Beavers
and Unicorns: Non-Human Costumes
for Narnia the Musical Stage Production
Theatrepirate
In Narnia: the Musical, a high school production
that I recently directed, I had to come up with a variety
of costume ideas for my non-human characters. I did not want
to use animal body suit or goofy masks in my production, which
I thought would make the show look too cartoony. Instead,
I decided to do representational costumes and make the characters
a mixture of animal and human. I have lumped my two favorites
together in this submission: The Beavers and the Unicorn.
Image
For the Beavers, I took historical colonial costume
patterns (Butterick B3072 and McCalls M4863) and altered them
slightly. I wanted to give the Beavers a peasant feel, and
I used mismatched patterns and prints and earthy/autumn colors.
I also wanted them to compliment each other. I also made two
beaver tails out of brown vinyl and sewed a criss-crossed
black pattern into it.
The Unicorn was a lot of fun to design. She had to look graceful,
and the actress was also a dancer in the play, so she needed
something that would move well. I started with making a short,
flowy skirt with some silver fabric. I then too a white leotard
and hose and lightly sprayed them silver to match. The best
part of the costume was the mane and tail, however.
Image
I took a basic blond wig, coarsed it up a bit, added braids,
etc...then I made a horn using styrofoam and I covered it
with ribbon and sequins. I attached this to the wig.
For the tail...interestingly enough, I had just made a Nightcrawler
(the X-Man) costume for myself for Halloween, and I had to
make a tail harness. I used this knowledge to build our Unicorn's.
I used a stiff piece of plasic (from a plasic tub) which was
attaced to a harness made from fabric that could be pull on
like a pair of shorts. To the plastic I attached another piece
to lay the blond wig across (it made the tail stick straight
out like a galloping horse) Our unicorn was able to sit, run,
and dance in that tail! I was proud!
The following link is to my online
photo album, containing my pictures of both the Beavers
and the Unicorn.
Holly
Dryad (Book)
Hollylass
All C.S. Lewis says about the hollies in particular is that
the shock-headed hollies themselves are dark, but their wives
are bright with berries, and that wine makes them talkative.
But the way he describes dryads in general, they're clearly
wild-looking people, enough like a person to be mistaken for
human at first, but clearly tree-like as well. So, rather
than simply cover myself in leaves as per the movie's version
of the dryads, I got to work on my own rushed interpretation.
(Apologies for the location of the pictures taken.)
The first step was to draw up sketches of what I wanted to
do, and what I COULD do, given budget and time constraints.
I worked with a base of articles of clothing I had already
made, and did some drawing...
Sketch
My first sketch, I decided to wear a green cape, because
trees are green. But I decided it would look better with at
least some hair showing. The original idea was to actually
have a whole headpiece trailing down my back, made of holly,
but weight and money constrained that...
Image
The base was discontinued McCalls pattern 2806, in a dark
pink print with roses and leaves printed on. That pattern
is not recommended for a dryad costume, as it's too high-waisted
and not flattering. But it was made for another purpose, and
I was strapped for time, plus, at least it was a plant print!
To give it a bit of greenery, I tied on a sash that was actually
embossed with leaf patterns; ideally it would've been longer,
but again, it was remnants of another costume.
I took a pair of green gauntlets I had from Ren Faire and
put them on my hands, then twisted pieces of holly greenery
(18-inch long stuff, plastic and wire, with leaves and berries)
from Michaels around each to slip around my wrist. To keep
the greenery in place, I twisted a pipe cleaner ring around
each hand's worth of greenery and fixed that to my middle
or ring fingers. Branch hands! If I'd had more time I would
have figured a way to put them on my individual fingers.
The crown was more greenery, twisted into a form to go around
my head, not quite like a wreath, as I aimed to have all the
leaves and berries pointed towards the center of my forehead.
Image
Capes are actually very easy to make. I wore a green velvet
hooded cape, and I'm not sure exactly what the pattern was;
it was made a while ago. I wore it fearing that I'd be waiting
out in the cold for the screening. (And that fear was unfounded.)
I actually a six-foot chain of holly greenery from Michaels
and safety-pinned them to the top of my cape, where the clasp
would be, and let it fall behind my back. Then I took another
chain of holly and attached it to the side of my cape, about
a foot or so down from the very top, to give two layers of
holly. The chains were very good-looking, although it shed
horribly. I made a few of the shed pieces into hair clips.
Image
One key to great costuming is great make-up. Mine wasn't
great but at least it was interesting. In retrospect, I really
should have gone all out and made myself green, but since
I was going to the screening alone I didn't. Instead I gave
myself green eyebrows and put holly berries on my face. (All
the make-up was Ben Nye stage make-up, which I highly recommend;
if you put it on, cover it with powder, and then spray the
clear mint-scented (!) fixant over it, it will stay on until
you scrub it off.)
Anyway, I hope this inspires people to put together a costume,
even if they don't have much time or money!
Lady Blanche
