It's a Ruff life.

It's Over.

Today Wonder of the World closed. I was the assistant stage manager and wardrobe mistress, and let me just tell you, I am so happy it's done! Phew! Not that there weren't fun parts, because there were, but I just do not want to be an assistant stage manager EVER AGAIN. Forget about it. Anyway, gaze upon the clown.

Big Sewing.

The Hubbard Street Dance Company hired me to make a backdrop. It was so huge that we laid it out in one of the dance studios.
Thats Carol stading behind it, she's a crazy person.
Here's some poor sewing machine drowning in fire proof fabric.

Oh, the places you'll go

It was a rainy day on Tatooine,
When I was attacked by a tusked beast.

Spot Removal

Removing stripes from a tiger.  Actually, a cow painted to look like a tiger, with rabbit all around.  So, removing stripes from cowgerabit.

Foam Carving

I carved foam masks today!

And got foamy feet.

lets paint some shoes.

lets party.

Not complaining

When your punching beautiful leather while looking at the mountains

And listening to the opera.

Ode to Mr. Fish

CenterStage does a program called the Young Playwrights Festival, where 7 plays by kids in K-12 are produced by CenterStage staff and professional actors. Its really fun, its all put together in two days, and the budget is very limited. My responsibilities for this years Festival included designing and creating an angry fish.
I made him out of sweat shirt! I sewed big lips around the hood, and eye balls on either side, and big scales all down the body.


It was the most fun to make, to design something myself, decide how I'm going to make it, and then do it. Wil said I got a little carried away, but it was one of the most creatively stimulating things I got to do at CenterStage. And, Mr. Fish was the first thing I've ever designed that has been on stage!

And I'm proud of him.

Theater Slave

Sometimes I feel really beaten down by the theater. It could be because I'm an intern, I don't get a chance to fix my mistakes, things get taken away from me if I mess up. Perhaps it's being subject to other people's insane whims. It could be the deadlines. Or it could be the terrible hours or the terrible pay. But then I put on my penguin head and it's alright.

How did I get here?

Sometimes my job just gets really insane. Today we had fittings with Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel. Disney princessess, right down to the hair color and the sunny, sing song voice.

None of them thought it would be a good idea to wear panties.

Purple Rain

Spent all day doing cartridge pleats.

There are two layers to the skirt- one is this really beautiful netting with fuzzy black floral overlay. It used to be white and black, but Will overdyed it blue.

The second layer is a purple blue taffeta. It's going to be a really fantastic dress. For the most beautiful boy ever. The actor has a 27 inch waist (yowza! skinnypants), so those two layers of fabric, almost 6 feet long, had to be gathered down, which was tricky.
This has been a pleat-tastic show for me! I made box pleats for Ophelia's dress last week.

A few things I've been doing

Sometimes I work for the tailor, Ed. I don't get to do as complicated things for him, because he has such a traditional, complicated method. But yesterday I made some pants for him! They were huge diaper pants, with no crotch seam! The center front panel was also the center back, it folded around, and two side pieces left room for little leg holes. They looked really funny, just like an adult upholstery diaper!

I tool a picture of the pocket, because I think its just so interesting how pockets are put into things, so logical and yet still kind of tricky. Like origami. Actually, making these pants was a lot like origami. I'll put a picture of them up when they're on stage.

My main project recently has been Ophelia's dress. I posted a picture of the mock up and research before. The dress is made up of all these layers of really beautiful lace.

The feathery bits on the end are called eyelash. We've been piecing different bits of lace together, especially on the bodice. It turns out you can just cut up little parts of the lace and then sew it on in different areas, and make this amazing, constructed lacy fabric, that looks really complicated and like it was woven specifically for the garment. But its just held together with a zig zag stich!

This dress has three layers to it, a peach chiffon layer, a sheer sparkly layer, and then the lace. My boss Jill showed me this magical thing. Instead of doing french seams on the lace, we made peach bias tape and lined the seams with it.

So that when its against the underskirt, it completely disappears. So cool! The worst part about making this dress has been knowing that when we're all done, we're going to have to turn it over to Will in crafts, and he's going to distress it. Sad!

One Minty Statue Man

For one of the first times at CenterStage, I worked with Will in the dye kitchen. We're doing an independent project together, making a costume for a living statue. He's a judge statue, and he's all bronze, which has worn into mostly patina green. Will dyed a suit and cape yesterday, and today I covered all of it with a watered down mint green acrylic paint.

I totally got a paint headache.

He looks a little sinister doesn't he?
The woman who asked us to do this gave us no insight into why she needed a living judge statue. We're a little worried that it's going to be some sort of weird porn thing, or maybe a presidential assassination attempt. I was really flattered that Will asked me to work on this with him. His job, Craftsperson, is totally the job that I want someday. He gets to do everything, making hats, dye-ing, distressing, fat suits, armor. (On the other hand maybe I would miss dress making- AH! I don't know, this is why I'm the intern.) The best part about minty statue man is that I'm getting paid $800! That will quadruple my bank account.

Mock it up

I had a really fun day at work today. Even though it’s exciting to run wardrobe and be part of the show every night, I'm glad to be back in the shop. I'm always endlessly optimistic about the new show (and totally disparaging after it opens) but so far I love Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The designer is a woman named Candy, who is very into using fashion for inspiration. She gave us a bunch of shoots from Italian Vogue as research. Totally a change from the last three shows. This is the pattern Jill draped and had me mock up today.



The sleeve is the long piece sticking out the back, so when it was sewn, I didn't have to set a sleeve, I just went all the way up the side. I learned that's called a kimono sleeve. It’s going to be fierce when it’s done in the real fabric, which is shiny and dark blue.



It goes over a sexy sheath dress, and will be worn by the character Gertrude. Because the sleeves were kimono sleeves, they needed gussets, which Jill showed me how to do. I think I may have done that before as a sample, but with Jill instruction it was much easier, though mine didn't look quite as nice as Jill’s.



Jill had Sarah working on Ophelia's mock up, which was beautiful.



This is the image we were given to work with.



Tomorrow Jill is going to pattern the dress that Alfred is going to wear. Yes, I said Alfred. The character is apparently a boy-whore. And he wears a Shakespearean style dress. I hope I get to work on it.

waxing poetic about 42nd Street. Never a good sign.

Here's a dumb cell phone picture I took during 42nd Street when I was running wardrobe this summer. I remember thinking what a stupid play it was. But recently I've begun to feel more kindly towards the accursed musical. It is, after all, a story about a young girl who gives up the security of home for the magic of the theater. And she gains a persnickety, loyal and annoying tap dancing family. And I like that she ends up single at the end, with what seems to me like two gay boyfriends. I'm feeling that, innocent, single theater girl in the big city vibe. I came home today humming "young and healthy" under my breath. Could be I've been running wardrobe for too long. I feel like I haven't seen natural light in ages. Joe Turner has come. And Gone.

Wardrobe at Centerstage

I always have such high hopes for blogs, all these plans about the things I'm going to share in them, but I'm such a space shot I can never do it. Last night I saw Candide, my last play, last night and then had champagne at the shop. Now I'm sorting through all my stuff and trying to remember life before the College Light Opera abducted me into its sphere of insanity. Listening to Sandra Bernhard, her cover of Kiss me Deadly moves me to tears. Farewell image of College light opera shop.

Workaday Attic

The show we're working on now is 42nd street, and I'm doing wardrobe, running the show, so it's my responsibility to pull most of the costumes, the ones we aren't making, from the attic. The attic is the most indescribable place. I've had anxiety dreams that have taken place in a similar setting. The Inn was built in 1902, so the attic is creaking, splintery, and dark. There are thousands of costumes, jammed together, hanging from rusting metal pipes suspended by chains from the rafters. Pipes run along the floor too, at a variety of heights perfect for tripping. Overflowing boxes of costume pieces line the floor. Nothing is organized. It's also the hottest place imaginable. And I spend hours up there every day.

The big gossip today was that all the girls found some townie boys and they all went to the beach together and flirted and hooked up. I ended up knowing the townie boys from high school, and the whole thing just made me sad for some reason. I miss my rock star girlfriend, so out there she could never be a townie.