Finally Something Good

As most of you followers realize, I haven't had the chance to post on here in a long time, mostly because I've had lots of work to do, some health issues, as well as a lot of rejection - never fun. Lately I've applied for a number of internships and jobs and haven't gotten any of them - which was especially frustrating when one of them totally flipped around my upcoming fall semester plans. Grrr. But on Saturday, I finally got an email that I had been accepted as an interpreter at a local museum! Yay! So it looks like I will be spending my summer dressed as a historical interpreter presenting historic trades for the public (including my favorite pastime, sewing). It looks like everything is finally falling into place!

I Keep Movin'

So as my summer internship winds to a close, I am both relieved and saddened to be leaving the theater I worked at. Yes, it was a lot of work, but I actually really enjoyed it (despite a couple blips along the journey). I am definitely a lot more confident in both my costuming and people relation skills, as well as quick thinking and fast dressing (for both myself and others). Of course, with the close of this comes some great memories and experience I can use to move forward hopefully professionally and recreationally too.

Now that I am finished, it's time to finish up those remaining projects before I start school in three weeks. During my time off between the shows last week, I managed to make a lot of progress on my 30's blouse - I managed to line the front and back bodice pieces and stitch them to the sleeves and together at the side seams. I also hemmed the bottom edge. All I really have left is to attach the collar (which has proven very difficult for some bizarre reason - it must be the disintegrating instruction sheet that confuses me), hem the front edges, finish the sleeve cuffs, and work on the buttons and button holes. I don't estimate it to be more than a few hours. I am truly pumped to finish this so I can wear this fall!! I have also sketched out a couple of the designs for Reefer Madness which may or may not go up on here after reviewing them with the director.

My neighbor also asked me to make some curtains for her, which I am about halfway through (but am reluctant to finish because of the massive ironing and straight seams. hehe). I'll have to finish those in the next few days before I leave for vacation.

Watch for photos of the finished projects soon!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's been a very very long week as my supervisor and I have slogged through the immense process of organizing (but first washing, drying, dry cleaning, ironing and steaming everything to perfection) the costumes for shipment in the 28 cardboard wardrobe boxes we received them in. Gladly, all of the boxes were packed and sealed at 2 pm on Saturday and loaded into a giant truck yesterday morning at 8:00 along with the party lights and the surrey. Thank goodness - I am so glad they are gone.

I'm really ready to move on from Oklahoma! purely because of the massive cast and amount of costumes, even though I know that Sound of Music will probably not be any better (read: all the children and Maria have about 9 costumes EACH). This means lots and lots of costume changes, which will be both stressful and fun.

It's also very hard to believe that my summer is about 2/3rds over. I received an email a couple days ago that key pick-up is on Sept. 6th and 7th, with us starting on the 8th. Holy cow! I'll be glad to go back to school where I won't have to deal with massive rental orders and can make my own designs. Don't get me wrong, this has been a wonderful experience and it affirms that I love what I do, but I tend to like independence - a lot. 

Plaid Ruffles and Polka Dots

I realize I've taken quite a break from blogging recently (considering I was able to crank out a post almost everyday in may), but it is because I've been busy with lots of fun crafty things which you'll read about in the next few posts.

My biggest news is that we have finished a couple really important pieces for Oklahoma!. There are 6 dresses we had to make for female leads and we have about two thirds of them in working (ok, fittable) condition. One difficult thing about Oklahoma! is that there are several costume changes for the leads, all of which are very distinct and absolutely crucial for the story. Thus lots of work for the sewers.

Pretty Polka Dots and Silky Cottons

Finally home after a long and hot day of work. I'm a bit exhausted from today's travels, but I'll do my best to update you all about my crazy - but very productive day!

Yesterday I met the other three interns who will be working alongside the other crew members - two are college seniors (one of which goes to the same college as me and works in the theater department!) and a sophomore like me. We figured out that the costumes will be rented from UNCSA…well, about half of them. We have multiple actors (say, 20) who are larger than costumes that UNCSA can provide (including several of the leads), so we have to create alternative methods of acquiring costumes and it looks like it will be in the form of building lots and lots of fitted prairie blouses and ruffled skirts, as well as digging through jam-packed racks in an overcrowded basement for cowboy shirts, pants, and a pair of size 15 EEE cowboy boots. So we definitely have our work cut out for us. It looks like we'll be racing until the final bell. 

My biggest news is that today my supervisor and I went fabric shopping for suitable fabrics for the various costumes. As of present, our Ado Annie and Aunt Eller, will not fit the rental costumes, so we are building those from scratch, as well as a couple female ensemble members. The tricky thing is trying to find fabric that will fit in with the costumes that are being shipped to us - ones that are bright primaries and plaids. Surprisingly, our trip was very successful.

Broadway Antics

A couple weeks ago, the Tony Award nominees were announced, but I didn't recognize most of contenders for best play and musical. I haven't really kept up with the last couple potential Tony Awards nominees, which probably explains why I only recognize the revivals of Anything Goes (starring Sutton Foster - which I would love to see. She is an amazing actress.), How to Succeed…Trying (starring Dan Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame and with costumes I saw in my trip to New York in April), and The Importance of Being Earnest (starring Brian Bedford). Every year when I watch the Tonys, I revel in watching all the clips and performances put on by all the nominees, partly because they are more interesting than the suspense of waiting for the winners to be announced, but mostly because I love the spectacle of the elaborate sets and costumes.

Monday was the Drama Desk Awards Ceremony, with a number of important awards handed out to very deserving awardees. I didn't get the chance to watch it (I'm not even sure if it was televised), but I did look over the winners and nominees and they were quite satisfactory. Sutton Foster won the award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for Anything Goes (not surprising and definitely deserved) and the designer for Priscilla: Queen of the Desert won best costumes (SOOO glad - I've seen photos and they are amazing and swathed with detail. I used the movie as inspiration for my Midsummer Night's Dream/Costume Design 1 Final first semester)

Some of the nutty Priscilla costumes

Outstanding Music in a Play went to Peter and the Starcatcher, the play I was supposed to see when I was in NYC for my costuming trip (but didn't because an actor was sick); Sleep No More, an award winning theatrical experience, also won an award. I never had the opportunity to see the show, but it had a very cool premise. It was Macbeth, only set in an old high school and you walked through and watched the story unfold before your eyes. A complete list of winners can be found here.

A plus is that the Tony Awards are on June 12th! I can't wait to see what happens. In the meantime, I'll start doing some research about the nominated shows. Also Neil Patrick Harris is hosting. I love him (especially in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog).

I also have task for you readers - if you are in the area, get tickets to come see Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music at Reagle Music Theater! I can assure you that both will be fantastic shows and won't disappoint!

"I think it's pretty, I reply."

Yep, another blog revamp. I was getting a bit tired of the older dull blue. I wanted something with a bit more pop (plus the header was out of date and I couldn't find the right file to fix it).

Haven't done all that much over the past couple days - measurements on Monday went well but were quite long and tedious. I got there at 9 and left at 7pm because we had appointments scattered throughout the day. There were a couple points when I had nothing to because of such a gap in appointments.

Still have made little progress on the 1930's dress. I need to work on the sleeves and sides and the collar before I can move on to making the skirt. I also need to get buttons for the blouse and a closure for the skirt, so it looks like a Joann's run is in order today.

Retro Styling

I finally broke down and bought the Vintage Hairstyling book from the publisher. I was growing impatient with Amazon for not having it back in stock and was having cravings for vintage hair and makeup (for some reason I have had this huge craving to go to the MAC store at the mall and play with all the different lipsticks and eye shadows to create a fancy vintage look). It should come in the next week or so.

I have made little progress on my 1930's dress ensemble. I whipped out the muslin of the skirt in about 2 hours and would just need to put a waistband on it. The shirt is proving more difficult; it is 5 pieces with the front and back pieces connecting and gathered to empaulets on the shoulders. It doesn't sound that difficult, but the pattern also calls for some really funky darts at the shoulders(?!?) and elbows (which will probably disappear when I turn them into short sleeve) which makes for some tricky maneuvering while sewing on the machine. Once I finish this muslin, I'll take apart the skirt muslin and try to line my fashion fabric with it, so I'm not flashing the audience, while dancing.

I also just learned my brother took the car for the weekend, so I'm back to my mom driving me places until they come back tomorrow afternoon. So much for my leisurely excursion to the mall tomorrow.

I also officially start my internship bright and early Monday morning at 9:00. I'll be there all day helping with measurement appointments (which I am very good at ;)) for Oklahoma, so that could get tedious. Good news is that I saw the cast list and I recognize a couple of the names, so it will be good to see those people again.

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow...

I've known for a couple days now, but it's now officially official - I've been hired as a wardrobe intern! I'll be helping with the construction and fitting of their two shows this summer - Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. I went to the theater and met with the producer and he mentioned that recently the University of North Carolina School of Arts put on a (practically) award winning production of Oklahoma and we would be renting the costumes from them. But the REALLY big deal with this is that they recreated the entire production to look like the original 1943 production - right down to the exact fabric choices and specks of paint on the backdrop. The production was absolutely stunning. Plus, they were blessed to have one of their alums (Terrance Mann - right after his stint on Broadway in The Addams Family) come back and direct, along with original Agnes De Mille choreography by Gemze de Lappe (who was Agnes de Mille's protegee). Anyway, long story short, it looks like we will be renting as many of UNC's "restored" costumes and I'll be helping with construction for any extra (larger) costumes they may need.

I realize this is a lot, but gets even better. Gemze de Lappe is choreographing the show. Readers, you have NO IDEA how excited I am about this. Gemze was in the original 1943 production and later was cast as Dream Laurey and continued on to work with Agnes de Mille. She currently travels the country teaching the choreography to various companies - and she is 89. Still not convinced? If you want to watch (a much younger version of) her work, she danced the part of "Simon of Legree" in the movie of The King and I with Yul Brunner.

So it looks like I will be kept busy with that (aka. making costumes) for a while. I rented the movie version this afternoon and finished it. After watching it, I don't really understand the appeal of the show (except for a couple fantastic dance numbers and famous songs) and truly prefer some of the other Rodgers and Hammerstein works. This is probably because I grew up with Cinderella, The Sound of Music, and The King and I (of which I have been in two out of three). However, I am very glad for Oklahoma's advancement of the musical theater genre.