PAULINA SOCHACKA

My name is Paulina Sochacka and I’m a certified theatre designer with a bachelor's degree from ATU Sligo, Ireland. I have had opportunities to work on projects which made me continue to improve my skills in model making, set construction, sewing, photoshop and AutoCad. As well as communication, teamwork and time management. I am also a make-up artist with 6 years of self-taught experiences and 2 professional ones which were a part of my college projects. One of the projects I have done is create a costume from scratch for The Tempest’s Ariel. The idea for the costume was to make a garment that can be more than just one thing. Ariel fit perfectly for that as it’s a spirit, it shapeshifts and flows around. Therefore, there was an opportunity for me to play around. I divided the costume into three parts, Ariel’s shapeshifting parts; water, earth and the free spirit. Came up with a graphic design to paint on the water part which would complement the type of character Ariel is. The main thing about this costume is that it’s supposed to be transformative, as in the actor being able to simply “shapeshift” right on the stage. Blue and green really stuck to me as they are colours associated with the earth, and are different from each other, which that exactly what Ariel is when they shapeshift. The last piece, “the reveal” is supposed to be the biggest, most relaxing looking. As that’s when Ariel finally gets their freedom. I have used a bunch of ruffles to have this fluffiness. And a see-through cape that goes down Ariel’s back, which portrays the spirit finally being able to breath. I used make-up wax to create fins of fish and fishnet tights for the texture. As Ariel originality is water, I ultimately saw the character forming themselves from water in a human shaped form but with still a couple of fish parts.

I had the pleasure of working with a variety of talented artists and professionals which boosted my recognition for my work, as well as motivation to stay inspired and expand my art. I assisted Patrick McEneaney from Exit Theatre as a set designer during the summer of 2021 for his short film "Group Therapy." I have also had the opportunity to work abroad at an American summer camp "French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts" in New York, where I have done stagecraft and props for the camp’s theatre plays throughout the whole summer of 2022. And have returned in summer 2023, this time as a professional costume designer.