It has been a massive two years that passed by both in a blink and a century.
My last newsletter finished with "HAPPY CHRISTMAS and bring on 2020” and, oh my, where are we now. This one is pandemic-long and somewhat more personal roundup..
Serendipity has always been one of my favourite words and 2021 would not be 2021 without this.. The DREAM that was to Costume Design a favourite iconic director’s film: David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, dressing Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman, Tanaya Beatty. Lihi Kornowski, Don McKellar, Weket Bungué amongst many incredibly talented humans and working alongside an equally uber-talented and heartwarming group of below-the-line-but-in-my-heart professionals.
But back to the beginnings and 2020:
The Process opened to great success. A play that mixed BSL with spoken English in a seamless way and marked the Bunker’s final show; a space that is no more, at least as it was before.
Blue Jasmine (that gave me a best set design award in 2019) came down after a successful sell out year and a half and was stored and ready for a transfer that 'pandemically' never happened..
Koini Isihia (mixing performance with spoken word along with Vasilis’ Papakonstantinou incredible singing voice and stage presence opened in Athens, only to close after 2 weeks when lockdown happened and reopen a year and a half later in "almost-post-pandemic” times. Macbeth had the same luck.
A fab new play by Dare Aiyegbayo, ironically clad full in PPE was also about to open in Chichester.. It actually opened a year later with a new cast in a world that had carved a place for that PPE.
Covid also killed a beloved opera in Denmark after twice postponing..
The SBTD’s exhibition ‘Staging Places’ was coming to an end at the V&A. My (controversially semi naked) costumes for Lysistrata subsequently transferred to the National Centre for Craft and Design during Covid times.
So the world turned upside down. Brexit and Covid and Covid and more Covid in all the letters of my beloved Greek alphabet, most famously Delta and Οmikron. And with everything closed, connecting became important.
The past year and a half was a time of terrific lows and incredible highs. Fear was a constant theme -not just of Covid -personal stuff, four days in ICU, losing people close to me, fear about really. basic. things. A new friend recently told me that when things were low and gloomy, going somewhere high up melted any depression away. The analogy is so beautifully real it makes it poetic. A phoenix always rises up. The highs and the love and support of precious humans held my head above water.
I also looked at the sky. A lot. I did not enjoy watching theatre on line or on a screen, but watching Lungs made me cry.
My two work hats, that of theatre and film came in useful as plays were designed to be filmed, zoom plays were popping up, and the boundaries of stage and screen became fluid for the first time. Knowing what can work in both worlds was encouraging and empowering. R&D’s became my limbo playground and safe place for a while. Freedom, creativity, sharing, openness; the digging-in the play-pie with other creative minds, creating open-ended mood boards, connecting with actors earlier rather than later in the process. LISTENING.
In May 2020 and out of a great sense of urgency for cross-pollination I started this group to join up the dots of the performing arts across the globe so that we can learn from each other and what each country is doing as COVID spread, but in reverse. A springboard platform to share thoughts, strategies, fears and how to go about things in order to hopefully re-invent and re-define the future. Artists have always been so generous with the audience. In this group we were generous with each other.
-in other words it was just my way of keeping sane and trying to make sense of it all and look into the Future with optimism.
In autumn 2020 I put together 1 that became 3 global zooms, The Stage of Things, hosting 40 speakers from 27 countries across 5 continents. Incredible and totally generous theatre professionals sharing their experiences on touring during this time and giving a timeline of their countries’ opening/closing of theatres and covid response/funding and artists' initiatives.
And Homeschooled. Well, more like worked-alongside-on-the-same-kitchen-table or together in the studio, seeing a 7-year-old become 8 and 9 but actually becoming a teenager. Covid times maturing her so much beyond her years. Most silver of all linings to be able to spend 24/7 with this precious, extraordinary, beautiful, talented and extremely smart human.
Pari opened at the Berlinale and went on to win many many awards in subsequent film festivals and gave me a nomination for Best Costume Design.
I Will Cross Tomorrow, a bitter sweet journey of a Syrian refugee managed to find its way to cinemas in France and Luxembourg during the pandemic.
Costume department in Covid times can prove to be more than a challenge. And this Italian Period DocuFiction is now in Post Production without me actually making it to Italy due to lockdowns and subsequent Covid related difficulties.. Grateful to my number one, Matina, for being on the other side of every video call and doing miracles in making me feel like I were there as she filmed(!) fabrics in shops and channelled me remotely.
…and drew little 1 metre circles around humans on stage for safe signing, acting, playing. And workshopped this baby show..Underwater #Underwaterbabyshow (coming in spring 2022).
2021 meant finally back to making models, with Sweeney Todd leaving East London to go to Oxford -bring on covid restricted zoom tech (doh!) followed by a facemask to facemask dress rehearsal.
I was able to dip my toes a little deeper into Creative Directing, Copywriting and the Marketing World and loved it.. Bring on conjuring up virtual award ceremonies, playing godmother and curating a spiced rum and a bubbly wine, writing speeches for radiant humans and finishing 2021 with some Green Screen magic..
Some of the most fulfilling and heart warming projects are sometimes those out of the box. A commission to make a Pollock-style Victorian Theatre kit and Christmas Carol for kids for WEIS. And hosting Mindful Doodling and drawing zooms during lockdown for humans seeking sanctuary.
My love for community and bringing people together formed in many many ways during the pandemic. The highlight being that after 2 years, in December 2021 I managed to organise the first almost-post-pandemic Wapping Open Studios (Christmas ’21 mini edition) which saw 7 spaces and more than 20 artists open studios, sell art and offer free workshops.
Distance is healing. Back in March 2020 all I could see was the shows that were closing or the work that was stopping. The uncertainty. Now I realise how very lucky I was to be surrounded by resilient humans that kept projects going, or more adventurous humans who invited me to inspiring R&Ds and kept my muscles flexed.
Being able to be in a theatre or shoot again brought back a very old, forgotten feeling: the straight-out-of-theatre-school rush of “being and working in a space for real”. Full circle on serendipity as I was sent this paper clipping by a precious friend: the dreamy 1997 memory of Fool for Love.
First EVER job: Stage Manager (and DSM) and timidly trying on a Costuming hat because our wonderful designer Helen did not enjoy costumes.
I could not be more grateful.
Love to you all, with all my heart, and for all the pleasant crimes we can have together and what may come in 2022.
Mayou x
