Last Tuesday (25/10/22) I went up to the Royal Opera House in London to visit the Theatre Craft event, all about careers in costume and theatre. The event consisted of relevant panel talks, an exhibitor marketplace, and I was also lucky enough to go on a backstage tour of the costume department!
When I first arrived at the stunning venue, I walked in the main entrance for check-in where I was given a lanyard and schedule of the event.
Once I got inside, I was amazed by how stunning the building was and first went upstairs to visit the exhibitor marketplace, where there were lots of different universities and companies exhibiting higher education/career opportunities in the realm of theatre.
I decided to look around some of the universities and first went to the Rose Bruford College university, which is more of an acting specialised uni, however teaches a costume production course.
I ended up talking to one of the course tutors who mentioned how hands-on and practical the course is. She said that they don’t do a lot of drawing but rather focus on the making, which sounds really good to me as the practical making element is my favourite part! I also learned that the course is taught by industry professionals who have had lots of experience working in costume e.g. they have worked on marvel movies, bridgerton, Fantastic Beasts, etc. Another benefit of studying at an acting college is that there are brilliant facilities and opportunities to collaborate with different studios to put on performances and see your costumes in action!
Next I went and had a look at the costume course at Nottingham Trent University - this is somewhere I am considering applying to, however I haven’t been able to attend an open day just yet, so it was a great opportunity to find out a little more about NTU.
The course leader showed me some of the incredible work students have created, which I found particularly interesting. She also talked about lots of collaboration and work experience opportunities that they offer, for example, in the past, students have worked with local theatres on costume design. She also mentioned that students talk about how great the nightlife is.
They also offer lots of exciting trips, such as to the V&A museum, the national theatre, Nottingham Theatre royal, etc. which could be really inspirational for creating work/projects.
I also had a look at some of the career and apprenticeship opportunities of those who were exhibiting. I first went over to the royal opera house panel to find out a little more about their apprenticeship scheme that I am hoping to apply for.
I was able to speak to someone currently working at the opera house (she wasn’t directly working in costume, however knew a lot from others in the department). One thing she said that really stood out to me was how authentic and how much detail goes into the making of the costumes. She said that for a lot of productions for films, such as Netflix, they will tend to buy a lot of the clothing in and so, a lot of the time, costumes aren’t completely handmade, however, so much detail goes into the making of the costumes at ROH.
Here is an image of one of the tutu costumes they had on display from the archive, - I was so in love with the detailed embellishments, lace and beading. For me, fashion and costume is all about the intricacy and detail that goes into a garment, and so this looked like the exact sort of thing I'd be interested in doing!
She did again say, as with my talk with Daniella, that the apprenticeships are fiercely competitive so I will need to show a real wider interest in theatre as well as having had relevant work experience to make myself more likely to be a successful candidate.
After visiting the exhibitors marketplace, I went out to Covent garden for lunch before going back later to the Opera House for a backstage costume tour.
Since I hadn’t been able to get a place on the booking, I was really lucky to have joined the wait list and been able to get onto the tour as it was such an incredible and insightful experience!
Upon starting the tour, we headed upstairs towards the costume department. It was super exciting to go backstage and get an idea of how the whole theatre is run behind the scenes!
We first went into the fabric stockroom, full of wonderful, high quality fabrics of all sorts of colours and textures! They also had a whole range of beads for embellishment as well as fastenings such as buttons and hook and eyes, etc.. There was also a large, central table for things like pattern cutting.
Throughout the tour, we went through pattern drafting rooms and the making rooms. One thing I absolutely loved seeing was the moodboards/ concept boards consisting of sketches, inspirational images, and fabric swatches - They gave a real clear vision of what the garment was going to turn out looking like!
We also went into the dyeing room where we saw live dyeing techniques actually happening as well as seeing some samples done on silk fabrics. I loved how bold and vibrant the colours were! - it was great to see that the royal opera house work with bought-in fabric as well as more traditional techniques - here I was seeing the real details and authenticity of the making of their garments!
As we walked through one of the larger studios/sewing rooms, where we saw so many incredible tutus and garments being worked on, we also saw some designs that had been created/drawn-out ready for future productions! It was such an exciting, busy environment.
We also went into the millinery room and saw lots of hat props such as top hats, tiaras; other accessories such as necklaces and fairy wings. I liked looking at this department as it showed me the sorts of different things you can do within the costume industry. I was quite surprised as to how intricate and how much detail actually goes into the making of things like hats! The maker talked about how important hat sizing is to fit the dancer/actor correctly to stay in place whilst in-action.
Lastly, we also spoke to some of the backstage dressers who talked about how much of an exciting job it can be working with actors and dancers in such a fast pace, thrilling environment.
Overall, that pretty much concludes the backstage tour and my experience at Theatre Craft 2022. It was such an exciting and insightful day; really immersing myself in the world of theatre and the sorts of jobs/careers I could potentially be going into!
I have so much to learn and take away from this experience ready for higher education and work. It has also made me think a lot more about work on things like theatre and Broadway, as opposed to film work… therefore I have a lot of interesting considerations to take away and think about in terms of my future in costume.
I’m very much excited about the apprenticeship opportunity, especially after having spoken to Daniella as well as seeing the Royal Opera House garments during this day-out!
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