Pictures from "Doubt: A Parable"

I finally got a chance to show you my costumes on actual actors and actresses from Doubt: A Parable. which was presented by Clayton Community Theatre. I am rather proud of these, I tried to make them as authentic as possible.

Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius have sharp words for each other, but Sister wins! Hooray for the nun!
Fr. Flynn and Sister James confer in the garden
Mrs. Muller meets Principal Sister Aloysius in the tense meeting in the principal's office, where Sister lays out her concerns
Father Flynn as he speaks to his congregation about having doubts

Father Flynn teaches the boys basketball, and afterwards invites them to the rectory to have a bull session

My challenges in this project: researching and executing the construction of the bonnets. These are not as deep as the actual ones that the nuns wore, the director didn't want them deep because this theatre is lit mostly from above, and their faces wouldn't have shown as well. I actually made one prototype, which took me hours to make, then made two more which took me 20 minutes each to make! I used heavy buckram for the crown and brim, covering it with black broadcloth.

Getting my computerized embroidery machine to embroider the center logo for the chasuble, it was plagued with thread breaks all through the process. I think it happened because I was using a stiff backing. I'll use a softer one in the future, and hopefully things will work out better.

Finding just the right purse for Mrs. Muller. Never did find what I wanted.

Find just the right hat for Mrs. Muller. I finally found a rather beat up navy blue hat, she loved it and wanted to keep it. It only cost $4 at a thrift store, so I let her keep it. Once she put on the crunched up hat, it fit her perfectly, it was darling on her, and she loved it. Unfortunately, I found it after they took these pictures!

Making the rosaries for the nuns. My daughter, Monkeygirl, agreed to take on this task, and she did a great job. I had to shop at MANY, MANY craft stores to find the crosses, finally found them at my 3rd Michaels. The nuns wanted to keep their rosaries as mementos, one girl is Jewish and the other is episcopalian or something like that, don't know what a Jewish girl will do with a rosary, but it is a nice memento.

Fr. Flynn got no memento.

Fr. Flynn's cassock had 24 buttons down the front. Finding 24 buttons alike at any fabric store is an ultimate challenge! These were not all alike, but were similar enough not to scream out that they were different!

It was fun to do this show, thanks to my friend the director to ask me to work with this group, I enjoyed it a lot! Unfortunately, we had woefully small houses for each performance, and these people put their hearts and souls into each performance. I wish it had been seen by more people, they missed a very good show!

Pictures from "On Borrowed Time"

Mr. Brink, (aka "death"),is a dapper fellow who gently tells the characters, "It's time to come with me now"..where the woodbine twineth...Gramps resists and tricks Mr. Brink to climb an old apple tree to get him an apple before he goes with Mr. Brink. Gramps had made a wish that anyone climbing the apple tree had to stay there until he said they could come down. The wish really comes true, and Mr. Brink (and death) is stuck in the apple tree!

All of this trickery is designed to keep Gramps here on earth a little longer to be with his beloved grandson Pud, whose parents were killed in an auto accident. Aunt Demetria has designs on Pud, more on the money his family willed him, rather than on her desire to show love and care for the boy.

Gramps is declared insane by reason of his claim to have death caught up in the tree. Dr. Evans, the Sheriff, Mr. Philbeam and Marci try to convince him to relent, and let Mr. Brink down, which finally happens when Brink tricks Pud to climb the tree, and as a result, the boy dies. Gramps decides to go with Mr. Brink also, to that wonderful place into eternity, to meet his dear wife Miss Nellie, who still chastizes him in eternity for swearing!

An endearing story, and played very well by the Hawthorne Players! Thought the subject is somber, it is treated in a light-hearted way, and as a result, no sniffles at the end, only happiness that Gramps and Granny and their dear PUD are together once again!

Mr. Brink tricks Pud to climb the tree
Mr. Brink's first encounter with Julian, and Julian resists the call to "come with me now"
Aunt Demetria--flowered dress from vintage pattern (see earler post for pattern details)

Aunt Demetria in another vintage dress.

I found many of the costumes in closets, at thrift stores, and I built several for the women. Aunt Demetria looks fabulous in her costumes! She liked them so much, she purchased them for her own collection! The little boys wanted their thrift store shirts and my famous boxer shorts as a remembrance, so we let them take them home. I found Dr. Evan's checked coat and vest at Goodwill, perfect fit and style, and although he whined about looking like Herb Tarlick, I think he looked great, so did his girlfriend and many others!

It was fun to do the costuming for this show, despite the fact that I was doing two shows at the same time, but neither of the two were that demanding, so it worked out OK.

Another Opening, Another Show

That's a familiar opening to a famous show. My blog has been neglected for 10 days because of two openings to two shows that I've been working on. Two tech weeks in a row make for a very busy schedule! So here's an update!

"On Borrowed Time"(Hawthorne Players) openend Nov. 6. It is being shown at the James J. Eagan Theatre at the Florissant, Civic Center. Shows this weekend are Friday and Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 2. Opening night saw a very enthusiastic crowd, small but enthusiastic enjoying the show. Characters were "on" for the night, and the show went on without a hitch. Grandpa and Grandma were great, the kids were awesome (lots of lines to deliver for young actors). Mr. Brink was very mysterious, but entertaining in his own quiet way. The other supporting characters did a great job of helping to tell the story. Larry Marsh directed and designed and constructed the set. Fabulous job in both areas! And it was very entertaining!

Last night, Nov. 13, the show "Doubt: A Parable" opened at Clayton Community Theatre, at Washington University South Campus Theatre. They knocked one out of the park, so to speak. Sr. Aloysius had many friends in the audience, and they reveled in her characterization of the crusty old school nun getting in the face of the young fresh-faced arrogant priest! Mrs. Muller riveted everyone to their seats, as she fought her way through her "visit to the principal" meeting. She caused everyone in the audience to get so quiet you could hear a pin drop as her emotion went from controlled "nice" to letting it all hang out in anger over the plight of blacks in the early '60's--"That's just the way it is, Sister!" Sr. James showed a wide range of emotion within the confines of her black nun habit--from exhuberant "joy of teaching" to fear to embarrasment to anger to sadness over the loss of her innocent way of looking at life. Great Job!

They actors and actresses all looked great! Of course, I'm biased! From the stylish 30's chick Aunt Demetria (aka Pismire!) dressed in her authentic '30's design suits, thanks to the patterns my friend gave me, to Father Flynn in his pretty authentic looking chasubles, I'm pleased with the results of the costuming.

I'll get a CD from the professional photographers who took pictures of both of these shows, and post some of the best shots from each show. I'm very proud of these productions from my own point of view, and I think the audiences were highly entertained by the productions.

Two down, one more to go

Today, my two shows that I costumed closed. Prelude to a Kiss and Sound of Music are but a pleasant memory.

Now, Don't Drink the Water starts next Friday. I'm about done sewing, or so I think. I'm going to bring the stuff to the theatre tomorrow, and we'll go from there to see what we need.

The end of this long run of stuff to do is in sight. Hope I'm not speaking too soon!

If you can't say something nice, don't say.....

...anything at all--you knew the ending to that phrase.

Community theatre groups work on their plays with passion and energy to put on the best production their time, space, and funds will allow. Actors and actresses will spend hundreds of dollars on just the right pair of boots, or a wig to make them look the part that they are playing.

Our town has a lot of community theatre groups. I seem to recall that my own mother and father met in a community theatre group. So maybe that's why I've always wanted to get involved in community theatre in some capacity.

Being a widow, with no one to complain how late I arrive home, I've had lots of chances to work with community theatre groups. You either have to be a single or have a very understanding spouse, or two theatre nuts have to be married to make this theatre commitment work. Many of the people I have met are in the same situation as I am, single. I've met couples involved in the work together. One lady who played Joanna in "Move Over Mrs. Markham" showed up at our opening night last week, unable to see her husband, who played Phillip in the same play in his opening night performance on another play. Compromises need to be made in this case.

Community theatre groups always think what they have done is the be-all, end-all to any production on the boards at that given time. When I put my heart and soul into making 120 costume pieces for a play, (like I did in "The Music Man"), I think it should get a good critical review. The review was not raving, not terrible, and definitely pointed out some chinks in the armor of that play. This opened my eyes to the role that local critics play in judging the quality of plays that they see.

Our local "critic's panel" works for a radio station that fosters the arts, KDHX-St. Louis. For our latest play that was revued, "Prelude to a Kiss" the lead actors were lauded, several of the side actors and actresses were mentioned, and I got a nod from a very picky critic. "Costumes (SewWhat) were appropriate." Now was that a ringing endorsement or a simple nod that they were OK?

When I costumed Oklahoma last summer, the critic mentioned that the pig farmer's shoes were too clean--no other mention of the costumes. I think for The Music Man, some mention of colorful costumes was made. So I guess the work appropriate may be a high compliment, according to these very picky critics.

I like to say something nice about each thing I critique, no matter how small it may be. When the critics say they yawned through the entire thing, or they had a bad attitude about even coming (Last summer's Oklahoma's critique started out, WHY DID THEY EVEN PICK THIS PLAY TO DO?) And this was for a show that had two sold out houses in a 600 seat theatre! Or they couldn't even muster up a laugh when the audience was cracking up, I say it's time to turn over the critic job to someone else, you are definitely overworked and have really become jaded.

But if you want a real true estimate of the merit and flaws of what the production value of your play, these critics seem to nail it. Maybe we don't like to see the warts, just the beauty. But we are learning our craft, and pointing out flaws helps us to know what needs to be changed the next time we do productions.

But as I said, if you can't say something nice, maybe you should just shut up.

Read critique of "Prelude to a Kiss" on KDHX-St. Louis website. Go to "Community" then to "Current Reviews" page through to Prelude... Jan. 23-Feb. 1, 2009