I Love My Job (& Santé!)

All current costumes were built/repaired/laundered as required by Thursday afternoon,
which meant there was just one thing left to do.....

CRAFT PROJECT!    

 (Days when I especially love my job = Getting paid to Craft.)

So we made up twelve centrepieces for the
"Breakfast with Madeline" event at Willow Lawn. 

Useful when it came to Official Function #3 today:

Toasting the opening of Madeleine at lunch*.

That is Sarah's costume design & all of our combined efforts to create two cast's worth of red capes,
yellow hats, blue scarves, white socks & muffs.

 

( My upcycled Thanksgiving-cookie-crust for cheesecake
also met with commendation. Nom. ) 

Next week, we'll begin to kit out the five upcoming school tours.
We're already talking Twenties for Hay Fever next February. My favourite decade!

And I have successfully retrieved a parcel from 7½
- a timely Customs' release & delivery, ready for Monday!

*And whilst we're toasting the French, raise your whisky glasses also to the Scots. 

Happy St. Andrew's Day!

TWC,

 

         Also spotted on the Thanksgiving day drive                      & later revisited, 

          The Woman's Club.  

 

It's another of Richmond's Historic Landmark buildings, also known as the Bolling Haxall house:

an "Italianate mansion"dating back to 1858. 

Its exterior alone is full of character. 

 It even has its own theatre hence,

It was a good day for shadow photography too.

Wall Art #4 West Grace

The parking lot at Grace & North Adams: 

 

And further along West Grace, the robot murals.

Now these are pretty cool!

 

and the humanoids. 

Sealed with a kiss. 

# meta-me

I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.
And here is the shock - when you risk it, when you do the right thing, when you arrive at the borders of common sense and cross into unknown territory, leaving behind you all the familiar smells and lights, then you do not experience great joy and huge energy.
You are unhappy. Things get worse. 
It is a time of mourning. Loss. Fear. We bullet ourselves through with questions. And then we feel shot and wounded.
And then all the cowards come out and say, 'See, I told you so.'
In fact, they told you nothing.

Jeanette Winterson: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Saccharine.

I just OD'd on Christmas at the Jefferson. 

The Madeleine girls were in attendance to sing one of their show songs alongside other local musical & theatrical groups. 

Far far too much festive cheer already.  
Frosty the Snowman finished me off entirely; 
I've peaked too soon.

I should've remembered the Wraggle rule: Christmas begins from the 4th of December. I'm going to go snack on crackers, pesto & olives to re-set myself.   
                                                             "Happy Tree Lighting!" 

(Not that I stayed long enough to warrant seeing the tree lit but this photo can help us pretend. Sue suggested the best way to experience the Jefferson is by a visit a few days prior to Christmas, with a quiet drink & a spot of tree admiration.
There'll at least be no big ass furry mascots parading down the staircase then.)

"Happiness & S'mores"

Today smells mainly of woodsmoke.

The advantage of working the Sunday matinee is that you get to keep your evening after.

Joey decided he wanted a bonfire. He & Tommy (carpentry intern #2) live out of the city in a house shared with a bunch of tour actors. Henrico County again but the 'easternmost portion' this time. 
   Lauren, Emily & I headed out to join them for an evening of fire, beer & S'mores. It was a bit odd not to have to fully layer up November 5th-style. I still opted for hat, scarf & gloves out of principle though. 
   Up out of Church Hill, along the Osbourne Turnpike, stopping just short of Pocahontas Parkway, Varina feels pretty much "the middle of nowhere". Driving there reminded me of night-time drives over to Soberhill. All the better then a location for a bonfire. We kept it fairly tame by use of a fire pit although our carbon cardboard recycling produced some pretty big flames.

'Twas a good evening. (S'mores work so much better with Graham crackers.
I'm sure I've used digestives as a substitute biscuit before now.)
Lauren was happy that no-one was a pansy: we all employed good-from-the-ground
& perfectly well adaptable branches for toasting (or setting alight) our marshmallows. 

Bend in the River.

The name of Church Hill was familiar to me because in my first week, Gordon had told me that I should go to there, climb the hill & look out over the city to see why Richmond first got its name. It's all to do with how Byrd II believed that the view of James is similar in manner to the curve of the Thames around Richmond Hill in London. (I didn't have the heart to tell him that my knowledge of the Thames & Richmond-upon-it was somewhat limited. Nor how I'd far rather discuss its namesake further north.) Mission now accomplished anyhow.

We drove up the hill as the sun was starting to set. Lynn pointed out St. John's "Give me liberty or give me death" Church on the way. (They hold reconstruction Sundays there of Patrick Henry's famous speech. I'm almost tempted.)

The gingko trees looked so splendidly rich in colour in the evening light. 

And because we've shifted to Christmas anticipation,
the lampposts were now sporting red ribbon bows. 

...  How cute. 

From this vantage point, you can also see another of the factory-to-river loft conversions with its landmark "Lucky Strike" tower.

(The building also features an Indian head on its roof
from Lucky Strike's trademark sign:)

Turkey Day.

- Leftovers. Mmm, délicieux...  

Thursday's Thanksgiving saw me sent home with much Tupperware, seeing me equally well-fed throughout the weekend. Yay for take-home hospitality. 
__________ 

We began celebrating on Wednesday night, post-commerical shooting with a roommates' Thanksgiving Eve's bar "crawl". Lauren & I had been tipped by one of our leads so drinks were on us for the night. (Apparently tipping your dresser is a regular Equity carry-on. We'd both turned it down the first time - I was slightly offended & confused by the gesture as I felt I was just doing my job & the theatre pays for that. I then had chance to discuss it with my 'shop colleagues. Turns out it's actually okay to accept it. Alright then!)
   NB: This is not your regular pub crawl from one pub to the one next door, working your way down Main Street. This involves driving to bar of choice (Pie, in the Fan) & having a drink before the designated safe driver (Emily) drives onto the next (Republic, off West Broad) for another drink & home. Republic was more fun. We talked to a redneck. He called me Mary Poppins. I felt he failed to understand my accent & was not impressed. 

My personal contribution towards the Tg festivities started on Monday. Procuring of baking ingredients for cookies had taken place after I discovered Dollar Tree. Oh, the dangers. It's like being let loose in Poundland or Wilko's or even IKEA. So much stuff for cheap. Yes, we must buy! Now thanks to Meli, re-named as "Seventy Pence Tree". I like it. 
   The decorative element proved tricky. Colouring? Check. Icing Sugar? Hmm...  I knew about frosting here. Indeed, K.Roger's has an entire aisle-side dedicated to the many types of frosting. I spotted "Confectioner's Sugar" but wasn't so sure about that one. Maybe that was just to go in the cake rather than on it. Emergency text messaging to Lauren only yielded confirmation that icing sugar is British. 

   So I started with my bowls of frosting, colouring them up accordingly.

Then Emily stepped in to help. I had been so close to being right. It's Confectioner's Powdered Sugar which I ideally needed. Lucky for me, she had some going spare.

Ta-da! 

'Here we see examples of both frosted & powdered sugar decorating.'

Dinner was held by my fellow costume collaborator, Lynn & her 'sweetheart' Mike. Lynn trained back in the day at VCU & was once Richmond's own theatrical ingénue before crossing over to work backstage. 
   It was a very happening kind of lunch: it's not every day you get to share a turkey with an ex-Broadway star & Wiki celebrity. Betty Ann Grove, Lynn's other guest, first became friends through Lynn's "Second Unfortunate"(husband; the phrasing, it's a Southern thing.) She turned 84 not so long since but is still pretty nimble on her feet. She treated us a wee dance on arrival as well as some good story-telling.

Betty Ann lives down in Church Hill. I knew of the area, that it was near to Shockoe Bottom  but I hadn't realised it was as close by as only a few blocks. Much like its neighbour,

It was a pretty beautiful day outside too.

Church Hill has also seen its old tobacco factories of the 1870s converted into modern-living spaces.
   Betty Ann was one of the first to move into the apartments at Tobacco Row before Church Hill really caught up with the needs of its new residents. 

  The apartments are beautiful inside: wooden beams, french doors adjoining the rooms & so much light brightening up the space.

Over in Henrico County, I met Mike and his golden retriever, Jack as well as Lynn's Maisie (Beagle cross) along with her brand-new addition, Zooey - a little mass of terrier. All three were instantly shooed outside to the verandah to occasionally wistfully glance over the window-sill at the warm, well-fed humans inside.

Very Strange.

    It was a good day to be around dog-lovers as Thankgiving also ties in with the National dog show. Lynn & I had talked a bit about the differences during our time in the costume shop - such as breeds from the British "Gundog" group being classed separately as "Sporting" or "Herding" in the States. 
  There's a difference in grooming standards as well, hence my cry "that's not an English Setter!" with all its clipped-back coat & long tressy feathered ears. Differences aside, I still rooted for the Fieldy as a matter of loyalty, which went on to win its class.


So what do Americans eat on Thanksgiving other than Turkey?
A wee insight for you:

Sweet Potato, Mashed Potato & Turkey.

 

Green Bean Casserole. This is THE dish of the day for me. Tasty. 

Green beans. Mushroom soup. Portobello mushrooms.
Fried onions on top.

Mince Pie & Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream.

We rested between courses. I didn't even get as far as the washing-up as I napped. Wine at one pm followed by good food makes for a sleepy afternoon. Sky the Wire Fox terrier won the National. Macy Day's Parade was on next. 
   I'd heard of it but never quite knew what it was all about. It was fun to watch - with snippets of some of the Broadway shows, musical numbers being played. And then the balloon characters, part of the a yearly tradition with some definite old favourites. (Kermy!  We dug up some history on it.) It's been quite an event right from its origins in 1924, when live elephants were present in the parade.
   By 4pm I was nodding off again so Lynn drove myself and Betty Ann home. I had an additional 'sights of the city' tour on the way. I do like my colleagues' driving tours.

My arrival back at the apartment coincided with the roommates getting ready to head over to Julie's for the "Orphan Thanksgiving" evening. We headed out to Henrico County. Julie had her mom & her two nephews visiting her, plus us & some other theatre folk: Joey, Joel & Kristen from the Rep and Matt (ex-Theatre IV staff.)
    The ratio of food to company and conversation swung in favour of the latter for me. It was good to have time with theatre people outside the building itself! Joey was disconcerted by what he deemed as my British influence over an American event, holding me responsible for the tea party which broke out midway through. Not that I started it! That was Julie's doing when she offered to us, the guests & Matt & I enthusiastically took her up on it. (Discovered "Sleepy Tea" (chamomile & mint) - it comes second to Dreamtime on my List.) 
   All in all, a fun & sociable evening. Heartwarming that people recognised how we wouldn't necessarily have somewhere to go & opened up their homes & family-time to share with us. 

Friendly Neighborhood Fish

He sits outside of Premier Bank on West Marshall.  I'm not entirely sure why he's there.

Maybe he's the one which got away...

New Favourite Building.

I caught a glimpse of this magnificent grey granite building on Friday whilst walking up East Broad. I noticed it first reflected back from the glass wall of the Children's Hospital.

 It wasn't until Saturday as I crossed through the Capitol grounds
from the other side that I realised what it was.

Old City Hall. 

 Built in 1894, in use right up to the '70s.  195 foot clock-tower.

Gothic Revival in style ....  Stunning. 

On always having a camera handy*:

This morning I walked down to Shockoe Slip, discovering new murals en route - hurrah!
I'd read about Very Richmond, a store based in the James Center Atrium so went to have a look at their Local Goods. (I forgot what one was, confusing it with an Arboretum. Definition, accurate: it's one bright glass-roofed building, nestling beside the hotel.)
 
As I left the building via the Great Turning Basin, I realised Richmond had gained one or two (or more likely fifty) new visitors for the festive season:
 

Or,*Spontaneous Reindeer Discovery.

So cute & expressive.... 

                

Following the 'Grand Illumination' on Friday evening, they're going to be even more shiny.
(Someone cancel the show, I've got reindeer to admire!)

I walked back up through the Capitol grounds.
I hadn't realised before that they were so accessible
to the public with open gates & places to sit and walk around outside. Literally my mind went canine as
I thought:  

Open!
Benches!
Leaves! 

 Prior to this year, I'd already wished that I could experience a Virginian fall. I'd thought it'd look & be pretty gorgeous. I certainly haven't been disappointed by my Richmond experience. It's definitely more my scene than battling with the heat & humidity of summer.
I think I'd quite happily hold onto this season with its bright blue skies & crisp mornings & all those lovely swooshy crunchy leaves. Bliss.
 

Black Friday Perambulations.

I took the parallel road on Friday to the Court End district to pay a visit to the Richmond Valentine History Center on East Clay. It was a gift shop-only call as the weather was too good to be looking round exhibits indoors. I did discover that they have a costume & textile collection however so I imagine I'll be heading back there sometime. 

From East Clay to find out where East Marshall leads to. 

Egypt, actually.

Somewhat amused by this pragmatic equine greeter
at the nearby Museum of the Confederacy.

Cigarettes this way, y'all...

 Around the corner, the building which Lynn had pointed out to me:

 

Monument Church stands as a memorial to 72 people who died in the 1811 fire at Richmond Theatre. The current octagonal building was completed in 1814, serving as an Episcopal church intil 1965 and later on, as a chapel for the Medical College of Virginia.

Thankful.

I had the loveliest of days yesterday. Beautiful weather. Time with friends. Good conversation. So much hospitality shown. (Turkey photos & reflections to follow in due course.)

Today is akin to Boxing Day sales in the form of "Black Friday". Some of the stores re-opened from 10pm yesterday. Google wishes for me to outsmart the Black Friday frenzy by shopping online. I think I'll go one better. I'll go flip the laundry at the theatre in readiness for tonight & walk down to Shockoe, away from the stores. 

I'm the only one of the roommates to also have Friday daytime off. It's been such a short working week for me: two days out of five, not bad! The others are still busy with prepping for today's Tech on Madeline. Producers sort of swallowed up all the manpower so it feels like something of a scramble to get ready now. It'll happen.

Sue's Thank You

We got pins!

(In a cute little silver box - in a silver voile bag - in a gift bag.)

And only last week we were wondering where all the dressmaking pins had got to because no-one seemed to have any more than anyone else. That puzzle remains but the problem's now solved with a fresh stash of new pins. Hurrah!

Truly it's the little things in life;
the most practical presents which we love the most.

 


 And a full shop focus on Madeleine's now. 
  Marcia & I were making muffs happen:

(I overheard the comment, "because Chase (director) doesn't know what to do with their hands."
                  Well, that works out well then...)

Tomorrow post-matinee we get to shoot a commercial for the show.  

 

From 1st Dress to Opening Weekend:

I've talked a bit about show preparations in Tech Week but wanted to write some more.

The Friday before, my head was ready to explode. I'd been present at 98% of the fittings, had then turned all that information into notes & from the notes, drawn up the plots. The final hurdle after three days of typing to make sure every individual change for each of the twenty-four was rendering me cross-eyed & unable to see what was on paper in front of me. Plus having had the cast swap around with characters, trying to keep track of who was who & where now ... but we got there.
   I'd also discovered VaRep's way of working. The Ensemble do their own pre-sets. We were only to pre-set for the principals. I had a minor fit at Lauren, who's been released from Paint to be my second dresser. Uh-oh.
  For K&I, I pre-set for every single female's change; total control. My head was saying, but these are Actors! Can we trust them? Will they do it? What happens if they don't?! Will it be my fault if they've forgotten & they've nothing to wear? Eeek.


I have only one pair of hands so Marcia became my temporary double in First Dress to provide me with a second pair & oversee the QCs. Likewise Sarah worked alongside Lauren to help her along the way & learn which actor was which.
    We'd had our meeting & had designated places to change to the cast. That all sort of got overturned as the cast know their own timings for off-stage & back on better than anyone. What exists in theory on paper.... So places were switched about, from SL to SR and vice-versa. People turning up in Quick Change when you least expect them, which more than once begged the question of, 'why are you here?!' 
  So there was some chaos & some carnage as we encountered the real-time timings of costume changes alongside set changes and the orchestra's music. But the Rep has a magic word for those moments. "Hold!" And we pause, locate the problem, redress the problem & make it work faster. Sometimes the QC a few feet away was still too far so a change was moved to between the Blacks just off-stage as change times were that brief; literally a few beats & back on. But each time we held for a costume change, by the second time we ran, it then worked faster. Success.
  Tech & Orchestra took a while longer to fix some of theirs. When it came to the musical number 'Keep It Gay', we held. (In fact, we kept it gay for a really long time. By the end, we were so gay, if not probably actually gayer than Gay.)

  But the most remarkable element for me was how the actors became [wordy moment alert!] paraclete. One of my favourite Greek words, it means "to get alongside" & help out, partner up. That's exactly what they did. Like Elliot said, 'paying it forward'. By Act II, the two leads tend to exit, change & re-enter together. Hence when I was already changing our lead guy, Jason, one of the spare guys would step in to dress Scotty for me.
   I began to see how practices which appeared unconventional to me (or my backstage experiences to date) can also pay off. And the pre-sets? They worked. Credit where credit is due, this is a pretty well-organised cast. They know the system. They remember.
  When it became busier in Act II, I took back control of my QC room at Stage Left, allotting space to the six or seven people trying to change within. It works; we've got a routine going now. No more clambering on top of each other to reach the rack & unhanger their costume. The costumes are already hung on pegs & ready to go.

   I made a cameo appearance in the Third Dress, much to the delight of Wendy and Patti (Dir.) and Emily-Above. There's a wig which comes off SL & needs to re-enter SR. But ahead of the show-within-a-show of "Springtime..", we also lose the Crossover onstage. (There's no way to get from one side to the other without being seen.) I went behind the flat to reach Joel on his ladder holding the flat up. Joel suggested I chuck it. I went for the overhand throw. The wig soared .... and plopped down, in the visible gap of the 'open door', centre stage. I stomped mid-stage & lobbed it grumpily to SR. Oh how they all laughed! Grr.
   But we've got a system going now! I throw it across the floor to Joel. Joel throws it over the open door to Tommy. Tommy throws it SR to Lauren. After the show, the wig gets a rigorous tidy .... The ridiculousness of Theatre.


A week in, it feels like we've been running this for months already. I've already got my dresser's plot pretty much memorised & the changes are choreographed & worked out. Jason has re-settled into the role & is much calmer to work with. The track-backs (when an item goes on stage & you need to collect it to re-set for later use) have been figured out. Things have stopped vanishing on me because I know where they end up now!
    I spent two dress rehearsals chasing three hats around backstage. Jason would exit SR wearing his hat to change at the same time as the office set was moved forward to open the scene, requiring a prop hat to already be hanging for his re-entrance as 'asleep in the office'. These are things we have figured out now! There are ways & there are means for that sort of illusion & an extra-special Hat Tracking spreadsheet can work wonders. Costume Geekery.
   

It's times like this - when the show runs smoothly, when the changes happen with time to spare and I remember how much I actually enjoy dressing; the whole interaction between cast & crew. 

   I still don't think Producers is a two dresser show
but it's a show which can run on two dressers
~ along with a bunch of helping hands.

________

 
Some words acquired & shared:

Vom.  A theatre word. I'm sticking with "passageway" because...

Vomitorium: 
A passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre.
Derives from the verb vomeo, vomere, vomitum, "to spew forth." 

Lovely.         

Words shared:  Pinny.  Flagging. Squiffy. Cooker.

Ashland: An escape from the City.

It wasn't so much like I needed to escape but Beth's visit gave me some fresh surroundings for a day & that was good. She'd come to town for a girls weekend, to meet up with her two college roommates, Kathy (now in DC) & Pat, who lives up by Hanover County. Beth was keen to include me into her weekend alongside visiting her family so my not having to work a Saturday matinee made the prospective day even better. Finding a bus over to the Mechanicsville area was not the easiest so she drove downtown to collect me.

Pat's a crafty lady like myself & she'd eyed up Heavenly Creations, an arts & crafts fair hosted by St. James the Less, as a fun thing for us to do. 
   But lunch was calling so she drove us through the Randloph-Macon campus, pointing out the college dorms & older buildings of interest. 
   We parked up by Ashland's train station to eat lunch at Homemades by Suzannes. The train tracks just run through the campus - no railings, no nothing.  

Another one of those sunny autumnal days when you're best off dressed in both scarf & sunglasses.

My time with Lauren
must be taking effect...

 

I now see scenic paint & flats wherever I look.
It was a good cafe interior! 

Meow.

 

After lunch we walked back over to the visitor's centre, housed in the train station.

Potted local history lesson for Pops.

I'd noticed the arty lettering as we drove by earlier.
It's part of a statewide artwork initiative.

http://www.virginia.org/LOVE/

Onto the arts & crafts. The church show was fun. Quite a bit of variety in what was available to buy: jewellery, sea glass, fairy tale furniture, gourds, local paintings, felt dogs, moisturising candles. A good mix. I helped Beth shop for earrings for Amy, her daughter then she wanted to buy me something for my birthday. 
   I held out stubbornly at first whilst she asked for my opinion on what to buy me. She'd already included me in her reunion weekend & treated me to lunch out, I didn't want for anything else. Then she got the stall-holders on side whilst presenting me with a 'don't you want me to be happy?' argument. I surrendered: I picked out some silver loop earrings with a wee pink gem and some bottletop magnets that had caught my eye, steampunk watch cogs & bingo numbers. (We couldn't find an 'N 30' so 'N 35' had to make do.) 

On the way back we happened to catch another fair. This one was even cooler:
the Barnyard Junkies Holiday Market
as organised by 'a trio of antique-loving, craft-creating friends'. 

   The outdoor stalls featured a lot of furniture, hardbacks turned into bags & totem china bird-feeders made from cups & saucers. 

  I loved the feel of the Indoors outside against the backdrop of trees. It put me
in mind of Kaufman's displaced settee on the beach in Eternal Sunshine, so it felt a bit like stumbling onto a Kaufman or a Gondry filmset. As though an Alice-in-Wonderland tea party was about to take effect. Just stunning. 

The items for sale were even more eclectic. A bit of a rummage through a museum. Vintage weighing-scales. Heavy metal skeleton keys. A random stirrup iron?! As well as craftier affairs like cute scrap fabric cuffs, which I totally want to make sometime. Glass painting. Quirky ceramics.
  Our last part of the neighbourhood tour saw Pat take us to drive around a nearby residential estate. The houses there are so colourful! Red & yellow. Spearmint green. Sugar pink. Quite the range.

As an early-birthday day out, it was a lot of fun to go browsing, enjoy all the vintage
and the craftiness & have some time with Beth & her friends.