The group gets to grips with the concept; wetsuits are discussed.

In preparing for today's group workshop I wanted to focus on costume design, and create a scenario which would invite everyone into the process.

The hope was to initiate collaborative conversations about the detail of what exactly we are going to do. In writing the idea, and making certain big picture decisions with my 'team' at home, the opportunity now exists for the wider group to influence the details, and write their own roles.

So, we looked at images connected with our theme. For research I suggested:

the English seaside holiday,

seaside fashions 1900-1930,

and English seaside entertainment especially the concert party and Pierrot troupes.

We brainstormed things connected with the seaside and swimwear. A lovely list of ice cream and rubber rings, buckets and spades, and fish and chips.

 And then I got the group to draw around each other on big paper, and using a limited palette of black white and orange paint, they created costume and prop ideas. All to be built around wetsuits....

This is a challenging approach for a performer, who might usually have explored their role in workshops before ever considering what they look like. But such is the topsy turvy world of the parade.

So we have decorated the walls of the WOW workshop with our efforts, and some really useful ideas have begun to emerge about props, and crucially about roles and the potential for theatre and music.

Here we are hard at work, making fools of ourselves from the start ;P