Costume Design students to provide costumes for Gingerbread Man pantomine at The Lowry

Characters in The Barton Theatre Company’s production will be dressed in outfits designed and produced using sustainable materials by 12 third-year students in the first pantomime collaboration for the University's BA course.

The students have had to design and pitch 16 costumes to the independent theatre company before beginning production on the larger-than-life outfits last month.

The project was incorporated into the third-year module ‘Costume for Life Performance’ and the students have taken to the challenge with a real flourish.

Katherine Foster, Programme Leader and Lecturer for BA Costume Design said: “We have been really impressed by the work produced by the students so far considering that they had a short turnaround time to deliver the designs for Barton.

“This is a nice gentle introduction into the industry for them as well as a bit of pressure for them to see what it’s like work on an industry production.

“We’ve collaborated with them to help streamline the process but we’ve also allowed them to be as creative as possible with the work. The standard has been very high.”

Katherine added that with the production being a pantomime, the designs for the outfits require brighter and bolder designs than traditional theatre costumes with students able to combine elements of comedy and slapstick.

Besides the traditional pantomime dame Merry Berry and the titular Gingerbread Man, a majority of the outfits are for anthropomorphised characters. 

Gingerbread Man: The Panto will be at The Lowry from Friday 12 January to Sunday 14 January.

NOTE: The costume designs below are from BA Costume Design students Phoebe Niemira, Emily Mortimer and Isla Byrne.