Opening Night
went beautifully. With the exception of one set glitch but these things happen...
The theater was sold out. The orphans softened the audience up and Bumble, Corney and the live kitteh warmed them up and it all went great from then on.

Bits and pieces:
One of the older Gang members, in full raggedy costume and top hat, playing a Bach cantata on the director's keyboard that he'd brought in for warm-ups.
A passle of orphans, giving our menacing Bill Sikes with his beard and banged-up face, a big group hug.
Fagin- delighted that I'd added more tie to his costume, in lieu of not noticing in the design stage that what he needed was more vests.
That V. didn't recognize a guy he'd worked beside on sets for weeks, thanks to make-up and hair color. And that Greg was so gratified that V. noticed he'd been borrowing a little from Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow, for Fagin.
How excited, yet well-behaved, the little ones were. Last dress rehearsal is usually a morass of notes for everyone and utter frustration and disgust for the director and it does make an impression on them. At least for opening night.
Always and everytime- being amazed at the talent of ordinary people: students and software designers and nurses and teachers and salesmen and housewives getting togther to accomplish something as complicated as good musical theater. No false pride here- if they ever made me a personal t-shirt, like they did for Jas's dad, it would include the phrase "Sometimes, I really am a genius."
Never seen a cast happier with their costumes- with the possible exception of Tom, in that sauna of a great coat. Suffer for your art, pal. But that's not really fair, because he was asked (begged) to take the role. And he took it, since he's a pillar of the community.

All in all, a success.
Pictures, as soon as the CD is available.

"...and I hate your @$$ costumes!"*
No, of course I don't- we're just both so tired we don't know which end is up. Doing this is a little
like having a baby or wallpapering a room by yourself- you get into the big middle of it and wonder why you ever thought that was a good idea. But the results are so worthwhile that a type of amnesia sets in until you find yourself doing it all again.

This was my To-do list yesterday:
Sew remaining buttons of Bumble's coat
Baste cape to Bumble's coat
Change a button on Dodger's vest
Top-stitch the front facings of Dodger's coat
Baste false hair into two workhouse caps.
Add a hook and eye to a necktie as he can't get it over his head with his make-up on
Add ribbon ties to a hat (and I did the wrong one, because I didn't write it down, so Joan repaired it.)
Run elastic through the waist of two skirts, try them on the actress and stitch them down.
Sew buttons of the front of the Sword Swallower's vest and attach a braid closure
Let down the hem in one pair of rental pants and take up the hem in ditto
Add some ragged, flimsy fabric to the hem of Fagin's coat, so that it looks as though the lining is coming out
Put a pocket inside one of the gang vests
Distress orphan costumes. This involved laying them out on the drive outside, spraying them with grey spray paint and then dry-brushing them with brown paint, turning them over and repeating the process. I only did half of them, because I wanted to see the effect under the lights (they need a darker brown, it turns out) and because it was too darn hot out there.
Collect all costume pieces we rejected for Fagin's Gang and hang them on the spare rack.
Ditto for Women's Chorus.
Move petticoats from dressing room to the wonderful dressing area Joan and her husband rigged up in the Green Room for the women with those plastic latch strips, a curtain rod and rings and an old knit sheet.
And that was before the rehearsal began...

If you're wondering why all those things hadn't been done earlier in the process, some problems just don't show up until you see a costume under the lights or an actor rehearses in them. We just can't keep the actions of forty-one people in mind at all times and need the actor to let us know what little fiddles the costume needs. And, when we see the whole ensemble on stage, we often have to fill in items: this grouping is too pale, he needs a different neckercheif, she needs something on her head or off her head, a color looks weird under the lights, an actress needs her skirt taken up because she has to climb stairs with her hands full of props- things like that.

My To-Do for today:
Spend the morning with Bubs not thinking about theater at all.
Distress orphans
Take up pants hem
Tack other pants hem to legs
Tighten elastic in an underdress sleeve
Make a workhouse top
Start Good Show notes
Order flowers for volunteer moms

So, not so bad.

And the feedback we're getting is very gratifying. One of our Mr. Brownlow's said to me last night "I want to be Fagin, just so I can wear that costume."
Nice...

* paraphrased from Waiting for Guffman, the best community theater movie there is.

Nickels and Dimes
That's what we're working on now. The last little details: bonnets and neckercheifs and shawls and distressing. Someone needs their sleeve shortened. Someone needs the sleeves removed from their shirt so they don't die of heat stroke under their black cordouroy coat. Mobcaps need to be assigned, ditto the top hats I found in storage. I discover that I gave Charlie's workhouse pants to Tim, but can give Charlie Sike's old knee pants because I never liked them and he wants to wear boots that look better with trousers, so everybody is happy. We have to make decisions on hair. I have to send out the Green Room Rules e-mail for the parents to impress upon their children and must try to not sound like a big old B in the process. Toni needs a ruffle on the back of her Old Sally cap to hide her hair. David needs a Sowerberry cravat and knife handles for his leather (suedecloth) Knife Grinder apron. I don't have to make those, but I do have to sew them into the pocket.

I have two-three large projects still to finish: Bumble's blue coat, to make a dress for one of the little girls and to shorten the sleeves on an underdress and to finish the hem on Dodger's coat- we wanted to see it in action before making a decision on the length.

Then, some housekeeping: reinforced Ziplocks for the kids' bits and pieces, moving clothing racks, stocking up on Febreze, final labeling of costumes pieces and taking the rejects back to storage. Not to mention Good Show notes for the cast and thank-you's for my wonderful volunteers.

The Home Stretch
Tech Rehearsal is next Sunday, July 5. That means we have six days to have everything completed. Thanks to our wonderful volunteer moms, we are able to hand off some items- Madeleine is sewing the housekeeper's dress and Becky is running up some simple skirts and petticoats for the women's chorus. Joan is continuing to turn out the fabulous street dresses and bonnets.
I have two major projects left: completing Sikes and sewing all of Bumble. And two minor projects: doing the last little finishing items for Oliver and the Dodger.
Right now, awash in the minutiae of so many things still remaining, it's hard to recall our initial enthusiasm. But it will all return when an actor tries on their costume and their face lights up because they love it and it will help their characterization. And when they take to the stage and we can see the whole company as a whole, it will all be worth it.

Snippets

I was feeling very guilty because Morgan McGyver Yarbs put a screwdriver in her mouth while they were here on Saturday - I was tightening the bolts in my IKEA chair, turned around and discovered that she had crawled behind me in her ninja stealthy way and helped herself to a large regular- until her mother confessed that Morgie had climbed up the stairs ALONE and was in the bathroom unrolling the toilet paper while she was in the kitchen and thought Jas was watching her.
She is THAT kid- the one who must have a constant keeper. Someone has to be on assigned 'Morgan watch' at all times, or she'll be on top of the refrigerator.

Pete was not happy about the Mr. Bumble costume offered by the costume rental place, so I offered to make him one. This is one of the pitfalls of costuming- the lure of the new. One must guard against it vigilantly or else you're going "Hmmm- you know, I've never made a 19th century greatcoat with a capelet and a bicorne hat..." and that way lies Crazy Town.

Our Oliver continues to grow- I had to open the back armholes of his 'poor' jacket so he could move his arms. Lucky for us, his 'rich' jacket is made of stretch suede cloth- it may last him through the show. The musical director has had to transpose some of his songs to a lower key- he's not Bryn Terfel yet, but he's losing the pure boy soprano you associate with little Oliver.

Orphans turned out very well, circus girls all look good, too. Tess's material was lying there, staring at me until I went "All right-FINE! I'll sew you!" and got it out of the way.
Fagin's Gang need a bunch of pants alterations and two more vests to liven things up- it was getting very brown, grey and black around there, but they are coming along.

As Geoffrey Rush kept saying in Shakespeare in Love: 'It will be fine.'

Happy Father's Day

to all Dads. Thank you, for all you do and the sacrifices you make.

Professor Mimi
will be giving her lecture on costumes to TC's summer theater camp kids tomorrow. It includes a brief talk on what costumes are supposed to do and how we try to accomplish that, and a short sermon on 'respecting the costume' and how we remember who does and who doesn't. IOW, it goes on your permanent record. The one in my mind, anyway.
Then, we'll break into pairs and draw slips assigning them a character to design for. They are not allowed to choose one for themselves because theater does not work that way. I give them scratch paper, pencils and crayons for doodling ideas and a big sketch pad page with a croquis traced on it for their finished project. I may include a batch of swatches that they can look through for their creations, as well. We mount these in the lobby for the parents to see on the last day of camp when they perform the show they've worked on.
This went well last year and I hope to improve on it this year.

Today is Oliver Day. My goal: to get him almost completely finished.
Sike's hat is teh bomb, if I do say so myself.