Another year is coming to a close.

I will say, I feel like this year was a turning point in my craft.   I have started practicing and refining skills through a lot of trial and error.  I'm getting better at fitting, it no longer takes me an hour to put in a zipper and I'm feeling up to tackling my abysmally messy hand sewing.  It's getting neater, slowly, but surely.

In the midst of all the costuming, I did something crazy I swore I would never do:

Hard Theatre Truths

Working in theatre is really hard.

Being on stage is certainly a challenge, but working behind the scenes to make sure there is a theatre to perform in is at best a Herculean feat, and at worst, a Sisyphean one.

There is never enough of any of the following items:

- Money
- Time
- Whatever item is absolutely essential to you completing the task at hand.

But, as a producer/artistic director/designer/technician/stagehand/actor it is your job to make sure that the production is as good as it can possibly be - in spite of the very obvious limitations you might possess.

So you skimp where you can. You hire one less stagehand, you make dresses out of bed sheets and curtains, you cut a set piece or 12 and claim there's more room for dancing now, you dance in shoes that might hurt your feet a bit.

You make the show go on.

And sometimes, that takes a toll.  It makes you feel like everyone is criticizing you, makes you want to control every little thing you see, even when you might know that letting the show be on its' own is usually a better tactic.

It makes you tired.

It makes you cranky.

But taking that out on other people who are trying to make the show go on, never ends well for anyone.  It makes people forget that the show is bigger than all of its parts, and it makes them start focusing on the minutiae of the run, not the big picture of the freaking MAGIC that is making a live show happen.

There is no reason all these people should be in that room, transporting an audience to another place and time and doing so for very little (if any) money.  It's for the joy.  For the feeling of being part of something MAGICAL that should never work, but somehow (it's a mystery) all most always manages to happen.



I'm working on a show that is having all of these problems.  For a change, the one snapping isn't me. But, since I've been there, I can see how that behavior won't help the show.  And therein lies a new motto:

Your ego is never more important 

than the show as a whole.

If you are lucky enough to be a part of a show, it is your duty to make it happen, barring pain or danger to your personage.  And sometimes those become negotiable too.  

It's ain't pretty, but the fact that so many people still want to be a part of making the magic means something far more important is happening when that curtain goes up and the story begins.

Enjoy the ride.

The start of it all..

Monday of Thanksgiving Week, 2013 - I got a call.

It was from the managing director of a small theatre in Aurora, Colorado where I had auditioned a few months earlier.  I had also mentioned to the managing director that I did costumes as well.

Apparently, the costumer for Young Frankenstein had just lost her father...would I be able to come in and help her get the show on its' feet??

I said yes, and thus began a crazy snowball of musicals, plays and operas.  But it all started with "Puttin' on the Ritz".

Three weeks later, I had the cast fully decked out in tuxes, gowns and peasant wear ( I take no credit for the monster's GORGEOUS makeup- that is the work of the amazing Todd Debrecini)  I do however take full credit for the ladies wardrobe and the fact that the tuxes actually look white...Not an easy feat with all that green makeup being flung around!

Due to the number of quick changes, I ended up being a one-woman wardrobe crew and occasionally moved parts of the set (my highlight was running the mechanical rat each night!)

Not such a highlight: Getting my wrist slammed in the revolving door the next to last show.  I was incredibly lucky to a) not break anything and b) be surrounded by medical professionals (how many other shows boast two nurses in the cast?) I was sore and impressively bruised, but it easily could have been far worse!

Costuming thoughts:  It's a tricky thing to come in and finish someone else's work, especially when they are still technically working on it!  It is equally hard to see their name attached to praise for the show, when most of the work is yours.   Lots of important things learned with this show - how to read contracts, not to put anything you want back on stage, wigs aren't as scary as I thought they were... but without question I'd go back and work on it again - maybe one day...

Next up:  Working with people who know exactly what they want, and lord help you if you don't deliver...

One show at a Time

I'm attempting to collect my costuming work in one place after a CRAZY year!

I Costumed:

1 Opera
4 Straight Plays
2 Kids shows
6 Musicals

I also:
Performed in 3 operas
Attended 5 conventions
Taught 2 theatre classes
Ran 1 unrelated Tea Duelling Event


Oh, and I got divorced, moved and found a new 9-5 job that I don't hate.  It's been a wild ride so let me catch things up!

Finally feeling Settled

Last July, I packed up the house, husband, sewing machine and dogs and we moved across the country to make a new home for ourselves in Colorado.  We bought a house and have been spending the last year settling ourselves in (minus two months when my husband returned to KY to be worshiped as the Tax God he is).

There have been ups and downs -

Helping Shelter dogs (with a little help from my shelter dog)

http://www.pedigreefoundation.org/



Pedigree started a campaign a few weeks ago to help provide much needed food to shelters around the country.  For every blog post about the campaign, they will donate a bag of dog food to a shelter in need.

My beloved Sir Winston Piccolo came to me from a shelter, after his owner died and their family didn't want the responsibility of a dog. He was so terrified that he wouldn't come out from his corner and was about to be moved to the euthanize list when he was pulled by Tavia Meares of Middle Tennessee Corgi Rescue and brought to me in Kentucky.  Winston Then:


The first day we brought him home






 And Winston Now:

  Basking in the backyard

 Greeting visitors at our cabin on vacation

He's even enough of a mamma's boy to let me dress him up on occasion:

Being forced to dress as Aramis for halloween as part of the three Corgiteers

 (hey, his Sister had to dress as Porthos, while Dad was Athos)

Every dog deserves to be loved, cherished and occasionally mortified as Sir Winston has.

Two day Steampunk

I thought I was going to have more time for this costume, but it turned out quite well despite my crazy week:

I didn't get a better picture because I was having too much fun to ask people to take my own picture!

The Skirt is made from 6 of my husband's worn out dress shirts which i cut into gores and sewed together. The shirt is a thrift store find that I've used before, and I cannot say how much I love this piece - great lace detailing, pin tucks and fun buttons - such a great find!   Though you can't see it, I'm also wearing a great ruffled petticoat that I made from a bed sheet. 

It's official, if I'm going to keep doing steampunk work, I need to invest in a ruffler foot for my new Pfaff machine because it takes waaay too much time to do all that gathering by hand.

I am of course wearing my fabulous tailor's cuff from R.H. Mardigan, since no travelling seamstress should be without her tools and my wonderful goggles that my husband made for my following the tutorial on Epbot.com (http://www.epbot.com/2011/07/how-to-make-steampunk-goggles.html)

My corset, which you can't see very well is a version of a pattern I've used before, but because it was going to be so hot this weekend, I adapted it to make it lighter in weight and a looser fit than I might otherwise have gone for. The fabric for this came from a skirt that ended up just not fitting right despite its fabulous suede texture and some leftover shop fabric - too little to do much else with, but enough to make some panels out of.

I'm going to be putting together some more detailed shots of my various accessories, and a full body shot of the skirt to show how all the panels went together.

Stay tuned!