with Amy Funbuttons
Saturday, April 18th from 4-6pm
cost: $60
Have you ever wanted to ditch the athleisure and create a costume that truly transports your audience and tells a story? I’ve been designing and assembling my own performance costumes for years, and I’d love to share the process (and the fun!) with you.
In this workshop, we’ll explore character and motivation to help you develop a strong costuming concept. We’ll discuss how to choose materials and design elements that support both your artistic vision and the functional demands of performance. Once you have a clearer sense of your costume direction, we’ll cover practical considerations like timelines, budgeting, and troubleshooting common design challenges.
We’ll also tackle some of the age-old questions performers face: trapeze boots or pants? Tights or bare legs? Rhinestones or appliqué? Together we’ll explore ways to solve costuming quandaries and thoughtfully integrate hairstyle, makeup, and even props into your act. Participants will also get to explore a variety of costume accessories such as fascinators, gauntlets, wigs, and reveal elements and discuss how they can enhance character and help tell the story of an act.
Participants are welcome to bring an existing costume for feedback, brainstorming, or additional embellishment or to simply to share their creation with the group.
Prerequisites: NONE! It may be helpful to spend some time imagining your ideal costume. Feel free to bring photos, color swatches, trinkets, book covers… anything that inspires you.
Instructor Bio:
Amy Funbuttons, Rope Hussy, is a multi-disciplinary performance artist specializing in aerial rope. She loves the challenge of the vertical apparatus and the freedom of dynamic movement.
Her circus expertise includes fire flow, stilting and her new ground act, the BED OF NAILS. This irreverent showgirl has performed all over the US, including Pacific Northwest spectacles like Bumbershoot, Moisture Festival, the Woodland Park Zoo, the Pink Door and the Bellingham Circus Guild! In her free time she enjoys eating donuts, dressing up like a cowboy and going to bed early. Find out more at www.amyfunbuttons.com
