Theater, decorations and cosplay — what in common?

Have you ever thought about who makes all those beautiful decorations that appear in the city before Christmas? It turns out that the same people do this as the scenery in the theater and cinema! And this is a difficult job with calculations and selection of materials. We spoke with Alexandra, a student from Saint-Petersburg (Russia) who has been working in this field for a long time.


For a start, tell me briefly what will be discussed at all: what do you do, what names it can wear, in what form it exists?

I call what I do “things”. This is craft, props, various handicrafts … In different areas it all has its own specific name. I call it “things” because I don’t want associations with any particular sphere.

It could be some kind of brooches, decorations, horns for Halloween costumes, or a one-meter jointed doll for a song clip. In general,  I do almost any material things that people need, but they do not understand where to go to get it at all.

You study at a university on a faculty, which is also connected with this. What is it called exactly and what is it?

This is called a “scene technologist faculties”. We design decorations in theaters.  Scene technologists must calculate the materials, methods and production times, and also make these decorations not traumatic — this is also calculated. But in general, in university  we have a lot of courses, graduates can make drawings, models, be artists or a prop.

Why such a profile? There are many other specialties where you can do something with your hands: costume design, sculpture, and so on. Why not them?

It attracted me after participating in the filming of short films or clips, and I tried aging furniture, painting a wall, painting a picture, making a door handle or a cake … In general, you will not get bored.

 As for other specialties … I really like the history of costume and fashion, but I hate sewing, so it wasn’t an option. For sculpture (as, by the way, for all design and almost all creative faculties), it was necessary to pass a drawing and painting exam, and I am not strong in this.

Most spheres are binding to some one material. But in mine there is usually no “correct” way of creating. Here you have two tasks: it should look the way the client imagined  it, and should not break. There are dozens of ways to make, for example, a simple stone. I think it is great. I don’t like routine activities, but here you can come up with something new every time.

I know that you started to be interested in this long before the university. Tell me how it was!

It all started in 2014. I found out about the existence of cosplay and really wanted to try going to the festival in a costume and see what it is all about. Then I took out the angel costume that my dad and I made for the New Year at school, patched it up a bit and went. And I really liked it!

In the same year, I made myself a demon costume. Well, more precisely, I just made the first horns in my life, figured out how to attach them to my head and said that it was a suit. But it was great, they looked very cool then, and I got SO much pleasure from the creation process that then I did not stop. More precisely, I stopped with cosplay a couple of years ago, but not with crafting.

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I also ran a small shop with chokers made of velvet ribbons in school. I sold them through social networks and at garage sales. But then I got bored and stopped. I was still involved in cosplay, so there was still space to apply my imagination and hands.

You said that you like that there is room for creativity. Do you have a favorite material / technology and unloved one? 

I really don’t like papier-mâché. Then the whole room is in glue, all the hands, hair and clothes, everything is dirty, sticky, phew. I know that there are people who are quite accurate with this, but I’m still not. And it dries for a VERY long time.

And my favorite material … I really like to try new ones, but there are some tasks that are easier (and cheaper!) to solve with expanded polystyrene. This is generally a material for insulating walls, similar to polystyrene, but harder and not so crumbly. Some form is usually cut out of it, and then processed on top with something. For some big work —  just an irreplaceable thing. Or when you need to cut something of an unusual shape.

But you have to constantly look for some new ways, because you want to constantly improve the quality and adapt to specific tasks. So you don’t really get used to the materials.

Sometimes you take paid orders. Tell me, is the most frequently handled? What were the most interesting orders you made?

My favorite order was for an elementary school girl who needed a Cerberus costume for Hellas day. I then made three polygonal wolf heads, glued them together and put red bulbs in their eyes. It was great, I really love it. Or just a week ago I gave an order that sounded like “We need a meter-long jointed doll with a glowing heart. And so that gas was opened ” It turned out well, though I would do so much differently now. But the customer was happy, and in the process I learned a lot … So it was definitely interesting.

Your studying is theater-oriented. And what about employment – where can such a specialist go if not to the theater? What career / educational tracks are there in the future and what would you like for yourself?

In the theater there are different options and still…  there is always a film-making  sphere. Much less now, but historical or fantasy movie requires this kind of work.

And also there is an important thing that people never think about: all the decorations in the city are also made by someone. A bunch of New Year’s decorations in the shopping center and on the street, stands, stages, fashion shows, huge shoes in shoe stores … Usually the same agencies are engaged in this as for making decorations in theaters. And there are still many who become an artist or an artist’s apprentice. 

I know for sure that I don’t want to work in the theater. My dream is to receive a stable income from one-time orders. But this is highly unlikely..IAnd now I want to take make-up courses, start to work with new important materials. And with this I can go to the film-making, for example. Then I will be such a master-of-all-handles.

Instagram with Alexandra’s works: @nu_shtuki