Long time no see!

Trying to blog and work, and go to school and get everything done is rough.
But two shows and a recital have blown by without so much as a peep on this blog!

Porgy and Bess was a HUGE hit - it was a massive production and for as little budget as we had, we made those folks look good.

This show was a challenge, not only because there were over 80 people in the cast, many of whom were double cast, but primarily because we had a chorus of 40 singers from KSU.  Most of these students had never sung outside of a choir so they were dealing with a lot of new things, but even with that disclaimer, some of these kids were just so BADLY behaved it made our heads spin! Food everywhere, sloppy personal habits, people LEAVING in the middle of a show just because they felt like it - all the bad habits you pray a cast doesn't have, this group had in droves, though a handful of them were wonderfully behaved.

The next project was my DMA Lecture recital!!
Yeah, about as exciting as it sounds.  It went well, my teacher was pleased and it is over.  One more step towards finalizing this degree!

Then we had Brundibár - a wonderful show about children triumphing over the evil organ grinder with the help of their animal friends.  Done by children, for children, to sold out houses for all four performances.  But, 50 children.....  Thank heavens no one changed costumes!!
This was a great show for me - I'm not the best or the fastest seamstress around but I do have one skill that surpasses everyone in the shop.  I knit.  So for this show, Susan D-W wanted the costumes, particularly those of the Cat, Dog and Sparrow to have a very homemade look and she thought it would be great if I could knit them!  We talked about how we wanted the animal costumes to look, and then I got to go off and create them, along with pieces for the Ice Cream seller and a knitted mustache for Brundibár himself. 

One of our cats and the original Brundibar Cat, Holocaust survivor Ella Weissberger.

As great as the animals turned out (look at those EARS!!) my biggest accomplishment was creating a pattern for the Ice Cream sellers hat that looked like two scoops of ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry!

It got rave reviews and one friend squee'ed over it so much I made a second one for her niece!


Now I'm on break, preparing for auditions, NATS and a fundraising recital, plus my long-awaited roadtrip to Oregon with the dogs.  Dogs plural you say?  Why yes!  A few weeks ago after much begging and pleading plus some dumb luck, my husband and I adopted a second corgi from a rescue group in Tennessee. 
Meet Sir Winston Piccolo!

He and Eva the Diva are getting along fairly well.  He's not as happy about being photographed as Eva, but he tolerates a lot for daily meals, snuggles and peanut butter.

The next project through the shop is Pirates of Penzance for the UK Undergraduate Opera - which should be a hilarious and only slightly stressful show (most of the costumes are borrowed or already made, thank goodness).  More updates to come as we move on!

Hello World - long time, no Blog

I think that was a month and a half of our lives that decided to just RUSH by!

We started to put together the Etsy Shop, and then suddenly we were in the midst of the World Equestrian Games, right here in Lexington KY!  This event is kindof like the Olympics of horses - it only happens every few years and has NEVER been held in the United States.  And we got to costume parts of the opening ceremonies to be shown around the world- sounds awesome right?

Until you realized that it meant we'd be making these -

Granted a simplified version of these (made for a fabulous production of Equus in May), but the shop produced almost 200 of these to adorn the backs of these -

Yes - Small children.  Small children who would be wearing white.  At an outdoor ceremony.  In the dirt.
You can see how much fun this was for us.

More to come when I get pictures of the opening ceremonies so you can see these horses in action!

Beginning the Hunt

We are officially ready to start working on our Etsy Shop!  We spent several hours sorting through our admittedly overwhelming vintage clothing collection at both our downtown and on campus locations, looking at various finds, donations and things that we have no idea where they came from.  Somone obviously looked wonderful in bright lemon yellow - I think we found at least 10 dresses in this particular color.   The decision process was hilarious - Each dress was evaluated for color, size, condition and does someone in the shop want it?  I personally have four or five dresses that are being saved for me, while Susan 1's daughters carted away several dresses each and Susan 1 herself has a lovely new suit (or 2).  It's definitely one of the perks of the job that part of my closet does not reside at my house.   The clothes are unique and stunningly beautiful - including a 1920s velvet flapper dress, an emerald green 1960s suit and a 1960s slit sleeve coat with a fur collar that I wore at my wedding.

There were some beautiful finds that we desperately wanted to keep, but unfortunately they were simply too delicate to put on stage, where clothes definitely take a beating - being worn for a week straight, covered in makeup and sweat and sometimes dragged across the floor.  This is why vintage is not always a good thing for a costumer.  They make great inspiration, but unless we want to watch them fall apart, we can't use them in our shows, which makes us sad sometimes. 

This is why the Etsy shop was created - it will give some of these beautiful vintage pieces a happy new home and we'll get more shop space and some money in the bargain.   As we put the shop together, I'll post some pics of some of our beautiful and unusual finds.

Who we are, what we do and are we completely insane???

We are the costumers of the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, managers of the Lexington Stage Costume Collections - otherwise known as "The Susans."

This is Susan 1 -  Costumer Extrodinaire, actress, mother figure, and general fix-it genius.  Weaknesses - Organization, details (that don't relate to the actual costumes) and PCs.  She has recently aquired an Ipad and considers it her third child.  She can be bribed with chocolate

I am Susan 2 - Operatic diva in training, graduate student, and costumer trainee.  Weaknesses - detailed sewing, the hemming machine, and Macs. Owner of the shop Corgi and can also be bribed with chocolate.

Two years ago, Susan came to the University of Kentucky to be the permanant costume designer for the Opera Theatre program.  She inherited a disaster of a work shop, a slightly disorganized storage space and a TRULY horrible storage space.  She also had 3 months to clean all three and put together a production of La Boheme.  Between the two of us, we fought valiantly against mice, water damange, giant bugs and mildewy clothing to create our current workshop in the basement of one of UK's historic buildings.  We freeze in the summer, roast in the winter, but generally manage to get everything done.  Last year we completed the clean out of the TRULY horrible storage space and moved everything that was salvageable to our new space in one of the decomissioned dorms.  Our slightly disorganized space is still slightly disorganized.

Since Susan 1's arrival, we have produced La Boheme (soon to be revived), Lucia di Lammermoor, the World Premier of River of Time, Die Fledermaus, the Magic Flute and a touring production of Get Stuffed! (also about to be revived), for the UK Opera Theatre. We have also contributed to two seasons of outdoor shows at Summerfest in Lexington, KY and are currently tackling the opening ceremonies of the biggest event to ever hit Lexington - The World Equestrian Games. While Susan 1 and her assistant franticaly create animals from bamboo and giant dancing hats (trust me, they're awesome!)  I am trying to organize our collection so that we can start renting out productions and selling off some of our vintage pieces that are just too delicate to put on stage.

Helping the shop morale is my 6 month old Corgi puppy, Eva (the diva)

She reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously and her general needs get us out of the basement for some fresh air every once and a while!

So as another school year begins, join all of us on our crazy tour of costumers, opera and organization!

Here we go!