The Poitin Makers Child

Poitin Makers Child was such a fun show to work on, with such an amazing team at its back. Even though I haven’t been with the project since its original scratch night the team welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like I’d been working with them for years. This show was the first time I felt confident as a designer and the team helped me realise I don’t need to constantly ask opinions from other people and be confident in my own work and ideas.

We had a recent NTU graduate with us for the rehearsals and one of the show days (Lauren) and she was such a joy to work with. Though we brought her on board to shadow and learn from the Stage Manager (Ali) she also gave me a hand with a few design jobs such as painting and made a few pom-poms for the crochet moss I made.

As soon as I was given the video of the scratch night and a general idea of the show my mind was flooded with ideas for set pieces. I was largely inspired by wishing trees in Ireland, filled with ribbons and knick-knacks hanging above the stage. I’m already very inspired by folklore and mythology of the British Isles and meant that I already owned a lot of the props that could be hung from the tree or placed on the fireplace.

The biggest challenge for the show was the mossy concept I wanted to have. I imagined a mossy floor and set pieces laden with moss. The best way I could think to do this was to crochet! A total of 20 balls of fluffy green wool were used to create patches of moss that were either scattered around the floor or attatched to the set. This was then textured with paint to add a dirty mud effect to pieces.