An Introduction & The Brief

Upon initial discussion from tutors on the different Commission, Collaboration and Community projects today, I decided on signing up to make props for Pride Lands, an interpretation of The Lion King musical. Other options included Medieval props for Rochester Guildhall, props and painted flats that had already been designed for a small production of Aladdin, a set for film students at Maidstone Studios and others. However, none of these offered the prop or costume design opportunities I was looking for - except Pride Lands.
I am one of sixteen to sign up for this project and our first meeting will be on the 9th of March, where I look forwards to discussing the layout of the team and the balance of the jobs designing and creating different characters.

More under the cut;

“Razzamataz
This is a theatre school for young people that runs on a Saturday.
There are 3 age groups participating in the piece aged 4 -18. The masks etc listed below will predominantly be for 9 -18 year olds.
If you are interested in this project, then it requires a group of you to go to a Saturday afternoon session ( preferably 7th March) to take measurements for each character as all the parts have now been cast.
The company won a national award for their show last year
Please find some more details below:
- Our show is called Pride Lands - Act 2 of our show is based on The Lion King - including songs and dances and small drama scenes from this story.
- Show Dates are: 10th & 11th July with full runs and dress rehearsals starting on at the beginning of May - therefore we would need the props for then
- What we are looking for: Props, masks similar to what is used in the London Show version of the Lion King - if you google images of the show you will see the sort of things we are looking for. The masks and body parts are extensions of the human body (rather than cover the full face / body etc) so that spoken lines and facial expressions can still be seen and heard. We are primarily looking for;
1. Giraffe necks and heads that can be attached / held by a student and Giraffe Legs
2. Elephant Ears and nose / legs
3. Lion Masks for our adult Simba, Nala and Scar
4. Cheetah mask / props
5. Zebra prop attachments
6. Grass headdresses
7. Pumba and Timon accessories
8. Flying Bird Kites on carbon like sticks that can give the effect of flying in the audience
9. Hyenas
Our classes run on a Saturday afternoon and we have started work on some of the scenes, and dances therefore if your students would like to come in and have a look at some of the pieces to help them with our vision they are more than welcome. The ideal time is between 2:30 - 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon and our classes are held at Mid Kent College, Medway Road.
We will of course feature the students in our programme, social media and PR campaigns that support our show.
The student time frame for working on the project from 2nd March – 2nd May that Chris mentioned could work really well.”