Brook Propsal
Proposal for the Brook Theatre
My project for the Brook Theatre is all about ‘My Town’. Although to start off I struggled to find something I could base my outcome on, I got an idea from writing a mind map about Chatham. Although if im honest there’s not a lot to do in Chatham, we are known for our naval background and the importance we had during the war.
I wanted people to remember our history, because I didn’t really know a lot about my town which made it hard for me to come up with an idea. It finally got to me that I could do my project on our history and produce an outcome on it.
I thought about doing a timeline as well as some festival masks, however when I spoke to my client Lindsey Strange about those ideas she said that Chatham rely had festivals unlike Rochester and also to the fact that if I did a timeline of the history of Chatham I wouldn’t have a lot of primary research / images. That’s when I thought about creating a uniform to show the past but to make a design unique to the future. Although once again when discussed, we both said it was going to be hard for me to create, plus it would be another textiles outcome (As we already had 2 dresses) and the fact that we had in fashion a military look, so to get my own idea without people thinking I just went out and bought it would be hard.
After all that, I decided I would create a teddy bear that travelled around Chatham educating people of the history. I wanted him to be cute but also wanted him to look like an old teddy who had come back to see what Chatham looked like now. When I discussed this with my first client Claire Griffiths who was happy about it and thought it would go with our target audience as well as I was doing something happy about Chatham, rather than how much I hated it. However when I spoke to Lindsey Strange ( my 2nd client), she was in two minds as to whether or not it was going to be a strong outcome and also if I had made it too babyish and so that wouldn’t fit in with my 13-18 year old target audience. When we discussed this I said to her that Teddy bears aren’t just for children, they’re for adults too. They’re a collectable item and have been around for century’s; although could be portrayed as a child’s outcome I felt strongly that I wanted to create it and that I knew it could work. We later discussed where he would visit and what he would look like. I told Lindsey Strange about my uniforms that I had planned to produced and also the main focus of places I wanted him to visit; for example the Historic dockyard, Fort Amherst.
For this outcome I would be able to achieve my client’s needs of having a creative outcome as well as reflecting my town and its environment and to finally have 2 disciplines. My disciplines for this would be:
- Textiles
- Photography
- Stage set up – Stylist
So my final piece is all about brining back the history to those children who know nothing about Chatham. I’ve had a lot of inspiration from my Grand-parents who have told me hundreds of stories that have amazed me; from The Brook Theatre actually being under water, to the Medway being frozen. I also got inspiration from a trip to the Isle of Wight where I bought a ‘Teddies Guide to The Isle Of Wight’ book. This book gave me the idea of creating my very own tourist teddy that would travel back to Chatham to see the many changes that have happened over the years. With creating this book, I’d like to educate not only children but adults / tourists themselves, about what Chatham used to be like compared to what it is now.
When I explored Chatham deeper, there where many things that I never even knew existed including many hidden secrets that just had to be told. So… the idea of my teddy bear is to reveal these secrets as he travels back from the past. My teddy bear is called Barney, and he will be dressed in many outfits depending on his scenery. He will be travelling to; The Historic Dockyard, Fort Amherst, The Brook Theatre, The Royal Theatre, The Pier, Admirals garden at the Dockyard, The Naval Memorial plus the Military memorial and many other places, but for all of them he has a well equipped outfit to match. At each venue Barney will taking his own ‘photos’ to record his visit that will later be presented in a story book.
I believe that because im taking the photos as well as making the outfits it will cost me around £21 to make the outfits as I already own a SLR camera and can print the images out for free at home. This will include the materials for the tops and bottoms as well as the extras like braiding and buttons. I don’t think I could afford more than that if im honest as it’s a lot to pay out for on creating clothes for a teddy bear.
Barney cost me £10 so my total costing would be no more than £35, so I have an extra £4 to spend on anything that needs adjusting etc.
My target audience for this book is 13-18 year olds, and even though my book is kind of for the ages of 8-13, I still believe that everyone loves a teddy bear, seeing as many adults I know still have one lying around somewhere; also that fact that they are a sentimental object that many people can relate to, so I have no worries about my age group nor my audience. Not only are teddy bears sentimental but they are also a very popular collectable item amongst the older generation and so I believe this wont affect my target audience age, for its made to cater all ages.
My actual outcome will be exhibited at The Brook Theatre who happens to be my 3rd Client. I wanted to have my outcome talk about the history because it’s in such a historical building and I wanted it to stand out when it will be presented along side all my other class mates work. Although I didn’t really have that much convocation with my 3rd client – the Brook theatre, – I knew I wanted to create something that would represent it and that hopefully they would be proud to display. My stand is in the Dance Studio (which was our chosen room as there was a lot of space, including an old piano and a mirror wall, which we all thought would come in handy when the public have a look at our work.) The stand includes 4 A3 mounted photographs which best represents my work, also my story book for people to look through as well as Barney himself and his little suitcase full of clothes for children to play with. This was one of the ideas Lindsey Strange my client said I should do as it will get my audience involved with Barney and my project. Also she commented on how I would get my feedback from my audience so I told her I would be creating postcards for people to write their comments on about my piece. I thought that having postcards was a relevant piece to have as its more original that a comment book. Also if people like what they see then they can take away a postcard to remind them of my exhibit piece. The postcards will depict images from Barney’s collection that may not have been published in his book. The book will have a series of photos of his travels, where history details will be seen on each page, describing why it is so important. There will also be a few funny comments from Barney (in speech quotes), whereas the rest will be from me – the author. At the beginning of the book will be a little bit about Barney himself and what he is doing and at the end will be photographs of Barney and myself along with the people who have helped me publish my book, including the people who have let me take the photographs for example: The Historic Dockyard.
