Panto (December 2013). The Magic Looking Glass. Set Design.

I was not involved in any of the production of the Magic Looking Glass but just loved the original drawing that our Tutor had drawn and was intrigued how the final piece would look.

 

The original idea was that some actors would stand to the sides of the Looking Glass and that the mirror part would be of some stretchy fabric that an actor could push their face against whilst standing behind the mirror, thus being the Magic Person within the Mirror that spoke.

 

 

The fabric was of shiny lycra that was sprayed silver as far as I can tell along with the rest of the frame.

The first picture shows the fabric being stapled to a frame that was then hinged onto the back of the Looking Glass frame, this was to allow the actors to actually step through the Looking Glass by means of the Mirror opening like a door.

I did like the whole concept of this idea and the actor pushing their face and hands against the back of the fabric was quite effective but they did claim it was difficult as they had to push quite hard whilst delivering their lines for it to look effective.