The Wiz: Lions Maine/Wig- 3rd May

The Wiz: Lions Maine/Wig- 3rd May

It was brought to our attention as a group that an element to our costume may be seen as cultural appropriation. One of our course mates who is not part of Razzamataz messaged us via the Creative Arts for Theatre and Film group chat, three other members also contributed to this as an issue. I was the acting as the spoke person for our group and was writing out what we needed to say. Our client had wanted us to create a costume for the lion, who is a character in the popular musical 'The Wiz', this is a Mo-town version of the Wizard of Oz, for us as designers we wanted to capture two things, one of these was the original character and look of the lion in the Wizard of Oz and the other was the more humanised approach of The Wiz. We had previously briefed our client and she was extremely happy with the ideas we had. The design as to make a crazy, Maine like hairpiece out of real looking hair and dreadlocks that would be dressed with beads. The comment that was made that was 'Afro hair is not a costume. It was said that we could of used other materials to create the kind of look that we wanted, e.g. wool, fur. However, we had pitched this to our client and she preferred the real hair option, as it was her ultimate decision, we went with what she wanted. Other members of the chat said that it was ignorant and unprofessional for us not to be aware of the problems with using this sort of thing as a costume and advising our client differently. Coming from a very non diverse background on the Isle of Wight, it didn't even cross my mind when discussing our designs, that this could be seen as offensive. In regards to trying my best to resolve the issue, we contacted our tutors and consoled in them for advise on the next step of action to take. We were told to inform of our client of the issue and get her opinion, which is what we did. She was in a similar frame of mind to us and it didn't even cross her mind that this could be seen as offensive, and as its a Mo-town inspired production, our lion would not of been the only element that would be using afro inspired hair, she also said that she would be happy for us to change the design into something that everyone was happy with. I got in contact with the member of the course that identified the issue and said that we were in the process of changing the design and that we wanted to meet and talk things over as I wasn't happy with things being communicated over social media, this is because it is unprofessional and it is hard to express feelings. We then spoke to another course tutor, she suggested that we have a meeting with everyone, this was so we could all formerly explain and apologise, as I have personally been extremely upset about the whole situation. I will also be writing (with a tutors help) a message to inform everyone of this meeting. I think the best way to think of this situation is to try and make it positive. From this I know I will never over look something like this, and myself as a designer will hopefully be better from it. As a course we have also identified things that we would benefit from, this ranges from a handbook that includes things like this that we can look to if we are not 100% sure if something would be considered offensive, it also includes having a set of rules in place before working in a group. The most important one being that no issues or problems will ever be brought up over social media and they must be dealt with face to face. Social media shouldn't be the main way se commutate as a group and hopefully a more formal way of talking will be used so that it can be used fir production meetings and Client's could also be apart of these groups. I will be changing the design for the lions headpiece completely and incorporating more of an actual lion, so it is very clear that it is a part of a costume.