A rather dramatic business

Some local residents have the most fascinating businesses. One is Monique Hollinshead. Readers will remember her amazing success in the Triple Ironman event this summer, reported on Audlem Online. Here, however, Monique describes her 'day job' in which she is a regular user of the Audlem Post Office.

This was published as a News story earlier in November. It does, we believe, deserve a second airing as a Homepage article. We hope you agree.

A Rather Dramatic Business
My business is freelance costume making and design for theatre and television.

I grew up in Hatherton and graduated in 1989 from the renowned Theatre Costume Design HND at Mabel Fletcher's in Liverpool.

After spending time working at Contact Theatre, Opera North and teaching costume at Bretton Hall College and the University of Leeds I decided to go into full time freelancing. This enabled a move back home as freelancers in this profession tend to work in small home based workshops, travelling only for fittings and filming.

VariedThe work is incredibly interesting and varied. One week I could be making fat padding for a drama documentary on Peter Sutcliffe, the next making trees that dance for the ballet.

What have I done that people might have heard of? Well if you are in your teens, you might have watched My Parents are Aliens – a children's programme that ran for seven series. I tended to do the costumes for Brian played by Tony Gardner, as well as the children. My favourite thing I made was a giant pair of boxing gloves an exact replica but 5 times larger and reaching to the floor!

If you are a youngster, you might have seen episodes of BBC's Prank Patrol with Barney Harwood. For this programme a friend has a prank played on him usually with a "Candid Camera" style scare moment at the end. For this I have made monsters for Barney to wear. There can only be one take as the fright will only work once so the costume has to be just right.

Northern BalletFor those a bit older recent work has included mice and rats for Northern Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker and Mesolithic costumes for a National Geographic Channel's Stone Age Atlantis drama documentary.

Whilst teaching at the University part of my role involved preparing and delivering workshops for schools as part of the Widening Participation agenda. Since leaving I have continued to take costume workshops into schools for curriculum enhancement events such as technology weeks.

Rural businessI have found since moving back into area that living in a rural environment does not mean inconvenience and isolation. Nowadays so much preliminary discussion is done via email, work is easily dispatched from the local Post Office (yes, it's me that causes the queue to build up with my boxes!). I even have my books taken care of by Audlem Accounting who are less than 100 yards from my door.

I find that a lot of work is collaborative – working with other freelancers scattered around the country. One such is prosthetics company Hybrid FX based in Guiseley, West Yorkshire who frequently require costume or padding to compliment their work.

Other companies I work for are out of the realm of theatre and film but still require a bespoke costume solution, for example Mamas and Papas, the maternity clothing and equipment retailer, have commissioned various pregnancy paddings for photo shoots, and display items for their stores.

Baby bumpOne of the largest tasks has been rolling out their "baby bump" personal shopper service to all their stores – a padding for women to try on to enable them to choose a maternity wardrobe for their entire pregnancy. With their franchises in Dubai and India, parcels get sent to some exotic locations.

Living back in the village has also meant I can get involved with the community helping out the costume team on the forthcoming Audlem pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. How do the bears that I am making fit into the story? Well you'll have to come and see it.

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