cloth nappy. Later, the poles of the climbing frame represent the dark forest. Rumplestiltskin dances around the baby cradle which has now become a camp fire.
The Cast and Costumes
This is a recycled production. The costumes, the set and most of the props are made from recycled materials. The costumes use fabric from clothes bought in charity shops, the set is composed of recycled poles and planks of wood.
In the first half of the play the costumes tend to be monochrome, in beiges and creams. In the second half of the play they are far more colourful.
The King
The king, played by Michael Lavery is a neat, well-proportioned man. He has blue eyes, a small nose, high cheek bones and blue eyes. His mid brown hair is short and wavy. His beard and moustache are closely clipped. In the First Act of the play the King wears a shirt with narrow blue stripes. With this he wears a pair of pale blue trousers, decorated with gold braid down the side. His blue jacket is made from material patterned with checks of a darker blue. It is embellished with gold on the shoulders, gold braid on the side of the sleeves and in a v shape on the cuffs. It has a stand up collar with gold buttons decorating it. Various gold chains and a gold front door key are attached to the right hand epaulette and drape over and under the right hand sleeve hanging down heavily. An enormous gold star decorates the left shoulder. Two recycled ties hang from the other epaulette, back and front, and form his sash. One tie is cream with blue and brown stripes and has gold braid sewn down the middle, the other is brown and is partially hidden. He carries a black walking stick with a golden top. In the Second Act the king wears a bright red velvet jacket, embellished with gold. It has gold epaulettes on the shoulders, with gold fringes hanging down. Gold bottle tops adorn the epaulettes, a gold striped tie with recycled gold braid is his sash, keys and buttons and chains are all painted gold to make the outfit more splendid. Under the jacket he wear a white shirt with pink stripes. He has maroon trousers embellished with gold braid down the outside of each leg. He wears black Chelsea boots.
His crown is formed from all manner of objects also sprayed gold. There are forks, leaning out at an angle from the cardboard band that goes round his head which is decorated on the outside with all sorts of gold stars. Some are shaped like snowflakes and glitter as with diamonds. Four silver trees are spaced around the circlet of the crown. For the wedding the miller puts a cream sash over the king’s other shoulder so he wears two sashes. After his adventure in the woods the King arrives in disarray with no jacket and his shirt unbuttoned to reveal an off-white vest covered in dirty hand prints. He wears a tie around his head Rambo fashion.
The Miller
The part of the miller is played by Tom Giles. He is a tall man, slender and bald on top. What hair he has is dark and matches his thick moustache and beard. He has a square, tanned face and wears small round, gold-framed spectacles. The miller’s shirt is made with bits from 3 different shirts. All the shirts are white with beige. One has beige stripes, quite close together, another has bold checks and yet another piece of fabric has small checks. The scarf he wears round his neck is made from recycled fabric with wide beige and white stripes. Over the shirt he wears a waistcoat made from bits of two waistcoats. One is teddy bears in blues and browns and beiges, the other is a more staid grey tweed. His trousers are brown, his shoes beige. He also wears an apron made from an old sack. It has a large pocket across the front, divided into two, and is printed with sheaves of wheat, in grey. The apron is smudged with something that looks like flour. In the second act of the play he is transformed into a devoted follower of the king and wears a beige linen jacket printed with rows of red crowns. The jacket has a cream patch at the left shoulder. With this jacket he wears a red tie which matches the colour of the printed crowns. He wears maroon trousers and beige shoes with this jacket.
Emily
Doireann McKenna plays the part of Emily. She has large dark eyes, a tip-tilted nose, oval face and expressive features, with mid-length, curly dark brown hair, tied back from her face. In the First Act Emily wears an outfit in creams and beiges. She has a beige linen blouse with a scarf of beige, patterned with soft pink and blue flowers sewn down one side of the v neck. It has three-quarter-length sleeves frilled with the same fabric as the scarf. With the blouse she wears a short flared skirt in brown, beige and soft pink checks. The skirt has other pieces of fabric attached to it in swathes. A cream swatch of light-weight fabric, printed with blue butterflies, hangs down on the left hand side; a deeper brown piece of checked fabric, lined with grey check, swishes down the back, whilst a tan coloured piece of velvet is attached to the right hip. A frill embellishes the waist, at the back of the skirt. A gold pendant hangs around her neck. With this outfit she wears beige leggings with bold blue stripes and brown leather ankle boots, with cream lace attached at each side.
Emily’s wedding dress is a vision in white. Like all the other costumes it is recycled from other dresses. It is made out of two different wedding dresses and various other recycled materials and is a froth of white lace. Its long sleeves are trimmed with lace. Its bodice, also lace, is cream coloured, and pulled in at the waist and the skirt is formed of many tiers of different types of lace, including lace curtains. The back panels of the dress sparkle as though sprinkled with glitter. The right side of the dress is made fuller with some sprigged cotton fabric patterned with leaves, branches and flowers. With this splendid dress Emily wears a soft net veil with embroidered edges which is held in place with a tiara of flowers made from buttons, with sparkling crystal buttons as their centres and bits of another tiara in gold sparkling metal attached to it. The wedding dress is pulled on hastily over Emily’s short skirt, which can be glimpsed underneath the froth of the long cream dress which has a split at the front revealing the short skirt underneath.
As the queen, Emily is resplendent in red. She wears a separate bodice and skirt. The bodice is pale pink, with darker pink flowers and small capped sleeves. A row of gold bottle tops, spiky side out, decorate the top, forming a v with gold trimming stitched from the other shoulder diagonally downwards. The gold v shape is repeated on the back of the bodice. There is gold spray above this line and the bodice extends to the hips. Beneath this the full, wide skirt blooms out, in various shades of red, some shiny satin, some matt. There is also a swatch of white fabric patterned with sprigs of pink and grey flowers. The right hand panel is formed from satin, with red poppies on a black background. A beige swathe of fabric also has red poppies on it. The tiara worn with the Queen’s outfit is silver and sparkly with upright safety pins of various sizes adding to the decorative effect. Emily wears neat flat gold pumps with pointed toes and a star pattern.
Rumpelstiltskin, played by Jo Donnelly, is a strange creature, who looks rather like a punk. Her hair is made from black wool and black, tightly-curled false hair ringlets, mixed with plaited white wool. It hangs down long at the back and on top is a mass of black plastic spikes reminding us of a Mohican style haircut. . She wears a black leather biker jacket, zipped and studded, with a fringed waist On the shoulders a multitude of gold spikes form epaulettes. The tops of the arms are spiked with the same black plastic spikes which are on the top of his hair. A row of black and grey spikes run, porcupine like, down the centre back of the jacket and softer spikes project from the waist. Her fingerless gloves are a spiked shiny black.Her legs are covered with tight, trousers striped in two types of fabric, sparkly black and dark grey with soft spikes. Her black Doc Marten boots are patterned with scales. Her eyes are heavily outlined in black and the top half of Rumpelstiltskin’s face is face-painted black, with glitter on the forehead and her lip appears to be sneering. Her teeth are also blackened. She is a small squat figure, whose knees are always bent and who walks with a slight stoop, though her movements are springy and agile.
THE BAND
The band plays behind the black curtains at the rear of the stage, on a platform high above. They play keyboard, cymbals, and drums. Only at the end are they revealed when the black curtain rises.
