Alayna Riley

All Shook Up Process

 

Since this musical is all about love and the hijinks it causes in a small town, I opted to do what I like to call “twinning” for the couples of the show. “Twinning” is what I call putting love interests in similar/matching colors as a visual cue to the audience. Natalie and Chad both have black, Lorraine and Dean have green, Sylvia and Jim have blue, Matilda and Earl have grey. Dennis, however, I opted to have start out in orange to symbolize that he starts out loving Natalie (who wears red for a bit) but ultimately ends up with Sandra, who wears yellow. Then when Dennis and Sandra get married, he wears a yellow sweater vest to solidify that he now loves her. 

The script called for the town to suddenly turn colorful when Chad shows up. So we had the characters start out in greys, neutrals, black, and white. Then they all switch to colorful costumes. 

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As for the process, we mostly pulled from the theater’s costume stock. And some things were ordered. I did make three wedding dresses that are worn in the end. I chose not to include closeup photos of those, however, as they were some of my first ever builds and I don’t think they turned out well. But on stage they looked really pretty. I also did some “detailing” for some pieces, like adding the prisoner numbers to the skirts in the opening number. Natalie wears a dress that she uses as a shop rag for a couple scene. To achieve this look, I cut up the seams of a dress and added black paint to it in order to make it distressed.

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Due to the directors’ vision, I was a bit unhappy with how Natalie’s initial costumes looked. I wanted sort of a Rosie The Riveter jumpsuit look for her when she’s a mechanic. But they opted for a more “tomboyish” look. I don’t think she ended up looking bad, just not what I wanted.