Odd and the Frost Giants

Based on Neil Gaiman’s 2008 novel Odd and the Frost Giants, this was my first foray into being a writer/director in my school’s student theater. This was a wonderful experience for me, from the first thrill of getting permission from Mr. Gaiman to the final performance. I had full creative freedom, with the exception of a minuscule budget. I found that the small budget gave me confines to play within, which encouraged my creativity even more. Inspired by the work of Manual Cinema, I wanted to use an overhead projector to play with shadow puppets, which is something I tried to incorporate throughout the show.

Odd and the Frost Giants follows a young disabled Viking child who runs away from their abusive home. After leaving, they meet a talking fox, bear, and owl. The animals soon reveal themselves to be Loki, Thor and Odin, stripped of their magic and cursed to be stuck in their animal bodies. Odd is their only hope.

Writer/Director/Puppet Designer: Eliana Spitler

Lighting Designer: Mars Mulvin

Sound Designer: Micah Manternach

Producers: Daniel Porea and Olivia Daoud

Projections

Introduction Sequence

For the introduction sequence, I took inspiration from Manual Cinema’s work with overhead projectors. I used a mixture of shadow puppets, black and white transparencies, and colored transparencies to show character journeys and the passage of time. I based the shadow puppet’s design on Scandinavian artwork. I operated the puppets and transparencies myself.

Dream Sequence

Odd has a dream sequence where they interact with dream versions of their parents. I decided that I would have them interact with shadow puppet versions of their parents for this moment, in order to create a narrative through-line with the puppets.

Costumes

For the costumes for this production, I took inspiration from designs for Peter and the Starcatcher and Pippin. Odd takes place during Viking times, so I had to make a decision as to how historically accurate the costumes would be. I decided that the costumes would be generically timeless, speaking to a time period based off of the context of the show but not being accurate. I asked my actors to supply their own timeless base costumes, while I would supply specific costume pieces. Each actor had a physical transformation of some kind during the show, whether it was changing from one character to another, transforming from an animal into a god, or aging midshow.

Odd

For Odd, I had to deal with several issues: one, the character is disabled. Two, the actor needs to be able to move in the costume. Three: Odd needs to age from around twelve to sixteen during a ten second black out. I began by giving Kaity Jones, Odd’s actor, an inspiration board for Odd.

Peter and the Starcatcher design by Paloma Young

Pippin design by Dominique Lemieux

Below is the costume that we settled on. Kaity wore a Scandinavian-esq sweater, jeans, winter boots, and her hair in pigtails while Odd is supposed to be young.

To show that they have aged, Odd’s hair is let down from their pigtails. Then, at the conclusion of the play Odd wore a cape, to show that they have now been blessed by the gods. An image I kept remembering for this moment is the ending of the movie Stardust (2007, dir. Matthew Vaughn) where the lead returns home and has been so physically affected from his journey that he isn’t recognized by his own family. While I was not able to have such a drastic change with the limited time and space, I tried to emulate that feeling.

Odin

Odin had to make the transition from an eagle to a god onstage. While having to figure out how this would work costuming wise, I also had to figure out how to have this costume transition happen in front of the audience. In the script, Freya magically transforms the gods into their human forms. Because of that, I decided to have the gods have base costumes with animal costume pieces worn on top, that could easily be removed.

As with Odd, I began by sending Alexis Saizan, Odin’s actress, an inspiration board.

Alexis absolutely knocked it out of the park with her base costume! I then supplied her with a cape with a feather shawl pinned to it and loops sewn to it to function as wings and a bird mask. I glued a piece of white mesh over one eye hole so that it appeared that one eye is cloudy.

For the gods’ human forms, I wanted each god to have a piece to add to their base costume after their animal pieces are removed. For Odin, she got an eyepatch.

Thor

Thor, meanwhile, had to transition from a bear into a god onstage. Again, I began by sharing an inspiration board with Kate Cuznetova, Thor’s actress.

We ended up with a black collared shirt, black jeans, and clunky Doc Martens for Thor’s base costume. Then, I brought in a fur blanket to drape over Kate’s shoulders and mittens for her to wear, to make her hands more resemble paws.

Thor’s god object, when he transitioned into his human form, was his hammer.

Loki

Loki, meanwhile, had to be able to transition from a fox to a god onstage. There was also the added complication that Loki would spend most of the show crawling on all fours. Again, I began by sending Reese Dam, Loki’s actress, an inspiration board for the base costume.

For the base costume, Reese wore leggings, an orange blouse, and a gray cardigan. I gave her black gloves, fox ears, and a fox tail to wear as animal pieces.

To transition to her human form, Loki buttoned up her cardigan and wore a green cape.

Elfred/Frost Giant

For this actor, he had to change from Odd’s stepfather to a frost giant backstage. As before, we began with an inspiration board.

Leo Selva, the actor who played Elfred and the Frost Giant, came in with an all black base costume, with scarfs he could change in between characters. He also wore a gray faux-fur lined coat inside out as a cape as the Frost Giant. I supplied him with an “ice princess crown” off of Amazon to wear as the Frost Giant as well.

Leo Selva as Elfred, Odd’s stepfather

Leo Selva as the Frost Giant

Mother/Freya

The actress who played Odd’s mother, similar to Elfred/Frost Giant, had to transition from Mother to Freya backstage. One added character feature is that Mother is supposed to be from Scotland, so I decided to incorporate some plaid to convey this to the audience. Once again, we started with an inspiration board.

Catherina Saldias Montevero, Mother/Freya’s actress, brought in a black dress and sweater as her base costume. I supplied her with a shawl for Mother and a cape for Freya.

Catherina Saldias Montevero as Mother

Catherina Saldias Montevero as Freya