Eurydice

It's late... I'm half asleep but I thought I'd throw up a quick snap of the show I'm putting up this week... hopefully a real blog post will happen this week. If I am very good and get all of my work done I may have time to even write a little bit about this show. Who knows perhaps there is someone out there who hasn't given up on me posting to this blog all-together. Perhaps. This show might turn out ok... I still have a few artistic problems that are killing me but I've got two days to work them out. Wish me luck.

Carrot

I'm falling behind on trying to put up a post per show... sometimes I really have my head down and I'm just plowing forward. Last weekend I did a re-furb (meaning I had to do over) on a fantasy costume I designed last summer. In the original design I had a sequined top with a sheer green overlay as the "Carrot top" but unfortunately sequins are hard to maintain and they tend to eat fabrics in touch with them... This company needed something Very Sturdy.

Meet Spandex... plain boring spandex... that I cut up, overlocked, dyed and rearranged...

...until it actually looks interesting. I am thrilled beyond words with the outcome!

Some days you get done with a costume and think "wow, I actually know what I'm doing". Which may or may not be true, but in show biz it's important to make believe you know what you're doing, so I'm rolling with it.

Tomato!

I designed and built this tomato jacket for an educational kid's show... makes you want to eat healthy food... right?

No, I didn't print "Tomato" backwards... that's just how my computer's photo booth works.

Comedy Promo (SF Shakes)

Here's the fantastic promo video SF Shakes made for Comedy of Errors... I love it because it's practically a video portfolio for me!

Plaid

For my latest show I needed a suit that was made in the largest plaid possible... for about $30.
I found a suit at Thrift Town for about $20 and decided to paint the plaid!
Here's the prep... There is a procedure to it all involving placement and replacement of tape...

I did need a hat to match...

Ta Da! Plaid!


Check it out if you're in the bay area; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival!

Candy Apple Green

It started with the hat.

I fell in love with this hat... I have to get it on stage... I want to put it on the mother character in the prologue...

It's a 50's hat, so I want a 50's garden party dress to go with it... and I want the dress to be plaid so that she matches her husband (trust me it's that kind of a show)... I searched and searched and no candy apple green dresses, no plaid dresses, and certainly no 50's dresses in a size 12... for one thing this is a color that isn't manufactured anymore. I mean sure you can find things "close" but if you see this fabric up close it is luminous. It's the same green they used in Austrian Tyrolean coats as well. It's green but it glows with a golden secondary tone that you only notice when you hold it next to modern greens. The modern version always looks like a sad and flat rip off next to these old textiles. Anyway Plaid; the most difficult thing you can cut a pattern out with...

...and of corse I think that cutting it "on grain" (meaning the lines would go straight up and down) doesn't look good or period enough... so my designer side has a little fit and makes my stitcher self cut the whole thing on the bias (diagonal is a really tricky way to cut things, and extra tricky with plaid)...

... and as if that weren't enough my designer self insisted that I add green ribbon to the plaid so that it would match the accessories and that glorious hat!

I hate sewing for myself. I'm also making a crinoline...

Anyways... updates to come, wish me sanity.

Curtian Call/Costume Parade

Well, the theater posted this online and I think it's a pretty good costume parade...

Comedy of Errors photos

Right now I'm so tired and yet awake... not awake enough to make sense, but awake enough to post a few photos... I did bring the film camera this time. Bought a new battery for it and let's hope that's enough. If nothing else, the producer took some good shots to share with me and these at least give you the idea of what the show looks like. I'm actually pretty happy with it.