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.