I used to get roped in to help and costume/set usually ended up incorporating props making/buying too. In terms of what to include here, I've gone for major contributions or credits, rather than general assistance like helping paint the flats for Meir Players' production of Laburnum Grove in the Mitchell Memorial Theatre in Hanley or cutting out cloth leaves for Pointed Arrow Theatre's production of The Crossing at the Left Bank Arts Centre in Leeds for Light Night 2010 (I now know why I was taught about tessellation at school: it's for making economical use of cloth - thank goodness for tailor's chalk!).
Sixth Form:
A Midsummer Night's Dream (St. Joseph's College, Trent Vale, Staffordshire) - set-painting: silhouetted clearing in a wood against a blue sky.
Under Milk Wood (St. Joseph's College, Trent Vale, Staffordshire) - set-painting: sihouetted village against a sunset sky.
Undergraduate Years:
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dalton Theatre Company, Manchester) - set: giant freestanding flowers; costume: late 60s, including hippie, Indian and Mary Quant (think Yellow Submarine) and breakaway necklaces (see fighting).
Macbeth (Dalton Theatre Company, Manchester) - set: multiple levels of steel deck enabling exits up stairs, lighting actors from beneath and murdering them behind them painted into a post-apocalytic, post-industrial setting with exposed conduits, rusting metal panels and exposed brick work; costume: military - officers' uniforms for kings/princes, urban combats for others and green camouflague with capes for witches; military-style clothing for functionaries - highly tailored (Hecate), completely ragged (Porter); black-tie for female characters (or equivalent high-end for nightware); props: swords, scabbards.
Postgraduate Years:
Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters (Dalton Theatre Company, Manchester) - set: additional steel deck to allow up to four different places to be depicted at once, while the stage was sub-divided with a door that could be seen to be blown open with pyrotechnics.
The Changeling (Cornerstone Theatre, Manchester) - set: a garden interior backdrop inspired by Renaissance palaces, with minimal furniture (a table which did duty as both an altar and a desk).
Shakers (Two Ring Theatre, Manchester) - set: tables, chairs and bar trimmings with a pink, sparkly and palm tree theme to overlay the decor of a real (functioning) pub bar/function room.
Under the Sea Hall Ball (Birks Halls, Exeter) - set: entrance-way tableaux of a mermaid, a diver and a treasure chest (see also lighting).
James Bond Rag Float (Birks Halls, Exeter) - set-painting: a giant Martini bottle.
Private Lives (Student Theatre, Exeter) - set: two hotel balconies with 1920s garden furniture and the interior of a 1920s flat. I was instrumental in securing some authentic garden furniture and props, like a telephone and gramophone, from local antique dealers, also for sourcing breakable records and 1920s furs, jewellery and nick nacks to place on the beshawled grand piano.
Hollywood Hall Ball (Birks Halls, Exeter) - set-painting: Egyptian gods 'frescoes' to cover the windows and walls of the room with the disco.
Euripides' Alcestis (Classics Student Drama Group, Exeter) - set: Greek palace exterior of Cyclopaean architecture with outdoor altar and surrounding trees, inspired by Aubrey Beardsley and stained glass art; costume: Aubrey Beardsley inspired with servants/Death all based in audience expectation of those characters, children's costumes reminiscent of Victorian children's wear.
Post-doctoral Years:
Underworlds Live in Leeds (We Love Classics @ Leeds) - costume: masks, single item costumes and appropriate props for ten Greek, Roman and Egyptian characters. The costumes were described as "brilliant" by the Light Night Organisers and selected to provide visual interest for an article focusing on arts events put on in/by the Town Hall in the Yorkshire Evening Post.
