"soonchild" speculative design project

Year 2 began in October and we started with our first project of the term: designing both set and costume for "Soonchild" by Russel Hoban. This project would differ from the previous year as we were working along with Red Earth Theatre, who specialises on touring theatre for children and people with disabilities.

Through this we learned a lot about the challenges that come with designing for a touring theatre. It cannot be too big and it has to be durable. Getting my head around this at first was tricky, however once I had come up with an idea I enjoyed fulfilling its conditions along with the terms of Red Earth.

The directors of Red Earth were part of the process of this project. This meant that we presented our White Card Models to them as well as our final designs. It was a great experience to practice presenting and selling ourselves. Despite them being professional theatre makers, they were kind and constructive with their feedback and enthusiastic with us from the start. It was clear to me that they were keen on seeing how we would read into this script and what new world we would create for the children.

As well as collaborating with directors, we had a day trip to a local school here in Nottingham, where we worked with children aged seven to see how our ideas might make them feel and to gather inspiration from their reactions and feedback. It was a very enjoyable day and I hope to work more with children in the future.

This project and process did not only inspire my designs and outlook on working with touring theatre, but also reinforced my dream to continue working with children in the near future as a career.