Helping to make the costumes in the workshop and dressing the performers of the Nature sequence was quite a thrill. Ric Birch, the director of ceremonies, even came and gave us a pep talk before the show. It was such a treat to get to watch the ceremony from the restaurant in the stadium and cheer on our flowers. But I think I had the most fun playing dress-up!
The Blue Lechs (a wildflower from Western Australia), Desert Peas and Snow Gums all had lights in their costumes. It was really strange pulling electrical cords "out of people's necks" so that I could plug them in. I thought the gum-nut hats with the little lightbulbs were so cute! (cont'd below)
The Desert Snow Peas were one of the more dramatic looking and troublesome costumes. But didn't they look AWESOME when they marched down the aisles and flashed the green underside of their capes to form that stunning image of the warratah! Two internal rods supported the head dress and had to be inserted into metal sleeves that were attatched to a backpack harness which was worn by the performer. There was lots of sawing of rods and waxing of tubes at the first dress rehearsal because lots of the rods didn't fit in the sleeves. The head dresses were very heavy and the rods were prone to breaking in the strong winds that swirled round the stadium.
DUCT TAPE TO THE RESCUE! I would love to know the stats on how much duct tape was used to hold the opening ceremonies together! On the night of the opening ceremonies, I had to used wads of duct-tape to construct a make-shift handle for one of the Desert Peas' capes. Lots of the wires in the Blue Lech wings had to be replaced after the first dress rehearsal because they poked right through the material sleeve. Luckily the duct tape patches blended in well with the Blue Lech costumes. It was quite challenging to run in these costumes because they were quite long and heavy but boy was it fun to have wings!
