Toronto Underground Cinema - Raptor Costume Revisited!

The Toronto Underground Cinema's 2011 pinup calendar features the lovely Sam in my Raptor costume pieces! The hood and gloves are my original designs :)

PHOTO CREDIT: IF YOU FALL PHOTOGRAPHY + TORONTO UNDERGROUND CINEMA 2011. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The Long Awaited Epic Blog Post of Jurassic Park on the Silver Stage! Pt. 3 - Trannysaurus Rex

Our amazing director Alex Woodside stepped forward last minute to fill the shoes of the Drag T-Rex or as I fondly refer to her, Trannysaurus Rex. This involved a wide range of acrobatics, screaming and general molestation and he pulled it off immaculately! I don't have photos of all the costume pieces for this unfortunately but I do have some great shots of him in action!


I wanted to do something different for the Rex head because scale wise, compared to the Raptors it would have been quite larger. Instead of trying to do the obvious and just scale things up, I decided on a totally different route and made a Rex Fascinator, or little hat to sit on top of the head that had a thin elastic band to keep it on around the neck. Then I made a neck corset out of red faux leather and added a row of teeth on the top of it. Additionally, the costume had a white elastic harness like the other dinosaurs. Unfortunately I don't have any detailed shots of the collar or harness but you can see how it looks in the live shots.

Some shots of the live show and full costume:

The Long Awaited Epic Blog Post of Jurassic Park on the Silver Stage! Pt. 2 - Dilophosaurus

The Dilophosaurus costume was challenging but much fun as I had decided to additionally interpret the neck ruff that expands when the dinosaur is ready to attack its prey and spit poison in the movie. Instead of spitting poison, our lovely Kim blew bubbles at Dennis Nedry:)

Before sewing everything, I screened the fabric by hand.The dual crests on the top of the head were padded so they were more three dimensional. I pregathered red tulle and contoured it around the eye folds. Again with the back of the hood neck, I added in elastic in order to keep the head more securely positioned.

The elastic harness had a boned collar that I did similar to a neck corset. It was attached to the harness shoulders and could be pulled upright during attacks and left down the rest of the time.

Here are some live shots of the Dilophosaurus in action on the stage:

The Long Awaited Epic Blog Post of Jurassic Park on the Silver Stage! Pt. 1 - Raptors

This year I was privileged enough to be the costume designer for a massive and amazing undertaking during Toronto's 2009 Fringe Week! Alex Woodside, the director (and later christened as Trannysaurus Rex) decided that there could be no better shadow cast than one of JURASSIC PARK! I did something like 25 costumes in a month and a half, it was extremely exhausting but I had the time of my life. Everyone that worked on the show is extremely talented and just good people in general:)

Alex, Brian and I were interviewed on CBC radio Canada Day which was pretty cool. We got a great article in Eye Weekly about the various shows:

http://www.eyeweekly.com/arts/theatre/article/64764

The lovely Jen Houston on She Does the City did a kick ass article on our show:

http://www.shedoesthecity.com/raunchy_jurassic_park_has_makings_of_a_future_cult_classic

Our talented Brian Dunn, who played Dr. Alan Grant, did a video show all about the production and interviewed various cast members:

http://www.bite.ca/video/The-Life-of-Alan-Grant-Jurassic-Park-Bloor-Shadowcast!/

Every night was sold out or over capacity and the audience participation was phenomenal! Tan Pants! And now, on to the costumes:D

Kim and Sam were our sexy VELOCIRAPTORS!

I designed each of them a set of hand screened head, gloves and spats. The heads had an elastic band running through the bottom of the back hood to keep it a little more secure while the girls were doing their tangos and molest-killing various victims on stage!

Along with the bodysuits I designed a dominatrix type elastic harness vest that attached under the bust with suspender clasps!

Here are some live shots of the Raptors, including the lovely Elke who was our sexy burlesque hatching raptor! I made her an 'egg' that was a spandex case that vecroed up the front so she could open it up during her routine! I also made her a pair of undies with the JP logo on the bum:)