Aladdin and pet projects

Aladdin's going well, and honestly it was fascinating to witness the cutting of a script by the playwright from it's original form produced at another theatre to a smaller version fitting HTY's three actor/one hour limitations. The adaptation process is amazing...what to keep to serve the plot, what to add to clarify the ambiguous...what some people become attached to and what others think should be the first on the chopping block. Back in January the playwright came out for a week long workshop of the play. We started with a reading of her first cut, which still ran about 20 minutes too long, followed by a talk back and design brainstorm. Two days of writing later, the playwright was ready with a second cut...this one much more streamlined but still a little chunky in places. Another reading and discussion. And she still had a day or two or surf and sun before heading back to the mainland. Workshops and readings are an invaluable process for a playwright, or so I am told. And to have a workshop sponsored by the theatre who has already agreed to perform the work must be a treat...to hear not only the words come to life by the companies actors, but also to witness preliminary design discussions...to be present while others' creative germ take seed in the soil of your work...see how others interpret and visualize your story... In Hawaii nonetheless. Hearing things aloud always evoke the imagery and pace much more clearly than reading the words on the page ever will. Plays are meant to be heard aloud after all...

I'm progressing on Aladdin. And have to say I'm quite pleased with the renderings. The design itself is sort of a hodgepodge of different regions...largely central Saudi Arabia, but bits of ancient Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraqi and the nomadic Bedouin tribes. Not that the average Hawaiian grade schooler would know the difference as long as there's a turban or too...

Music of Dolphins progresses more slowly, but seeing as it's a contemporary setting...I don't know...designing modern clothes isn't my forte. I prefer the period and ethnic challenges.

One more little side project...not progressing as quickly as I'd like...I'm developing a prototype for a stuffed animal to be sold with a local children's book. It's a small scale venture...maybe 500 books and 100 stuffed toys. However, the woman responsible had no idea how to go about it and my name was given to her a a local craft person/stitcher/patterner/etc. I've been toying with the pattern off and on since March. Below is version 2.o. I liked version 1.0 better...more cuddly and childlike. Now she's on a realism kick and until I can adapt the pattern to be more to the scale she hopes for (much much smaller but honestly to start the prototype any smaller than what I've been working at would make it exceptionally difficult for me to modify it...let alone stitch it under the machine) it's going to be gangly and strange. Of course the availability of plush fabric locally or online causes a plethora of other issues. I'm meeting with her again tomorrow. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll need to do at least two more version before I can shrink it down to the final prototype she wants to send to her manufactures. But being the first time either of us have done anything commercial like this....I kind of feel like the blind leading the blind...