Under the Pile

The week of tech and dress rehearsals is often stressful. The final crunch has arrived and occasionally the shop finds itself just finishing up a project and getting it to the dressing room moments before wardrobe needs it.

Of course, all that rushing around is only done by the tech staff behind the scenes. Tech for the actors often means standing around in the wings, or sitting in the dressing room waiting for the next cue or transition...sometimes for hours.

For some reason this show was particularly straining on me, and I can't quite figure out why. The initial build was not that large. Granted, items were continually added, but that is par for the course. Perhaps the sheer scope of the show just hadn't quite sunk in. I do know I had several samples and mock up of my items finished well in time for fittings. Unfortunately, many of the costumes that were accessorized by the craft shop were a lower priority to the shop as a whole, as those accessorized costumes were rented or bought. Fittings for builds in house always take priority. So many of my questions waited...and waited...

Wigs too, works on a slightly later time frame. So despite the insane amount of time that goes into finishing a piece (hems, linings, trims...much of it hand sewing...) I may not actually see a lot of my work in a fitting on the actor until a week before tech. Maybe two if I'm lucky. And round about that time is when the shop is finishing up items to be distressed, painted or otherwise embellished. Work goes from minuscule to panic-inducing very, very quickly.

All in all information trickled in, or didn't come in at all, as was the case with my biggest headache of the week. A floral wreath of all things. Who would have thought a crown of flowers would cause wigs, the actor and myself such a nightmare...

It all boiled down to one stressful hell of a week, where I had far too much to accomplish with no help and too little time. And prioritizing becomes hard when most of the projects are in the first few scenes instead of evenly spaced throughout the entire show.

C'est la vie. Next week should be better. And then it's on to the next show. And this one is particularly exciting as the designer is a fellow Rutgers alumnus.

Of course that in and of itself has set me pining for a trip to the East coast again. Unfortunately with airfare what it is right now, it's actually cheaper to fly to London from here than NYC. Figure that one out. But, man is there many a friend and colleague out there I would love to see again. It's hard to fathom it's been almost four years since I've been out there.

And with things the way they often are, it looks to be several years before such a trip is likely to happen anyway. Wishful thinking...the mind of a jet setter stuck in the lower middle class demographic.

Someday.

Someday.