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.

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!I hot glued my fingers fur to the ears.I stitched a 6-gore cap out of the fur with holes for the ears.(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…)I glued the nose/teeth back on the end of the snout.

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

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