Monday, October 31, 2011

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...


Avengers, assemble... in Phoebe's bedroom

Had my Halloween celebration this past Saturday. Here are our Avengers assembled, with me as Black Widow, Jane as Loki, Bernie as Captain America, Mac as Bruce Banner, Jared as Iron Man, Mike as Nick Fury, and Matt as Hawkeye. This is the first year I participated in the group costume, so I was drafted into being Black Widow to fill out the group. Black Widow was easier and I didn't feel like doing a Wasp costume, though it would have been fun to have an Antman action figure in my pocket that I could periodically pull out and go "Say hello, Hank." I confessed I kind of half-assed it, using my black leotard, leggings, tall boots, and the cell phone holster Rachel gave me. As usual, by the time Halloween rolls around I'm too burnt out from everything else to make the costume a priority. Still, I managed to spray my hair with red temporary color, thanks to some help from Steph. It flaked off on everything and stained the skin on my back, but it sort of made me look more like Natasha Romanov.

The evening was lovely, so I'll just include some more fun costume pics.

SHIELD directors Stark and Fury.


The no-face off between Prentice's Slender Man and john_in_boston*'s the Question. Jenn had a suggestion they should switch costumes, then remove their masks and freak the fuck out of everyone.

morethings5* as a German serial murderer of children from one of the earliest movies about serial killers. Of course.

nennivian* and bronzite* as Peter Pan and Tootles.

twilighttremolo* as a candle, one of my favorites I saw all Halloween. Look at that fabulous hair and lovely dress!


niobien* as a creepy yet still adorable ghost. I think it must be very hard to make her not adorable.


thefarowl* and Plesser as characters from Slings and Arrows, katiescarlett29* as Carmen San Diego, Carolyn again as a ghost, polaris_xx* as not-Xena, Prentice Slender Man, and April in a cosplay outfit for some anime character I've never heard of.

Cutest Zatanna EVER.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Scrunchasaurus

Dear everyone,

Look what [info]thefarowl* and I have made.




He's like a spiky dinosaur. With a scrunchie-hawk.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

My version of mushroom duxelle

Mushroom duxelle-- or cooked mushroom paste --is a dish I serve frequently at my dinner parties, but I kind of cobbled together my own process for making it that is slightly different than traditional recipes. I'd thought I'd mark it down here, as it is one of my earliest efforts in devising recipes of my own.

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons butter
- 15 ounces of any kind of mushrooms you like; I prefer a wild mix or porcini
- 1 cup chopped shallots
- 1 cup marsala wine
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Directions:

Cut the mushrooms into slices. Chop the shallots. Roughly is sufficient.

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots until softened and translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until slightly browned and soft. You may have to add them in waves to avoid overcrowding the pan. Add the thyme and stir to distribute evenly. Pour in the marsala, bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down a little. Simmer until the wine reduces to less than half.

Remove the mixture from the pan. Blend into a rough paste with a stick blender. Mix to even out the chunks.

Serve with toasted bread and knives to spread it with. Don't be surprised if guests skip the bread and just eat it with a spoon.

I like the slight variations of including the marsala-- really ups the flavor and gives it a lot of richness --during the saute, and then pureeing it with the immersion blender at the end rather than chopping everything finely before you cook it.

If you want, you can use oil instead of butter to make it non-dairy. Also, onions or leeks will serve in place of shallots.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

State of my Achilles tendon

My Achilles tendon seems to be improving, though it's not quite back to normal yet. It was kind of bothering me all this past week since class on Tuesday the 18th, in a way that suggested that it was just overworked rather than injured in one particular movement or act. Usually when I have a sore spot after physical activity that I'm not yet in the right condition for I just kind of go about my business and wait for it to go away, but tendons are delicate things, so I didn't want to treat it wrong. I asked Plesser, one of my few really athletic friends, what he suggested one should do to take care of such a thing, and he said ice, rest, and ibuprofen, warning me that if it becomes tendonitis I could be in a lot of trouble, maybe even do permanent damage. Well, that sure scared me; I'm usually one to just kind of work through it, but I really really don't want to do anything that would permanently ruin my body. Fortunately because of Margaret opening night I didn't go to the ballet class I usually would have on Thursday, meaning my tendon got a week off from the dance that did the damage. I followed Plesser's advice, resting it with ice when I could, but probably not as much as I should have. I also made sure to try the stretching exercise that [info]in_water_writ* recommended, and in fact a good deep stretch tended to be the most immediate way to ease the pain. But to be honest, nothing I seemed to do, whether walking or resting or icing, really seemed to make it better or worse but time; it seemed to slowly improve over the course of the week.

I had ballet class again yesterday. I was pretty torn about going, as I don't want to miss too much class but I was afraid that dancing might hurt my tendon again, maybe even do real damage because it wasn't fully healed. I resolved to take it easy, particularly on the plies which I think were responsible for the injury in the first place; besides horseback riding where you have to keep your heels down, I can't think of much else your muscles are often called upon do that stretching for. In addition to not sinking as deeply into the bend (I have a pretty naturally strong plie so I can go decently low) I also stretched the tendons as thoroughly as I could beforehand. I think I should make a habit of that before every class to strengthen them and keep this from happening again. Fortunately with my precautions I think I can out okay. I still feel a little bit sore back there, but it really feels no worse than it did before going through class, so it was probably not monumentally stupid of me to try to dance on it. It's got some healing yet to do though. I will have to continue going easy on it and keep up the icing, being especially carefully to keep it stretched.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Sewing project finished: Steph's purple toile apron, part V

I finally was able to finish the apron I've been making as a gift for [info]katiescarlett29*!


The only real stumbling block I'd been having, besides finding the time, was it was tough to decide what would be good material for the straps. I went through several possibilities, but the fabric the apron itself was made of wasn't sturdy enough and the rug binding I tried was too stiff to be tied. Eventually I settled on this sort of woven poly stuff that could be easily sewn, has some heft to it, and knots and unknots easily. The color's a little bit off, but I think it works anyway.

I had three yard-long sections of the stuff, which only occurred to me later was not the most useful measures in which to buy it. So first I attached the neck strap by tucking it under the fold on the top, folding it up over itself, cutting off the excess, and sewing it in with the top fold sandwiched between the two layers of the woven length. It hangs nicely and seems secure. Then I laid the two other yard-long sections over the middle of the apron with the ends meeting in the center. Those I also sewed in place with a long rectangle over the span of it. Then I took that extra bit cut off from the neck strap, tucked under each cut end to make it look nicer, and sewed it over the belt to hide where the two pieces joined in the middle. It looks kind of decorative that way, and hides the fact that it's not one continuous piece like it should be.

I gave it to Steph last night. She has a birthday coming up at the end of the week, so I guess I could have waited, but I was so pleased to have finished that I wanted to her to have it. She's waited long enough. I am glad to report that she really liked it, as I hoped she would. She even liked the way the trapezoidal shape allowed it to wrap more around her legs. Since that shape is a remnant of having to correct for the problem with the original pattern, it's quite lucky that it works so well for her. I hope it proves useful, and given that it's purple, it should at least match most of her clothes. ;-)

Monday, October 24, 2011

KINDNESS WAS PUSHED

Had a lovely evening discussing matters for Merely Players with members of the cast, and generally having a nice time shooting the shit. In the course of it a certain joke Lenny cracked recently came up, regarding her culpability in a certain costar unexpectedly vacating the typical performance space. We believe we should put on a T-shirt. In reference to those conspiracy-theory meme shirts, I have generated this design.



Or would it be funnier as "Gloucester was pushed"? Opinions, please!

Love to Jonathan, whom we talked of glowingly all night long, love to Lenny, the brilliant company who made the joke, and love to Hold Thy Peace, which has given us fabulous stories and good friends to recount them with. <3

Official Invitation: Hold Thy Peace presents MERELY PLAYERS

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” —Jacques, As You Like It, II.ii.139-166









Meet the Walking Shadows, a ragtag little troupe of Shakespearean actors as they struggle to revitalize a company that has seen better days! Come join us for this fun and funny Shakespeare revue that intersperses scenes from the Bard's most famous work with original comedic material poking fun at the nature of performing in a troupe and working together to make theater.

Seating is cabaret-style, with drinks and snacks available for purchase! All proceeds benefit future productions of Hold Thy Peace. Cash only, please.

Two nights only!
November 11th at 8PM
November 12th at 8PM

in Schwartz Auditorium at Brandeis University

Runtime: ~1 hour

Admission is free, donations gladly accepted

CAST

CORNELIA, the Director - Stephanie Karol (Goneril, Helena, Mark Antony, Thalia, Duchess of Gloucester)
SYLVIA, the Ingenue - Gabrielle Geller (Lady Capulet, Portia, Hermione)
DIONYZA, the Diva - April Farmer (Regan, Nurse, Decius, Shepherd)
MALCOLM, the Lead - Ben Federlin (Montano, King Lewis of France)
ORLANDO, the Lover - Andrew Prentice (Lord Montague, Cleomenes, Roderigo, Edward of York)
ARCITE, the Fool - Lenny Somervell (Edgar, Theseus, Autolycus, Iago)
VALERIA, the First Chorus - Jenna Schlags (Oswald, Clown, Emilia)
CRESSIDA, the Second Chorus - Emma Lieberman (Perdita, Bianca, Lady Bona)
CHARMIAN, the Third Chorus - Miriam Goldman (Brabantia)
Introducing
AUDREY, the Stage Manager - Carolyn Daitch
with
Waitresses - Caitlin Partridge (Juliet, Casca, Euphrosyne, Camilla, Desdemona, Margaret) and Charlotte Oswald (Hippolyta, Selene, Duchess of Venice, Duke of Gloucester)
Bartender - Jonathan Plesser (Albany, Lysander, Friar Lawrence, Julius Caesar, Damon, Polixenes, Othello, Duke of Suffolk)


CREW
Writer, Director, Costume Designer - Phoebe Roberts
Stage Manager, Technical Designer - Bernie Gabin
Producer, Research Assistant - Stephanie Karol
Hair and Makeup Artist, Choreography Assistant - Rachel Feldman
Choreography Assistant - Carolyn Daitch

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Margaret costuming, part III


Here is Ben as King Lewis of France and Emma as his lovely sister Lady Bona. These costumes are simple but incredibly effective. I knew that if the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester ended up in blue, which they did, I wanted the French nobility to wear green. That meant that we put Emma in this very pretty forest green stretch velour gown with elegant criss-crossing straps across the back. She looked very beautiful in it. So we found a green dress shirt at the Garment District for Ben, plus a tie of similar color to give him an edgy monochrome look. I liked the idea of a dress vest to suggest formality and power, but I had a hard time finding one I could use until Simon Cramer kindly lent us his. It came out quite sharp, and I appreciated how distinctive they looked from everyone else.

Here is Barbara Rugg as Lady Gray, the woman Edward of York takes as his wife and queen. To contrast with his black uniform I thought her queenly garb would work well if white. That gave me the idea to dress Barbara, who is a petite girl and the only person in the cast close to my size, in my lovely cream halter Cordelia gown. The gold brocade pattern shimmer quite beautifully under the lights, and I am pleased to see the dress get worn by someone, even if not by me. She holds her baby with Edward, who I insisted be wrapped in white, both for the rose of the Yorks, and to work with this beautiful gown.

Here is Julian Seltzer as King Henry VI. Originally I wanted him in a brown vest and brown slacks; he is a mild, slightly awkward, unkingly personality who I wanted to look a bit frumpy. I couldn't find anything in brown-- and apparently nobody wears vests of any kind anymore --but it turned out to be for the best. Julian came with me to the thrift store to help me find this rather nice but still somewhat unassuming gray pinstripe suit. Julian picked out this tie himself, with added the right touch of Lancaster red without being too sharp. I was incredibly pleased by how the gray looked besides the darker and richer colors around him, maintaining the effect I wanted while still being visually distinctive.

This is Abby Clarke as the witch. I wish I could take credit for her interesting costume, but all I was responsible for was the billowy black dress underneath. Abby herself brought the black cloak, while the orange cape draped over it was Charlotte's idea. It formed a large orange swath over the black and those two orange runners down each shoulder. I love the effect, giving her the typically witchy blackness while adding visual interest with the orange. Also, her orange is the only example of the color in the play, giving her a unique and slightly incongrous touch to suggest the force of chaos and doom that she is.

And that concludes the major costumes I designed! Not bad, huh? I might actually be pleased with this if I'd had a full amount of time to work on this. Came out not half bad after all.

Margaret costuming, part II


This fabulous picture is Prentice as Edward of York, eldest son of the Duke of York, besides HTP freshman newcomer Samantha LeVangie as the Duke of Warwick. I place the two of them side by side because originally I'd planned for their costumes were switched. Warwick switches sides twice in the play based on who he believes is the better claim at the moment and is recognized as a cunning military thinker, so I thought dressing the character in all black might stand well for that turncoat nature. Edward was going to have the camo jacket because the rest of his brothers all had variations on that army color scheme. But the black jacket wasn't fitting Samantha very well, and Jenna pointed out that since it didn't conceal her hips, it wasn't helping her much with making her look cross-cast. So on a whim I switched her pieces for Andrew's, and things clicked. The hat remained, concealing her hair and giving the impression of a military beret. She also seemed to move more confidently in the camo. I wish there was a better logic for Edward wearing all black, but he does become a fairly ruthless king and it does look pretty sharp on him. I found a sharp black dress shirt in club storage for him, and asked him to bring in his silver tie that would look white against the rest of it. It is a nice nod to his white-rose York allegiance.



Excusing the terrible quality of this picture, this is Alex Davis, another freshman newcomer, as the Duke of York, the leader of the white-rose party campaigning for the English throne. This was a military uniform I found complete in the Halloween section of the thrift store. Originally I considered this for Alex because he is one of the biggest men in the cast and he might have been the only person to fit it, but I ended up liking how official he looked in it, and the way it echoed the look of Suffolk's uniform. No one was like to confuse Plesser and Alex, so that similarity was safe. Also when they stood across from each other they create a cool visual motif. His dress shirt was white because of the York white rose sigil. The black tie and black belt finish the ensemble. Again I was quite pleased.



Here are the two younger York brothers, Stephen Badras as Richard, later the infamous Richard III, and Lenny as George, later Duke of Clarence. Dave requested that they look alike. When first went to the thrift store, I scoured to the place for anything vaguely military-looking, including the olive-drab jacket that you see Lenny wearing now. She told me she owned one very much like it and brought it in. Since I needed the same costume for the both of them, we put her jacket on Stephen, because he had stage combat to do and it fit him better. She also graciously took the baggier pair of camo pants for the same reason. I like how the jackets give them bulk, making them look like bigger men, and enabling Stephen to counterfeit a strange deformity to his body that is part of being Richard. Their looks are the reason I had originally planned to have Andrew in the camo jacket as their older brother Edward, so as to visually echo them, but I think it worked out.





Here is Alison Thvedt, a third freshman newcomer, as Rutland, the fourth and youngest York son. She is basically wearing what I wore when I played Fleance in that production of Macbeth I was in a few summers ago. I got Alison a black T-shirt similiar to the one I wore, and those cargo pants are mine, bought for the Fleance role. Since they are not really my style since then I've been using them as paint pants, which explains the splatters you may notice on them. I don't think they make any differnce to the look overall. :-) I bought her a hat like Samantha's, again like what I wore as Fleance, but she ended up wearing it as a background soldier rather than as Rutland.

To be continued in part three!

Margaret costuming, part I

The aesthetic was "vaguely World War I"-- emphasis on the vague --where most people would be in military uniforms. As I mentioned, I tend to prefer to applying a very unified design to a show's array of costumes, here I mostly shot to honor Dave's preferences and keep the characters looking distinctive from each other. To be honest, things worked out even better than I expected, hitting my main goals as well as suiting some of my personal design theory. The cast was good enough to allow me to take pictures for my portfolio, so I thought I'd show them to you and explain what I was thinking.


Here is lovely Caitlin as the main character Margaret. Dave wanted her in red to make her stand out visually and to indicate her powerful personality. Caitlin has a fabulous figure that not many people are blessed to have, which made finding red dresses to fit her a bit tough. The best I could do was a dress of mine I thrifted a while back fortunately made of a stretchy fabric, which I've always liked because of the high-low skirt and the unusual combination of one flutter sleeve and two spaghetti straps on the other side. One of these days I'd like to make a copy of it by hand. The fit isn't perfect on her, but overall I think it's all right. Over her shoulder is my red blazer-- which Caitlin once remarked upon seeing as "very sharp" --to make her seem more serious and offiical in other scenes. The shoes were costume heels I thrifted specially for the purpose, which were sexy and striking but apparently quite uncomfortable. Apologies, Caitlin, you made them work beautifully even so.


Here is Plesser as the Duke of Suffolk. This is probably my favorite costume in the show. I found the jacket and the pants at the thrift store in Waltham, separately even though they match so well. The red collared shirt is from club storage, actually quite nice, chosen because of his allegiance to the red-rose Lancaster family. It also made a nice subtle connection with Magaret The "boots" aren't actually boots, but rather a pair of brown dress shoes under the leather half-chaps I wear to horseback ride. The belt belonged to Plesser, fortunately matching the color of the boots. I like this ensemble particularly because it looks very, very much like pictures of my my great-grandfather in his WWI cavalry uniform. I made the sash myself out of synthetic red shantung, trimmed in yellow braid I had among the sewing notions my mom packed up for me. He looks very handsome, and I don't think I came up with a sharper look for this show.

Here are Charlottte and Steph as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. It's a little hard to tell in Charlotte's picture because of the weird light, but I fashioned a uniform for her out of a blue blazer and a pair of navy tuxedo pants I found at the Garment District, which made me decide that the color of this couple with be blue. I wanted to get Charlotte a real military dress uniform, but I couldn't find one in any store I could get to in the time I had; there wasn't time to order one online. So I had to improvise. In order to make the blue wool blazer more like a dress jacket, I sewed red and gold braided trim on the cuffs, the pockets, and across the shoulders. More gold fringe like on Plesser's sash was sewn to the shoulders, and a larger version like what you'd find on the edges of a rug went across either breast. At Charlotte's suggestion, three more gold buttons were put on to make it look more like a men's jacket. A white mandarin-collared dress shirt she had completes the look. I wish I'd had time to take in the waist of the tuxedo pants, but otherwise they created the right look. Beside her is Steph in the iridescent blue dress with the cowled back that Emma so graciously lent us. I think it's very flattering on her, and the way it shimmered beneath the lights was lovely. I am very glad they ended up in the blue because it made them stand out nicely against all the olive-drab in court, and because it made for a great moment when Margaret and the duchess faced off and created a great visual of red versus blue.

To be continued in another installment!

Friday, October 21, 2011

"Your tears serve but to wash my wounds in salt." - Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #9


Last night I found myself inspired and started working on this scene. It would be part of Sundan, where our tragic hero's closest friend Bastian finds out that he's loves their friend Juliana. From Sundan I am going for shame turned into rage at his helplessness to positively deal with his feelings and his situation. With Bastian I'm trying to convey that mixture of pity for the sufferer's plight and profound embarrassment on their behalf that you are seeing something they would rather hide. As a person who is often deeply ashamed to be a victim or to be helpless in dire straits, the situation resonates with me on both sides. Though it could use some polishing, I think I'm on to something, and I believe there is some real poetry among these lines. It needs a clearer lead into the scene, and it needs a firmer ending, but the meat of it is something real.

BASTIAN: Jesus wept, sweet Sundan, can it be so
That you love our fair friend Juliana?

SUNDAN: Speak not of this to me.

BASTIAN: Heaven forfend but I see past your eyes!
O most ill-starred and tragic turn of fate!
O most pitiable of fortune’s dogs!

SUNDAN: Speak not of this! As you love me, speak not!

BASTIAN: Never till this moment had I seen.
How canst thou have hid a thing like this,
A weight and meaning of such vast import,
With scarce a word or nod even to me?
Have I not shed my blood beside you, kept
Your counsel, stood first among your men,
Your dearest friend, and yet you told me not?

SUNDAN: This thing was never meant to leave the dark,
Not before your eyes nor Juliana’s!
When hope is dead before even its birth,
What profits aught for it to come to light?

BASTIAN: How long? How long have you lov’d her, Sundan?

SUNDAN: Ever, always, then and now.
A truth I buried deep for fear that she
Would never look on me as I on her,
Until the day when I resolv’d to speak,
A boy in my command won her away,
And sure I saw what I had ever known.
Wherefore do you groan and grimace so?

BASTIAN: My heart is torn in two for you.

SUNDAN: Your heart must no rival in tenderness,
That I am most wretched of love’s fools,
And yet Bastian bravely suffers so.

BASTIAN: I pray forgive but pity lays me low.

SUNDAN: Villain that you are for that pity,
For naught but its cruel blade may bleed me else,
As torn and bare as this has left me.
You drag my darkest bruises out all whilst
You twist in borrow’d shame for my sad state.
For shame hide thy long and louring face!
Your tears serve but to wash my wounds in salt.
Beset me no more with condoling blows
Lest you draw your keen compassion from its sheath
And with your loving kindness cleave me raw.
To think we make much of love and mercy!
Of mankind’s wonder, gloried gifts of God
To raise us to more than ungentle beasts,
One murders me by inch and ell for years,
The other works but to draw out my pains.
I’ll no more of man’s glories, sir, and pray
God may make me unmoved as a stone
To be no more burn’d with human warmth,
Or else consum’d, to bleed for this no more.

BASTIAN: In justness to your wishes I defer.
I’ll not presume to prick your plight anew.
For all the grieving fullness of my heart,
I can do naught to set things right for you,
And my empty words make you no solace.
Beyond them I have nothing.

SUNDAN: If have you nothing, I’d have that nothing from you,
For nothing can be remedy alone,
In only nothing may my sorrows end.

BASTIAN: You speak as with some evil toy within
You as I could not bear to see you act.
I fear behind those palled eyes does haunt
The glimmer of some desperate thing.

SUNDAN: Fear not but that all desperate things have chas’d
On heels one after other through my mind.
But long time can teach us patience as we
By no means other, hard or well, may learn.
Time I’ve had in plenty in this state,
In no lesser measure than but pain,
And my stern schoolmaster has laid it out
To learn elsewise is where perdition lies.
With soldier’s steadfast pace, I soldier on,
And as in war, in time all turns to scars.

BASTIAN: Thy wounds look fresh to me, old friend,
Fresh as engaged rings on fingers slipp’d.

SUNDAN: New wounds are habit too by now, so just
The same I’ve learned to bear them as they break.
There is no ministering to this hurt,
So well content to do me no more pain.

BASTIAN: Forgive me more most hollow words, but know
Naught would I spare to change this thing for you.
If it within my power lay, the earth
Would shake and groan to see it were not so.

SUNDAN: Then were my Bastian Atlas, with shoulders broad
To move both the earth and a lady’s love.
Leave me, old friend. Spare me the burden of your eyes.

(Exit BASTIAN.)

SUNDAN: It is as if I crumble piece by piece.
Now Bastian has my ancient secret out!
In span of years I ne’er myself betray’d.
It is this gnawing madness breaks me down;
With each day it wears more away my soul.
Sure that Marcus envies no man his joy,
Nor genders no man’s pity. There is no way
That he does not exceed my measure.
Oh, if my old friend could see the whole of it.
No mercy Bastian owes to me besides
Such pity as we show a fallen horse
With leg too shattered again to rise.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Things right now

Just finished my most recent blank verse assignment for school. I kind of hate it, but I think it satisfies the requirements. At this point that's the best I can hope for, while maybe I'll incidentally get better at generating unrhymed iambic pentameter. I do not much think this course study has made me much better a poet than I was before, so honestly I'm feeling like it was kind of a waste.

For my next regular playwrighting assignment I have to write a one-act play, which is supposed to be about an hour long. I have no idea what that will be about. I had a tough enough time figuring out stories to run just ten minutes. But I only have a few weeks to do it in, so I'll better get cracking.

Margaret opens tonight. I've seen the show at rehearsal several times now, but I'm going to try to attend as many performances as I can in order to support them (not to mention enlarge the audience.) There is also a photo call beforehand, which I'm going to try to be present for so I can take pictures of the costumes. I want to have them for my portfolio, and to e-mail to my mother.

I normally would have ballet tonight, but I want to be there for opening night. Also, my Achilles tendon is a little sore, presumably from pliés, and I really don't want to do permanent damage to it. Still, I hate missing class. I enjoy doing it, it's a great workout, and I don't want to fall behind in my learning. My progress has been spotty; some nights I feel like I'm improving and following along fairly well, some night I feel clumsy and weak. My arms are still ugly. I just wish I were better at remembering exactly what the exercises we do in class are so I can more effectively practice on my own between classes.

Today is a sad kind of day.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The newest addition to our little family


My grownup corner is no longer in quite the same state it used to be. My beloved butcher block is under the window now, while my collection of copper pots hangs on another wall. But it sure does look lovely against the blue wallpaper, and the adorable little spice rack that [info]blendedchaitea* made is a charming companion for it. And doesn't the newest addition to our little copper family look nice? :-D

I'm beginning to think my journal needs a "home decor" tag, given how often I write about it lately.

Big beautiful copper bowl

As I've mentioned, I'm a huge fan of copper cookware. It delights me to no end to have it in my kitchen. Unfortunately it tends to be very expensive, especially when bought new. Today when I was doing my final costume run for Margaret I was in the Framingham Savers, on my way out, I spotted this lovely copper mixing bowl, ten inches across and about five quarts in volume.



And this is no piece of junk copper. Most of the copper I've been fortunate enough to find in thrift stores tends towards the cheaper sort, thinly coated, lacking the heft that characterizes the good stuff. This, however, is sturdy and substantial, not to mention a sizeable piece. Mauviel, the premier manufacturer of copper cookware in the world, sells a bowl of this size for $130.00.

I paid $2.99. HELL, YEAH.

Margaret's garter

Just wanted to post about a little bit of costuming I made for Margaret-- though it is a small, simple thing, I am pleased with how it came out.

For one scene Margaret needs to have a garter that she can take off and put on York's head as a mocking crown. I didn't know about this until relatively late in the process, so I found myself needing to make one on short notice. Digging around in the bits and pieces in my sewing box, I found inch-wide elastic, dark red ribbon, and white lace with large holes up the band in the middle. The ribbon was the perfect width to go through these holes, so I wound it in and out of them, over three on top and then under one below. I left a tail of ribbon hanging out on either end. Then I measured Caitlin's leg to make sure the elastic would be just snug enough. I stretched the elastic as far out as it would go and pinned one end to my shoe and pulled the other end taut with my hand. Working to keep it pulled out the whole time, I sewed the laced and ribbon part onto the elastic so that the non-stretchy lace would not keep it from stretching as necessary once it was attached. Then I sewed the ends up together and tied the tails of the ribbon in a little bow. This is how it came out.


Despite my efforts, it is not as stretchy as I hoped it would be. Fortunately it fits on Caitlin's leg well enough and can be easily put on and taken off. I like the look of it a lot; it's pretty and elegant and I am pleased with my utilization of the resources I had available. I really lucked out with the ribbon width and the holes down the middle of the lace. It's a nice little handmade touch that I am pleased with myself to have made.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Official Invitation: Hold Thy Peace presents MARGARET, A TIGER'S HEART


Here is your official invitation to Hold Thy Peace's next main stage show, Margaret: A Tiger's Heart, a cutting together of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays and Richard III threads that center around Margaret, a French princess who was prominent in the War of the Roses. I hear the costuming was thrown together a week before the show. Don't you want to see how that mess came out? ;-)

MARGARET, A TIGER'S HEART
Directed by Dave Benger
Assistant Directed by Jenna Schlags and Lenny Somervell
Produced by Jonathan Plesser and Yoni Bronstein
Staged Manged by Elena Livak

Starring such familiar names as:
Caitlin Patridge as Margaret
Jonathan Plesser as Suffolk and Prince Edward
Charlotte Oswald as the Duke of Gloucester
Stephanie Karol as the Duchess of Gloucester
Andrew Prentice as Edward of York
Emma Lieberman as Lady Bona

Thursday, Oct 21st- 8PM
Friday, Oct 22nd- 8PM
Saturday, Oct 22nd- 8PM
Sunday, Oct 23rd - 2 PM

In the Shapiro Campus Center Theater

Tickets are free, donations gladly accepted

Friday, October 14, 2011

The Cap-Iron Man dynamic I want to see in Avengers


...too many shirts...

I just saw the new trailer for the Avengers movie. It didn't really give me much of what I was hoping for. Yeah, yeah, action's great and all, but frankly the only thing that really interested me was the tiny little character moment between Cap and Iron Man near the end, when Cap asks "Take away the suit and what does that make you?" and Tony's answer is, "A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist." This moment, brief as it was, gives me hope that the movie will contain what I feel is the most interesting aspect of this story, the potential fraught relationship dynamic for Steve and Tony.

Though I do like them eventually becoming friends, when they first have to work together I want them to clash. They are so different, they come to superherodom from such disparate places. Steve is politeness, waiting for the one, and all-American values, where Tony is glitz, sass, chicks, and booze. Steve just wanted to serve and do the right thing, Tony's got a lot of self-aggrandizement in there. And both of them have some reason to be considered for the leadership of the group (Tony because he wants it and Steve because it's kind of his natural place) which puts them in competition. Given that, I will be extremely happy if we see conflict between them not just based on the ways their personalities clash, but also because of the massive insecurity each inspires in the the other.

One of my favorite things about the way Cap was portrayed in his movie was that he was adorably still just a little bit awkward. Yes, post-serum he's gorgeous and built like a god and becomes a capable and respected leader, but he's still more used to being the dorky ninety-pound weakling that got beaten up and made fun of. He's not that smooth when dealing to other people, he's not used to women wanting anything to do with him, and he doesn't have complete confidence in himself. He clearly thought of himself as just a guy, nothing that special, just trying to do the best he can. I tend to find the version of Cap in the comics so perfectly awesome in every way that he's always been very boring to me, but that dash of awkwardness and insecurity in an otherwise strong, capable, and gorgeous man made me love the Cap in the movie.

Given that conception of Steve, I want Tony to make him really feel like he's that dorky kid again. It might seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it tends to stick with people when they grow up feeling like they're just not that awesome. Tony's this rich, handsome, urbane playboy genius, the cool kid that Steve has never really gotten to be. Also Tony's sort of a jerk, which I imagine would make it even more irksome. Remember how he got insecure about Howard Stark, assuming that of course Peggy would go for a rich ladies' man rather than a geek like him? I want to see that same thing, only more so, because it's one thing if you're aware that someone's much cooler than you, it's another if you're placed in a slightly competitive position with that person while they're also kind of an ass. So Cap will focus on what a dick Tony is so he doesn't feel so awkward about being less cool.

And on the flip side, I want to see Tony getting insecure about how much a better man and a greater hero Steve is than him. Steve is principled, valiant, strong in ways that should make Tony very aware of the ways in which he is weak and venial and vain. He probably grew up hearing stories from his dad about what it was like to work with the great hero. Tony is trying to see himself as a hero too, but who is he next to Captain Freaking America? So he's going to try to compensate for it by playing up the significance of his coolness and success, and they're both going to bluster the hell out of each other in order to hide the fact that each one feels just a little bit inferior to the other. And then over the course of the movie they'll come to respect rather than envy each other, and in time go from rivals to friends.

Anyway, that's what I'm hoping for. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. Doesn't look like I'm going to get my All-Shirtless Avengers like I wanted, so please, powers that be, do at least this much for me.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Random notes on Margaret costuming


Things go well. I would say we have about half of all the pieces we need, due to a vigorous scouring of the thrift store, club storage, and a raid of whatever might be useful in my own closet. I have found a bunch of military uniforms that will likely serve, though they all will require a little taking in to fit their wearers. Thus is the trouble with thrifting; selection is based on luck and you get whatever you find. But for the stage I know a couple quick fitting fixes; I find adding two darts in the back of a blazer do wonders for taking in across the chest and shoulders. There's also a bunch of cuffs I want to take up, both in sleeves and pant legs. These are minor fixes that I could even do with pins if I had to, but if I find the time to sew them that's probably better. Not bad for two days' work, eh?

Today me and the other two costumers are going to hit the army surplus store. I'm hoping to get the last handful of military jackets and suits there, as well as a few pairs of fatigues and maybe hats. That will hopefully finish off the major, "character-identifying" pieces. After that we would just need supplementary pieces like shirts to go under jackets, belts, and boots. Boots are always a pain, as nobody ever seems to have them and they're too expensive to buy new, so I guess we'll have to do one last thrift store raid to get anything even vaguely combat-like we can find.

I also need just a couple of color-specific things before I can nail done some final piece assigning. I have decided that the king of France and his sister Lady Bona will wear the same color, and that Gloucester and his wife the duchess will wear the same color. It's a small touch of my costuming theory that I can put in. To that end, I have procured two fancy dresses for the actresses [info]arthoniel* and [info]katiescarlett29*, one in dark green and the other in dark blue. The green is a dark forest stretch velour with criss-crossing straps in the back, the blue is iridescent with a cowl back borrowed from [info]arthoniel*, the one she wore to the fancy party. Fortunately both of them fit into both. The deciding factor, then, will be what color military dress uniform I can find for [info]nennivian*, who is playing the duke of Gloucester. I am planning on choosing this with care-- I want Charlotte to look good, and perhaps in solidarity for the efforts she has put into making her male performance, I want her costume to work with her performance as much as possible. I already have a number of other people in green or olive military pieces, and I'd like to have more contrast, so I think my preference is for blue, which means that I'd put Steph in the blue dress. In that case, Emma would wear the green and I will have to find a green dress shirt for Ben, who is playing the King of France. But if all I can get for Charlotte is a green dress uniform, it will have to be the other way around, and Ben will need a blue shirt.

The sizing on those dresses I eyeballed pretty nicely for Steph and Emma's bodies. I didn't do quite so well on another dress I bought, a diaphanous light blue gown with a drape over the bust. It was meant as another alternative for their costuming but didn't fit either of them. I should have known, based on how it fit me. I have an odd habit, you see, that when I'm costuming a show where any piece I'm considering buying I feel compelled to try on myself, even if it's intended for a person of a totally different size and shape from me. I guess the theory is if I know what body I'm trying to fit, I can extrapolate how it might work on them based on the differences between us once I see how it fits on a body like mine. This technique... does not always work. I think the fact that we're used to our own bodies as what's "normal" for us means that we don't always recognize the ways in which we're unusual, or at least not average. I sometimes don't have a good frame of reference for how much thinner I am than average, so if, say, a possible costume garment is a little bit too big on me, I might think it will fit someone who I perceive to only be a little bit bigger than me. Often in reality it ends up that because I am a good bit smaller than an average person, that average person I'm aiming to fit is going to need more than just a little bit bigger than me. Or I'll try to remember how much smaller I am, and think that something that's absolutely huge will be better filled out by a larger person, when in fact they are nowhere near that big. Thus this problem meant that light blue dress would not work as intended. Fortunately it ended up fitting Samantha, the girl who's playing Warrick, and will serve when she's playing a lady-in-waiting in the background. I had not been optimistic when I asked her to try it, and she is a tall statuesque girl, but I guess she doesn't have the same sort of bust or hips that made it unworkable for Emma and Steph.

Which brings me to another thing that always strikes me when costuming. When trying to find things for the best possible fit for the wide variety of the cast's forms, it becomes necessary to assess, and frankly discuss, the shapes of your actors' bodies. This is something that under normal circumstances I don't think people feel it's polite to do. When dressing actors, I will do it out of necessity with no critique or comment one way or the other, and then right after feel a little guilty about it as if I've said something rude. I think it's almost as if you are assumed in that case to be evaluating where it's no one's place to make value judgments about the bodies of others. But even though I must confess I have been known to make those judgments, in this process I have no trouble looking at everyone's shapes dispassionately. You can't really dress people properly unless you look at this stuff. If someone can't fit into a dress because of their hips, I need to be aware of that in order to find something that will accommodate those hips. If someone doesn't have the shoulders to fill out a jacket and they look swallowed by it, then I need a jacket to fit narrower shoulders. Even though in other cases it might be considered focusing on things that might be perceived as flaws, in this case it is appropriate, and without judgment.

Related to this, comparing people's measurements is an interesting way to see the differences in how people are built. I find it fascinating that a six-foot guy can have a 27" inseam, and a five-nine girl can have a 30" inseam. Though it occurs to me that I should have taken slightly different measures. I learned how to take measurements based on seamstress's techniques, which are more useful if you are making the garment yourself than if you are trying to find it in ready-to-wear. Wish I'd measured the men, or women playing men, around the chest rather than just sleeve and shoulders, because that's the usual sizing by which jackets and blazers are sold.

Got a ton done in just a short amount of time. Here's hoping today's trip is equally productive.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Vanity table finished!

I just had to post a close up of how lovely it turned out. The varnish just makes it glow. I am so pleased.

Emergency costumer jumping in



So Margaret lost their lead costumer due to unfortunate family circumstances a little while ago, leaving them just with two assistants who are eager to help but don't really know anything about costuming. Margaret is less than two weeks out from performance, and is kind of in a bind, so I told Plesser that if there was nobody else by Monday night, he could give me a call and I'd see that it got done. I was going about my business Monday wondering if they were going to need me, half-hoping they'd call because I like helping out, half-hoping they wouldn't because it's not like I don't have anything else to do. But a little after 9:30 I got the buzz, and was asked to come to the theater to hear what was needed. Amusingly, I found myself thinking, "Suit up. We're going in." It's important to me that things go well for HTP, so it's good to be able to help ensure that in a small way.

While I believe I can do a good job with this, it's not going to be my best work ever. I am going off of the designs of the old lead and prioritizing the effort to give Dave what he wants, so my personal costuming theory is not going to come in very much. I believe in normal circumstances that every costume needs to be chosen to work with every other costume, particularly when it comes to color. Color choices should all be coordinated with each other, and I like it best when they all can have meaning. Mostly here I'm just going for getting the right styling and ensuring that the characters are dressed differently enough that the audience can remember who they are. The aesthetic is military, and I have seen more than a few shows with a military look where everyone is dressed the same (UNIFORMS, ANYONE?) and gets lost in a sea of olive-drab and a cloud of camo. Gah, camo especially can give you an effective like a herd of zebras, where the patterns blend into one another and predators have a hard time seeing where one zebra begins and the next ends. Audiences, particularly with a show that's not so easy to understand, tend to like it when they can say, "Oh, it's the guy in the green coat again. I remember him." Otherwise, you get a lot of, "Who's that dude again?"

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Stubborn inefficient piggy


Whenever I have a number of projects going at once-- which for me is most of the time --I always want to work most on the one that is the lowest priority at the given time, and usually have zero motivation to get going on the one that I should be focusing on. When I first conceived of my idea for Just So, the funny short play based on that episode of Frasier, I was raring to go on it, but I should have been devoting my energy to the verse piece that was due sooner. Then later, when Just So's deadline was looming, I could not think of anything I wanted to work on less. Right now I should be thinking about homework, but all I want to do is work on things I can't hand in. I want to brainstorm for Imperium, the idea I had for a larp set in Ancient Rome, even though I have promised myself that I am putting larp writing on hold for the moment in favor of dramatic writing. I want to work on Sundan, the grand, Shakespeare-style tragedy I have conceived of where, in the course of trying to destroy a man who has stolen away the woman he loves, our hero destroys himself. Or maybe Mrs. Hawking, a Holmes and Watson type story, where a working class girl finds a calling through an unlikely partnership with a frustrated-genius high-class lady who she teaches to be a little more human. But neither of those projects satisfy the assignments I've been given, so they can't be used for school. Thus, of course, is my piglike nature, that I never want to do anything that I should be doing, and indeed, even if I used to want to do it, as soon as it becomes priority one I'd rather be doing anything else.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Please let's not talk this out


I know communication is of paramount important to human relationships. Especially in times of conflict. But Jesus Christ, sometimes I would rather gouge out my own eardrums than have to verbally hash things out.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the world's most stereotypical man. No, sometimes I DON'T want to have a long, drawn-out, detailed conversation about just what went wrong between us just now. Can we just skip to the apology and move on with our days? Okay, maybe having it THE FIRST TIME IT HAPPENS is useful, but after that, do you really need to make your point again, when it clearly didn't fix things the first time? Or do I have to sit through it as punishment for repeating my offense?

The most common instance of my getting into it with someone tends to be when someone does something that bothers me and I lose my temper and say something mean. Like, someone is annoying, so I tell them to quit being such a huge pain. Or someone behaves in a way I find absurd, frustrating, or unfair, and I express my contempt. Or someone is personally injurious to me, and I call them a jackass.

I know what I did. It isn't that I don't understand your feelings. The problem is that I TOTALLY DO UNDERSTAND YOUR FEELINGS and FAILED TO RESPECT THEM because I am weak and imperfect. I am bad for that, and deserve to take responsibility for that failure and must apologize for it. This in particular is a problem I have, being short-tempered and unkind sometimes. Can I please just say "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings and behaved badly" and you apologize for whatever it is you did? Can I please NOT have to express in a long detailed conversation that I fully understand the nature of my offense and of your feelings? Can you just trust me on this and accept that I GET IT and don't need to have the same conversation over and over, because I don't think there's anything in the world I hate more?

The other things is, even if we did make sure we were both totally on the same page, we're probably going to do this again at some point. People do not  change at the drop of a hat; you're probably going to do something that bothers me again, and I'm probably going to lose my temper and be mean again. I understand it's a problem. I'll work on it-- especially this, as I've been actively trying to be less nasty when I'm angry --but having the conversation is most likely not going to contribute to it coming about faster or better.

I know, I'm a bad person, a horrible, emotionally stunted person who has no shot at maintaining healthy relationships. I can live with that. Please no more talktalktalk.
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