The Y Knot Opera|Set & Costume Design
Composed by - Julia Plaut |Directed by - Fleur Snow |Conducted by - Kay Salomon|Photography by - Kirsten McTernan | Site-specific & Richard Burton Main Stage - 2021
Storyboards | Costumes | Process | Reference Images
Pre-teen Zepher is avoiding bedtime by asking her Alexa questions, panicked, her mother suggests she reads a dictionary instead. Zepher falls into a world of vivid characters in a quest to ask questions and find Y? The Y Knot is a children's opera about being brave enough to ask questions while exploring parenting in a world of ever-changing technology.
The set was born from the Amazon Alexa colour palette. Zepher's world is slightly too small for her but is at the same time is covered in hidden lighting referencing both the technological world we all inevitably live in and her thirst for knowledge. The production was staged in a community site-specific space and a main stage proscenium arch theatre and as such needed to be adaptable for both. We were also working to an extremely tight budget and during covid, so keeping cost low and social distancing regulations (3.5m while singing) were essential, I aimed to work these restrictions into the design as opposed to working against them.
Story Boards
The characters were devised from words from the Dictionary and I wanted them to be built purely from Zepher's imagination. She had taken the words she had just read and turned them into a character: goat-ish Grenadier with a green golf club.
I focused on developing magical moments that could traverse the space with the aim to bring a sense of dynamism that could have been reduced due to social distancing. We used false backs on furniture for surprise entrances, spilled an ocean from a wardrobe, produced a dozen roses from thin air and hidden lights lit Zepher’s whole bedroom in the opera’s crescendo.
Costumes
I broke down the traditional tooth fairy by adding darker elements; a necklace made of teeth, dental equipment crown, and winged harness for her to attach, ready for a hard day's work.
The Grenadier takes on a furry texture, he would love more gold trim but despite his aspirations, we kept his jacket simple to match his actual rank. In contrast, the Bookworm is plastic and shiny, the use of the umbrella head not only developed his eccentric wormy character but also helped with Covid space regulations by allowing the character to breach the 3.5 distance.
Nobody Nose was inspired by Film Noir with a vintage dress and black and white homage to the genre. This helped establish her body language and silhouette while at the same time played into the mystery of Y, which she attempts to sniff out during her aria.
Process
Reference Images
