"The Butler's in Love"

I like this image.




It's from a series called The Butler's in Love by Mark Stock. I think it's sweet and very sad. He's mooning over a lipstick mark left on a glass, which probably means that the woman he loves is probably above his station and unlikely to look his way. I like how they always have him slightly turned away, conveying how this is a secret thing he is wrestling with, something he cannot allow anyone to see. The artist painted it during a time of struggle with his own unrequited love, and I can see the empathy and understanding in the composition. I'd like to try to find the whole series, as what I've seen of it really affects me.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

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.

Scrunchasaurus

Dear everyone,

Look what thefarowl* and I have made.




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

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.

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 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.

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 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. ;-)

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

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!