Finishing touches and unexpected emails

It is a little over a week until opening night. We had a mini dress rehearsal last weekend. I almost want to cry from happiness, it was so wonderful seeing my designs coming to life, this one character's whole look is practically my sketch!  (If I am like this now I wonder what I will be like on opening night! )   I would say I am 99% done at this point. I brought home everybody's smelly shoes home Thursday night and spending Good Friday and Saturday making white shoe covers. I have never made them before, it was interesting to say the least. Here's a pic of the process pinning the wrong side of the fabric, and an original shoe and a covered one.

 

 There hasn't been a lot of alterations to do other then hemming a kilt by hand. It's been tons of shopping. At least four cast members are all wearing completely new outfits I purchased. Two are half pulled from either their closets or storage and the rest bought, and three of the guys supplied their own clothes, but I was provided options and then decided.  The director wanted me to get a new shirt for someone and take in the side of a pair of pants as well as shorten them for the next night. (They were practically ready to cut up my Tommy Hilfiger shirtdress and use it as the top! ) When I ran to Wal-Mart - as it was the only thing open on Sunday night - I found a new shirt similar colour palette to my dress, and I just bought new pants that worked better for $12 and saved myself the work I didn't really like the drawstring waist on the other pants anyway! Although the irony because I have to make them in to shorts with a border around the leg. It was a challenge because I only had the material from one partial sleeve to worth with, but I made it work. I am honestly really pleased with everything that will be going on stage. Here is a pic of the shorts and one of the cast at rehearsal. 

 I am glad I was at rehearsal last weekend, because they were actually missing a costume change entirely! This one character is supposed to change into a white robe, but they hadn't been doing it even though the robe was there at the rehearsal space. When I noticed this I literally ran to the other room and grabbed the robe, when I was running back I wiped out. My knee is skinned a little and my elbow hurt when I moved it, but nothing was really injured, just my pride, because it kind of stopped rehearsal.

At that rehearsal I was kind of bummed though because one of the cast member's wasn't there and I had built his character's cape and I couldn't wait to see his reaction. The cape is supposed to look homemade, and I wanted it to read tablecloth, but the trick was is that it can't be too busy because it needs to go over top the tie dye shirt I made previously. Fortunately I found the perfect fabric, it was pricy at $19 per metre when I needed two metres, but there was a 40% off sale and I am doing good with my budget so I splurged. When it's right it's right. I ended up making the cape in about 50 minutes total from start to finish while my apple pie was baking. It's funny how that works needing such little time for something that is going to be on stage for most of the show, but spending close to 18 hours on something that is barely on stage for 2 minutes just to get a certain look. The director felt the cape was too yellow, so I spend 3 hours adding red gingham. My design concept being that the kid combined two table clothes. I definitely enjoyed his reaction to the ginghamed cape though; it's moments like that, which makes it all worthwhile. Here's a pic of the cape before and after the gingham. 

Finally last weekend when I was going through my programmes, I realized I no longer have one from Toxic Avenger which played in 2009 or 2010. I have three photo size storage boxes full of programmes in chronological order (I wasn't joking when I said I was a theatre addict!)  I like to keep them for souvenirs/ reference, plus more than a few are signed.  I decided to try and contact the theatre company Dan Cap Productions to see about getting another one. To be honest I wasn't even sure I would get a reply because I wasn't even 100% sure they were in in operation but the website was copywritten for this year. Dan Cap hasn't put on a show in a few years. (In the years prior there was a legal battle with Toronto theatre giant Mirvish Productions.)

I was definitely not expecting a very timely, kind and acquiescent reply from Dan Cap Productions founder himself Aubrey Dan! He said no promises but that it would take him a little time, but he would look for one for me! I can't imagine David Mirvish doing that for one of his subscribers. (I never did get a reply yet from the Rock of Ages production company) This has definitely given me a new respect for Mr Dan.

Thinking outside the box and finding balance

We are down to a matter of weeks now before opening night and things are in full swing. One of the things with working costumes in community theatre is thinking outside the box. One of the projects I worked on this week involved thinking outside the box. The director wanted legwarmers when we priced them out they were $11-$13 each and I needed 4 pairs, That would have really taken a chunk out of the budget plus there would possibly be time and cost involved of dying them. All this for a 3 or 4 minute number. We decided it would be cheaper to just make the legwarmers until I went to the fabric store. The perfect material was $18 a metre and I needed 4 metres, there was nothing cheaper that worked. So either way this working out the same, and it seems once factoring in the cost of the tutus to spend 20% of the budget on one number was more than a little ridiculous!  The director had a stroke of genius: she had seen fleece baby blankets in the right shade of ballerina baby pink at the dollarstore. For $18 -including the cost of elastic- I made 4 pairs of leg warmers and it took me about 4 hours of labour. The first pair took the longest as I was figure things out since I was straying from the pattern I found online. I think they turned out pretty cute not to mention that they are really warm and cozy and I really want a pair of my own! Here's a pic: (I had to try them on for purely research purposes of course)

 

There is also a lot of balance in costuming in more ways than one. Some actors are more hands on about their costumes than others, you have to balance keeping your cast and director happy while staying true to your vision. For example my $10 outfit find I mentioned in my last post isn't being used in the show after all, so I decided to deduct the cost from what I spent and keep the jacket and shirt for myself  (I totally rocked them at work earlier this week)

There is also the balancing, well more so juggling of your personal life and the show. I am trying to get things done, make time for my boyfriend, and not let my responsibilities around the house slip too much, it wouldn't be fair to leave a stack of dishes or have N. do all the cooking. Plus there is taking care of my physical self, ie finding the time/energy to do my exercises, not eating crap the majority of the time. All important to keep my diabetes reversed. There has been a little bit of a losing battle on this front this past week and a half, with our routines and schedules being out of whack.That is it for now back to work!

Taking time off to see Chicago, Rock of Ages and a Game of Thrones

I've taken a little time off this past week from costuming to go to the theatre.(I know doing something totally different right?) I couldn't resist the urge to see World Champion/Silver medal olympian Elvis Stojko tackle the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago and my mom got tickets for us to go see Rock of Ages at Casino Rama.

My first introduction to Chicago was the 2002 Oscar winning film which I immediately loved, in fact I even wrote a movie review in my university student news paper. Basically that is what I had to compare the performance to other than a community theatre production back in 2004 up in Sudbury that I don't really remember.

Right away I was put off by the vocals of Terra C McLeod in All That Jazz which is one of my favourite songs from the show. She did this weird vocal trick that I didn't like. I thought that the actress playing Roxie, Bianca Marroquin was okay. I guess I am used to the film version where it plays things very seriously, this production really played up the comedic aspects of the show, for me it didn't work. I was irritated for example during the cell block tango how the actress playing Mona shook her head from side to side like an airhead every time she she said Lipshitz. Elvis Stojko's voice and performance on the other hand took me by surprise and made the show for me. He has this really deep, rich voice that resonates, and he can hold that long note at the end of "We both reached for the gun."

It was kind of neat getting to see late broadway legend/Law & Order star Jerry Orbach's cousin play the role of Amos, a bit of trivia for you Jerry Orbach was the original Billy Flynn. I also recognized one of the ensemble members from when she was in We Will Rock You. Overall though I was underwhelmed and prefer the movie. The stage show leaves lloose ends that the movie doesn't *minor spoiler* like how exactly did Velma Kelly get out let of her murder charges? I am glad I got to see Elvis, but I am glad I didn't pay more than $25 for my ticket! Elvis sadly took of pretty quickly at the stage door so I didn't get an autograph or anything.

With Rock of Ages I had the exact opposite experience, where I liked the stage show better than the movie. I thought the story in the stage show made more sense and I didn't like the changes made for the movie. I had seen Rock of Ages with my sister back in 2010, I thought it was okay, we were familiar with some of the cast from their We Will Rock You days, that can make it hard to suspend belief as you see them as so and so playing a role as opposed to just the character. I think the movie had the same problem, I liked it, but for example you don't see the character of Stacee Jaxx you see Tom Cruise as Stacee. Because with this production the cast was all unknown to me it really allowed them to inhabit and become their roles for me. I quite enjoyed the actor who played Lonny he was great, I thought the character in the Canadian production played by Aaron Walpole was really annoying, but this guy was super funny. I did find that the actress Shannon Mullen who played the lead Sherrie tried a little too hard to emulate Julianne Hough from the movie.

Overall it was a lot of fun, and our seats were great so I got a close look at the costumes. There is a little irony though with the venue because a lot of the bands whose music they were playing Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Whitesnake, Journey have played that exact stage. I had come straight to the show from work and we'd stopped at Arby's for dinner which turned out to be pretty funny because there were three different references to that restaurant in the show! One of my complaints is that as we were leaving my mom saw the actor who played Lonny and I missed him. My other minor complaint is that I didn't get a programme, because there was none. I have emailed the show's production company to see if I can get hooked up with one, if I don't I have a couple cool souvenirs a pic with the show's fictional band Arsenal's name on it and a protest flyer prop from the stage. Here's a pic:

         

As if the shows weren't enough this week with work I got to go the Chorus entertainment building on Thursday night for an advance screening of Game of Thrones season four episode one which premieres tonight. It was really fun, everyone's name was on a guest list, we had to check in. There was free booze and passed appetizers of lobster/phyllo puffs and coconut shrimp (Popcorn too of course) A good night! We also saw the pilot of this new series Silicon Valley which was pretty funny. It's been an interesting week to say the least now time to get back to work!