After joining The Northern School of Art’s Hartlepool campus course in 2024 the former Northampton College student from Silverstone in Northamptonshire had the opportunity to be part of a prestigious large-scale outdoor production celebrating the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington railway.
When costume design lecturer Sally Donegan offered the chance to be a part of Ghost Train, a two-part outdoor spectacle by renowned outdoor performance specialists Avanti Display and Walk the Plank, Eleanor jumped at the chance.
The event staged in Darlington and Stockton at the end of September 2025 was to mark 200 years of passenger rail with fire, music, performance, and community. Eleanor then spent the next nine months creating a costume for the production, taking it from initial design through to pattern drafting, fittings and final construction before supporting the dressing team during performances.
Her experience highlights how practical, industry-facing projects give students the chance to apply their training, develop problem-solving skills and understand the full workflow of a professional production.
“I wanted to take part to fully follow the journey of my costume from the initial stages of finding out what the designs looked like to seeing them being worn on stage accompanied by all the sound and lighting that had been meticulously thought through to bring the bicentenary to life,” Eleanor commented.
“The project required me to make a costume over a period of months which included taking the design from the costume designer and bringing it to life through pattern drafting, toile making, initial fittings, pattern adaptation, making in the final fabric and final fittings. Once the costumes were made, they were worn throughout rehearsals. These costumes were altered to give the actors costumes a more bespoke fit, and finally they were worn on the final production.
“I felt very proud to be selected and honoured that I could help further with the larger creative process,” she said, adding, “My course was unbelievably helpful in teaching me skills like correctly fitting a garment, altering hems as well as other skills like correctly organising my space, and communicating with the team to problem solve.”
Reflecting on what she learned from the live brief, Eleanor said: “Being involved taught me to always be prepared. Some days I forgot simple things like pins, but luckily the team I was working with was always on the ball and could provide me with the tools I needed. It also taught me never to be afraid to ask questions. There were several instances when altering costumes when sleeves and hems were completely different lengths, if I was too scared to ask if these alterations were correct there would have been some strangely fitted costumes!”
After attending the performances she added: “It felt amazing to stand in the crowd and watch the performance after nine months of being involved in the project, and for everything to suddenly click. I was stood there thinking oh now it makes total sense why they were using that prop, and yes now I remember them mentioning that in their pitch.”
Connect with Eleanor on LinkedIn
