Gearing up for first dress
This past week has been tough. Truly, incredibly difficult. You forget how much the costume shop is able to do working full time until classes come along and reduce the number of man hours to a third of what they were. And trying to organizing fittings between my schedule, the actors, the draper and my assistant. My assistant is unfortunately a first year grad. Meaning she has maybe two hours to herself during the week just due to classes. I've greatly missed her help in the fittings. Without that extra set of eyes, I feel as though notes have fallen through the cracks. That was very apparent today.
The Saturday before tech is our bagel Saturday (though thankfully the food options have spread to include more substantial, less starchy alternatives--such as the three quiches my assistant spent all night baking, only to be here bright eyed and relatively awake for a full 14 hours of work). We come in at 9am, eat, sew, eat again around 3pm, sew...and this pattern continues until all of the work for the show is done and stage worthy for the first dress rehearsal on Sunday. Tonight we left at 11:00. The second longest work day since I've been here...though thankfully not the worst.
Everything was progressing quickly. We always hit a lull. But I feel as though much of the slack was my fault...notes that went unlabeled; I mis-communicated how something should be done, resulting in it having to be taken apart and done the correct way; faltering onmaking a decision and holding up the process; or completely forgetting about a note until the last minute. Even with everything now on the racks ready to head over to the theatre, I feel as though some huge piece is missing. The entire day all I could ask myself is what could I have done better to make this day go more smoothly.
To date this is the largest show I have worked on. Cabaret was a fair size, but this seems to have some much more weight to it. Thesis aside.
The actors love the clothes. Our director was happy with the design, though she's not spoken a word to me outside of production meetings since rehearsals began 4 weeks ago. The shop was fairly cheerful the entire process....I should be ecstatic. Things don't always transpire so smoothly.
And in the grand scheme of things, this show will be nothing more than the final step towards my MFA. Future directors and designers will probably not acknowledge a collegiate production once I pick up other work.
Theatre remains fleeting, though powerful in its moment. I'm just having trouble connecting with that moment.
The Saturday before tech is our bagel Saturday (though thankfully the food options have spread to include more substantial, less starchy alternatives--such as the three quiches my assistant spent all night baking, only to be here bright eyed and relatively awake for a full 14 hours of work). We come in at 9am, eat, sew, eat again around 3pm, sew...and this pattern continues until all of the work for the show is done and stage worthy for the first dress rehearsal on Sunday. Tonight we left at 11:00. The second longest work day since I've been here...though thankfully not the worst.
Everything was progressing quickly. We always hit a lull. But I feel as though much of the slack was my fault...notes that went unlabeled; I mis-communicated how something should be done, resulting in it having to be taken apart and done the correct way; faltering onmaking a decision and holding up the process; or completely forgetting about a note until the last minute. Even with everything now on the racks ready to head over to the theatre, I feel as though some huge piece is missing. The entire day all I could ask myself is what could I have done better to make this day go more smoothly.
To date this is the largest show I have worked on. Cabaret was a fair size, but this seems to have some much more weight to it. Thesis aside.
The actors love the clothes. Our director was happy with the design, though she's not spoken a word to me outside of production meetings since rehearsals began 4 weeks ago. The shop was fairly cheerful the entire process....I should be ecstatic. Things don't always transpire so smoothly.
And in the grand scheme of things, this show will be nothing more than the final step towards my MFA. Future directors and designers will probably not acknowledge a collegiate production once I pick up other work.
Theatre remains fleeting, though powerful in its moment. I'm just having trouble connecting with that moment.
Labels: Thesis
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11:21 PM
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