The weight is over

There is still quite a burden upon my shoulders, but the load is substantially lighter. The costumes for the dance concert of finished as far as I'm concerned (though I'm not particularly fond of them), House of Bernarda Alba previews tomorrow and my designs for Country Wife have been approved (with two minor color changes).

I am going home to sleep--after a week of returning home at 3am only to leave again by 7am. And tomorrow I am going to drink. Hopefully the wig trauma from House of Bernarda Alba that the designer was bombarded with last night will resolve itself. Preferably by the director realizing he was an idiot and that cutting a major costume piece will not improve the acting.

Tough Choices

I just turned down summer work. APT called to offer the crafts position again, though only for the first half of the season. But they continue to waffle about offering me a design assistantship. It's time to put myself out on the limb again. With recommendations from here and there, I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to work at Williamstown.

I hate being out on the limb.

Night and Day

In less than 72 hours I've gone from this:



















To this:



















And I'm not sure where the inspiratin came from. I think I spent too much time looking at Galliano's recent fashion shows.

Pencil?

One of the saddest things in life is being unable to find a pencil when inspiration hits.

That and being not only on the wrong page, but in a completely different book from your director. But I'm not the only one.

And it looks serious enough to involve faculty intervention.

The Long Train Ride Home

This weekend has been terribly long, and I still have a design meeting approaching in 45 minutes--last Wednesday was cancelled on account of our director scheduling two events simultaneously. Not many of us are in possession of a time-turner.

I awoke at 4 am Friday morning to catch a 5 am train to NY. Mind you, I didn't fall asleep until almost 2 am due to the honking, screaming and general merrymaking from the Rutgers Stadium and surrounding areas (I could hear the crowd during the game too. My apartment is not quite far enough away) as Rutgers took down the 3 ranked Louisville Cardinals. Granted I don't follow football, but after hearing the cheers from my bedroom, I decided to tune into the Rutgers radio station and catch the end of the game. Damn. Rutgers president has been spewing teamwork and strategy and other misc bull, but there truly is something to be said for luck and being in the right place at the right time.


Friday can be summed up as thus:

4 hours on the train

7 hours frantically finishing notes in the costume shop

20 minutes to grab dinner which will be eaten during that evenings tech run

2 hours watching a run though

2 hours watching another show by the same company

2 hours drinking wine and wrapping up my internship with my designer

8 blissful hours of uninterrupted sleep.


Saturday can be summed up thusly:


3 hours waiting for a train

4 hours on a train

1 hour fighting a retail crowd for spur of the moment purchase in NY

2 hours on NJ transit--what should have been only an hour until I missed my stop and ended up in Princeton

3 hours drinking wine and eating pizza with friends to recover


With work left to do before Monday.

And 8 productive hours left in the day.

Not really in bad shape.

And this summer I may be relocating from APT to Williamstown or Glimmerglass.

Down to the Capital

Tomorrow I head down to DC to complete my internship. It will be one long day of shop, tech and meetings starting at 10:30 when I arrive and probably ending around 1am after a drink at a bar. Of course, first I have to get up at 4am to catch a 5:05 train into NY to catch my 7:05 train down to DC. At least its a 4 hour trip I can sleep on.

After Saturday I can finally focus solely on the dance piece and Country Wife. I suppose classwork should be on that list somewhere...

and personal time...

Words to Remember

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

"If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

"You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.

"Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever of any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

--Martha Graham

Over analyzing

No one is harder on me than myself.

A constant comment from faculty and friends.

That and I think to much and need to react more.

Mostly this refers to Country Wife, though as some people know this has been in issue in life outside of school as well.

We're only two weeks into the design process, with at least three more meetings with the director before she heads out of the country. Considering that, I am in perfect shape for the meeting this coming Wednesday. I have a set of rough sketches--more completely done than everything I've had done by this stage on any other project, realized or other. After my experience on Audrey with a director who could only see squiggles on a page when I showed him the first draft. Frustrating, but not everyone is visual.

I'm not happy with my work thus far on this project. It hasn't progressed as far as I would like. This weekend I got to the point where I just needed to put something, anything down on the page. Writers block of the costume designer. I'm stuck in the confines of the time period and having trouble breaking out of it. The characters that resulted on the page are just that--they are fairly developed individuals...but within the limits of the 1690's. I'm having trouble applying a greater scope or depth to the piece. Inspiration is lacking more than anything else.

The faculty has been great. In class and in private meetings, I showed my roughs to others. Both were very positive (though classmates are staying respectfully distance, as period shows are not something they are comfortably talking through). One suggested color and fabrics may be the element missing--the key to the style or concept that is still developing. The other professor essentially told me to calm the fuck down and ease up--not in those exact words mind you. He's right. It's still early in the design process and I am where I should be. I have something on the page for the director to react to.

Actors may bear themselves on the stage. We bear ourselves on paper.

Cloud Nine

Blah. One running penal joke with absolutely no substance. Granted, I have had debates with fellow students about the depth of the script itself, but this production seemed particularly juvenile. Much of my reaction may of course be based off of the pitiful reactions of the preview audience: laughter at every sex joke and at their friends in drag. I left at intermission and was so furious I had to re-read the script the next morning. How is it that we manage to turn out decent directors when the head of the directing program puts such trite on stage.

Churchill wrote specific casting choices into the script for a reason, but when the costumes and direction obscures the casting to the point where Betty might as well be a woman, Edward a boy and Joshua black, you completely miss the point. The opening song explains the casting choices, but between poor diction and the laughter it not heard. And New Theatre swallows all sound to begin with. The costumes and set were pretty. That about as far as it goes.I did get to make a pretty dress for a boy though. Between this, the girl's disguise in As You Like It and Audrey, crossdressing may become my specialty. And let us not forget Margery Pinchwife parades around in boys clothes in Country Wife too.

The next day the play caused some heated discussions in drawing practice. It started as an attack on our production...mostly because no one understood any of the play. I find Churchill fairly dated in many of her works, but usually there is some substantial point behind what she wrote. And unfortunately I think our director missed the boat and none of the cast or design team bothered to throw her a line.

On another note--I heard from my designer in regards to my internship. Finally. After 2 weeks. She had not returned my calls for fear of interfering with Country Wife. Despite being able to use my help these last 3 Fridays--he did not contact me. Despite my calling almost very other day asking what I could do, as I was still under her employ. So she may have screwed me over--now that Country Wife really is picking up, I cannot give her the time we agreed to, but I have yet to fulfill my requirement for a grade. Even if she is happy with my work. Of course none of the faculty will tell me if I am indeed in fear of probation or an incomplete until portfolio review a month and a half from now.

Design meeting number two

My thesis is plugging along right on schedule--well ahead of schedule as our director leaves us for the month of December. I left with even more food for thought, but at least I know we are on the same page. This production will be very character driven as opposed to being blanketed over by a pretty period. The challenge now is how to let each character's style shine though the limitations of the time period. Guidelines of the period--not limitations. The backdrop will be 1690's, but slightly more opulent, eaggerated and fantastical. Possible a trellis or piece of archtecture as a fonage and periwigs sculpted into cuckolds horns. Hopefully I can stay lucid in this. I've broken through a creative barriar, possibly because I am ignoring baggage. Nothing like a big project to pretend other things don't exist.

But it is great to be back in the creative process. I dread these meetings at first, but I always seem to leave them incerdibly motivated. Of course it helps to have an incredibly intelligent and well spoken director open to ideas.