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May 21, 2013

How I “made an ass” out of Nick Bottom…

“I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid..” ~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream (III.1.940-44)

Ahhhhhhh, Shakespeare! The drama teacher had some wonderful ideas for this production. She wanted the donkey head for her actor to be something that wouldn’t cover his whole head; especially the mouth as his lines are so important & the play was to be done without mics.

We started with a simple mask from a costume supplier.58026-large

The snout was obviously way too small – the actor’s nose was crunched inside. I removed it and added an extension fashioned from a water bottle!a1I hot glued my fingers fur to the ears.ejhotglueI stitched a 6-gore cap out of the fur with holes for the ears.DSCN7319(I cut out the eyes later…) I hot glued my fingers and thumb all around to secure the cap. I covered the outside & inside of the muzzle with the fur. The tuft of black hair that was originally on the mask was reattached between the ears. I also added a length of black faux fur for a mane (so the fairy queen & her fairies could stroke it…)a7I glued the nose/teeth back on the end of the snout.

a8I’ll leave you with some (blurry – sorry – no flash allowed!) photos of Nick Bottom in action.IMG_20130517_195055_064This young man is an incredible actor!IMG_20130517_195159_241His adlib one-liners kept the audience laughing.IMG_20130517_195221_064

The stretch fur of the cap kept the mask on his head, no matter his antics.IMG_20130517_195329_829The fairy queen was quite besotted! SmileIMG_20130517_195501_437The fairy attendants (you can read about their costumes here) giggled at his flirting.IMG_20130517_195516_648Totally worth a few glue blisters on my fingers…

 

 

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