Ready? Set? (no) GO!

Summer Stock 2013

a representation of my soul or costume research?

Well, it has begun.  My summer of crazy.  "Do summer stock!" they said.  "It'll be fun!" they said.  And honestly, it's not terrible.  It's certainly not the best representation of organized stock theatre, but it's something.  Technically I'm building a professional resume.  I'm doing costume design - spending my hours digging through the mess of the costume loft.  We do have a huge number of costumes.  About a third of them are hanging - jammed so tight that you have to tug hard to get one out far enough to see if it's usable.  The other two thirds of costumes are crumpled and jammed into bins which aren't labeled.  They are stacked to the roof in a very inaccessible way.  If they're not in a bin, they are in a pile. On hangers.  So when you find a contender, you not only have to dig, but unhook all of the tangled hangers on the way.  The other minor problem is that this loft in in the theatre.  The theatre is a closed in building, but it might as well be an open air theatre.  The costumes have not only been exposed to the elements including moisture, but they have been set upon by the chipmunks and peed upon by bats. 

STORY OF MY LIFE  (ps. this site is genius) 

Costuming here is a challenge to say the least.  Especially because we're in the lovely "North Woods" of Wisconsin where cheese curds are fried and served with ranch dressing and beer flows more freely than water.  So what, right?  Well the majority of costumes that we own range from size 2 to 6.  We have a fair number of 8 to 12.  But in the land were a size 10 woman looks like the anorexic in a room full of elephants, let's just say that we could use a few dresses sizes 20 through 24.

Reading back through what I've written I sound really bitter and very harsh.  But you know, I'm not going to delete it.  It's honest.  And really the only complaint I have at present is that I'm cold.  Now that's a weather thing, not a theatre disaster.  All in all, I am learning.  I'm making new friends with different theatre backgrounds and lots of knowledge to share.  It's a beautiful thing - this networking stuff.

We've got some photographer coming today to take uniform mugshots-I-mean-headshots so patrons know who we are.  I'm getting ready for my close up.

cheers!

Blonde: The New Minority

You know how when you describe a person to see if the person you're talking to knows that person?  Well, the other day a friend of mine was trying to describe someone who she thought I might know and I asked about their hair color which she described as "blonde."  "Blonde like my blonde or like your blonde?"  And she told me, "Your hair's not blonde."

This was my facial expression.
(Picture taken from Hyperbole and a Half which is brilliant by the way)

Not blonde.  Okay.  So her hair is bleach blonde - destroyed straw-like white blonde hair. But my hair IS blonde.  It used to be bright, yellow hair, but it's darkened with age and I stopped getting highlights about three years ago.  So now what do you call it?  What's the modifier?  My hair is what people call dishwater blonde.  Or dirty blonde.  How unattractive is that?  But still it's blonde... Isn't it?  It's not brown.  It's not yellow.  It's nothing.  I'm the only blonde I know.  I know bottle blondes and brunettes.  I'm the only dishwater-headed person in the world.  (Not true I know, but it feels like it.)  Hence the "minority" status.

Crazy?  Yes - teasing for How I Learned to Drive...
The point is, it's dark, but it's still blonde.
Certainly not brown.

Besides.  I'm really smart.  Smarter than a lot of people I know.  And more than just my intelligence, I have a heck of a lot of drive.  Dumb Blonde.  HA.  Not the real blondes.

Anyway.  DanceWorks is over and I'm pretty proud of myself.  People were impressed with me and said I was on par with the other dancers.  Which is awesome because I have one semester of dance under my belt and most of those people have been dancing since they were children.  Not that I didn't dance as a child of course.  I've always been a dancer.  Just not a trained one.  (More pictures to come I hope....)  I can't wait to see the video of the dances.  Wheeee!

It is crunch time before finals week.  I have my directing scene tomorrow morning and i have to write my score which I theoretically should have done about five weeks ago at the beginning of the rehearsal process.  Well now it's due in a little over twelve hours... well you know those frighteningly hilarious moments when you realize that you have know idea what you're doing on a really important assignment that's due in the morning?  It's times like these that I remember what my fifth grade band teacher told me about confidence: "STRONG AND WRONG!"

Cheers.