Countdown to....

A Christmas Carol!



So we moved in yesterday. It was somewhat chaotic, because we moved in on the tails of a 125 piece Northwinds band picking up their show and leaving in a huge truck! There were so many musicians on stage, I have never seen that stage so full. They had the Northwinds Band plus the University of Missouri Symphonic Band playing together! Wow, I'm so sorry I was in the midst of my move-in so I couldn't hear it.

So the black tied musicians moved out of the way, and the costumes and stage pieces moved in. We worked until after 10--the lights were still on a people still working when I left.

Friday and Saturday were crazy for me! I had about 7-8 garments to make--nothing very complicated, some simple elastic waist skirts, simple knickers, some simple accessories. I remade one actress's complete outfits, the ones we had chosen for her needed extensive ripping and resewing, I wasn't up for that! I hate to rip! It took me less time to start from scratch! Besides, she had gone from little to teeny-tiny over the past two years, and the stuff she wore before was way too big. She is one of my actresses that I love to sew for, because she could make a plastic garbage bag look good on her, although we like to show off her figure a little better. I made her a darling outfit for Mrs. Cratchit, and found a perfect blouse at the thrift store that works so well with it. She tried it on last night, it was soooooo cute. I don't know if it makes her look poor, but it sure is cute!

Then I had to organize and bag up everything. I put together all the costume pieces, hats, scarves, gloves, socks (for the knickered ones), coats, and actual suits and dresses. It is so much easier to do this in the privacy of my home than to wait til we get to the theatre with 100 interuptions to try to keep my wits together to do it. Then I had to move it! It took three loads of my little SUV to get it all up there.

Once we got to the theatre, I had several ladies ready to iron and steam everything to make it look fresh and nice. I got them going, then had to leave for my granddaughter's Christmas program at preschool. When I came back there was very little to finish up, they had done a nice job.

So now we wait for tonight for the actual rehearsal. I'm not sure if she will want costumes tonight or not, but I hope that all goes smoothly. I'm sure there will be grumbling on some parts, the first comment I got last night was "My hat's too big" from a veteran who wore that hat last year and we fixed it, so quityourb**ching! That wasn't what I wanted to hear.

Anyone involved in theatre knows that tech week can be hell week or go smoothly. Usually it is an up and down week. Crisis, followed by crisis solved, only to have another crisis arise! When things go well, you can add the finishing touches to your performance. When they go poorly, you are just glad to get something on stage by opening night. Who knows what lies ahead for us this week, we just hope to put on a good show for our audiences....AND, BREAK A LEG, CHRISTMAS CAROLERS!

Advent

This time of the year is the time of preparation for Christmas. If you can step aside from the commercial aspects of this holiday (aka, the decorations, the gift-buying, the parties, the food!) you can feel Mother Nature as she prepares us for our long winter darkness, which culminates on the first day of Winter.

Mother Nature and our Christian biblical tradition remind us that the time of waiting and preparation is one in which we are in darkness seeking the light. We call this season in the church year Advent. My most favorite church music deals with this theme in song and text. "As The Watchman waits for the dawn, so do I long for you, My God" (based on Psalm 130:6-7) Many a December dawn has reminded me of this song, dawn breaking under ripples of snow clouds overhead, with each ripple catching a glint of sunrise turning each cloud into beautiful shades of pink, mauve, blue and purple.

The natural darkness helps us to feel the longing during the waiting period that ancient ancestors experienced while waiting for the promised Mesiah. They waited and waited, for years, decades, centuries. How could they wait with hope for that long? Their strong faith kept them on course to wait for the coming of one that was promised to them so long ago.

And James admonishes his followers (James 5: 7-11) "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the ....rains. You too must be patient."

And on Christmas day, the "Light" was born. Winter solstice brought ancients hope for the future, they knew that soon the days would no longer be darker and darker, but light would soon come their way. So, too, with the celebration of the Birth of Christ, He, is the Light that we seek who has finally come to walk in our midst.

Like children waiting in tingling anticipation for Santa to come, we wait for our Savior's birth. We can all remember that long wait for Christmas to come, our patience tested as the days go by so slowly. Let's think about why we really celebrate this holiday, and focus on anticipation for the birth of our Savior.

So, if there is a message here, it is Keep Christ in Christmas--no X-mas celebrations, only CHRISTmas celebrations! And, patience, people, the Lord will soon come!

See This D*mn House Dec. 11 post for the inspiration to this piece!

Speaking of Mr. Dickens.....

Hats created for "A Christmas Carol" presented by Hawthorne Players, Dec. 2007
This was my fancy hat, my first attempt, the feathers cover up a multitude of sins!
Simpler design, fits well, cheap to make, takes a hour to put together, and the new default design for 2009!

Our theatre group is working on "A Christmas Carol". Dates for the performances are Dec. 18-20. We are doing 4 performances, a matinee on Saturday and Sunday, and evening performances on Friday and Saturday.

The group has done this show before, having first done it in 2007. I was costumer for the 2007 show. It was a big job (about 35 performers, most needing at least two costume changes), and I had just come off my task of costuming "The Music Man" with a cast of 55.

One of the things I found about doing a Dicken's show is that the ladies all needed period hats. It was fairly easy to find patterns for these hats, because many folks are doing re-enactments and shows using this style of period clothing. I had never made hats before, but was intrigued with the idea of doing so. As you can see, I got quite into the craft, and made many very cute, colorful and quite lovely chapeaus for my ladies! These were only matched by the wonderful top hats that the men wore!

One of our actresses is a very sought after performer, and she is in many shows during the year. She has a wonderful voice, she is a great actress, and she loves spending her spare time working in musicals. We were lucky to be able to snag her between other gigs for the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last summer.

When she did Christmas Carol in 2007, she came with her own Dickensonian costume! She is in much demand during the Christmas season working as a songstress doing Christmas Carols for various local events. I was very thankful that she could dress herself for her caroling role, and when she told me what she paid for the hat she was wearing, I was shocked! Many, many pesos! And it is the simplest design! I recreated it the other night for $4 worth of materials and about 1 hour of time! It frames the face beautifully, and fits well. I'd model it myself, but you can get the jist of it from the picture.

From now on, if I need to make more Dicken's style hats, this is the style I'm making! The details of the fancier hats are lost in the translation, and even though they were totally fun to make, they aren't necessary.

My young girls will wear mop caps, and I have a nice collection of those. The actresses who are returning will get their fancy hats, but the newcomes will get the 2009 stripped down, maribou trimmed simple hats, and no one will be the wiser! My men will have several new cool top hats to choose from, and we'll all look fine!