Drama Mama

Lagooned 2008

2008-03-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here is my best costume. I kept hounding the actor to see what she was going to wear. finally I realized that she was having trouble so I racked my brain to think of something that would work. I finally went through my closet and looked for a dress that I really wasn't wearing anymore. I grabbed that and then though of my biking tights that had the cool jungle print. I brought them in and through the dress on Audrey. I again grabbed my trusty shears and while they were getting notes I slashed the bottom of it while she turned on the stage. It came out pretty cool. I had already made the headress and wristlets and anklets out of rafia and the collar. I macramaed those. I had gotten the color from the outreach and they were the only two colors available. They turned out to be exactly the same colors of her costume and that Puck painted the set with. I love serendipity.

I also love that she wore her glasses :)

I found the cool bat at Goodwill too. I think it is some kind of souvenier from Mexico, but it looked very cool

Here is a picture of the set with the tiki in a spot it did not occupy during the play. We just moved it out for the newpaper picture

I like this picture of our captain and miss buford

Lagooned 2008

2008-03-18T08:55:00.001-07:00

Here are the Devine Sisters and Honey.. Honey is a little bit of a thing so I hiked up her dress with some single thread shirring. I made the cuffs and collars for the girls and decorated the sailor hats with little beads. They turned out very cute

This was one of my favorite scenes. Cody has to fight with this giant lobster. I found this lobster at Goodwill three years ago shortly after I had read the play. Thinking it would be doubtful to find another anytime soon I bought it and it has been on Maddie's bed since then. Glad I finally got a chance to use it. I love when the little old ladies come out and ask him what he is doing?

Here is our Ben Gunn characters... we had the beard and wig left over from an evil wizard costume and it worked great for him. He made his costume himself, but had left the pants rather long. I asked him if I could chop them off some more and he said yes. I got out my trusty weapon and slashed his pants.

I loved how my old ladies came out. They were so pretty in their costume and it was a complete coicidence that their umbrellas matched their dresses. They would wander across the stage occasionally and comment on things. We used them to clean up little critters that Cody had unstuck from his costume as well while they were gathering seashells by the sea shore

This is another costume I found at goodwill. Had a little problem convincing her that the hat looked good, but we finally came to an agreement

Lagooned 2008

2008-03-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here are our wonderful Pirates. the big guy is autistic and a pretty good actor. Most of the pirates are wearing costumes that I had in my attic. The leader of the pirates is wearing a coat that Maddie got at the Whitewater Theater costume sale. I had to add a pocket so he had some place to keep his loupe
Mrs Withers is wearing a dress of mine as well and is holding the stuffed dog Napoleon she carries with her because she is allergic to fur woof woof
here are the island princesses. Our lead princess asked me if she was going to get a prop. "after all I am the freakin Island Princess" so I made her a crown of flowers I found that dress at Goodwill long before the show. She never really cared for it, but it looked great on her
Nurse Jane and Trixie were great. the nurses costume is a lovely vintage cotton uniform that I found on EBAY when I was hunting for things for Harvey. The zipper was funky on it and so I had it replaced. It really is a lovely dress and has pin tucking all across the bosom. Trixie is wearing some great pants that I found at Goodwill and was glad to finally get to use. I found some great shoes there too with clear acrylic wedges. The top I stole from Maddie's drawer and the actress added the hat and sunglasses. I sewed them to the hat so they wouldn't fall off and then we hair sprayed the glasses to cut down on the glare

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

A Conch, a Starfish and a Tiki
What I did on my winter break from College

my co-director asked for a tiki for the play and Maddie was home for a month over winter break. I asked her if she could do it and she designed one. Puck helped her figure out a superstructure for it, but the rest was all hers. She put in many many hours carving Styrofoam and molding chicken wire and fabric mache. Not too shabby for a freshman.

I asked if she could make a starfish out of some papier mache I had and she said she could do it easier out of chicken wire. I said fine, but could she make a conch. She took up the challenge and molded one out of wire. She did it too quickly for me to get a picture of her progress on that, but I did get the finished project. They both will get added to the dunes Puck is building for the show.

The tiki I was able to get pretty good progress pics on and you can see how it came to be. We are very proud of her and it looks like the local library will make a home for it.

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

Tiki Designed and started

Here is the base skeleton of the Tiki. Maddie carved the face out of foam and covered the skeleton with chicken wire. She really has a gift for chickenwire

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T20:00:00.001-08:00

What I did on my Winter Break from College

Progression of the Tiki... base painting before the detailing

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

What I did on my Winter Break from College

Progression of the Tiki... base painting before the detailing

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

Maddie's Tiki

progress on the hands and dry brushing on the tiki

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

Maddie's Tiki

Maddie had to paint most of the Tiki before she made the hands because of the skull staff. She didn't want to have to paint underneath it. It was an interesting process although she seemed to have it all thought out whenever I asked her about it.

By the way the Tiki is wearing rib bones that I boiled down after a meal we had downtown using a gift certificate that Puck had gotten from the cast of the King and I Weird huh?

The skull I got for half price at Goodwill after Halloween.

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

The finishing touches. Maddie is working. She finished it two days before she had to go back to college.. It is pretty awesome

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here is the Tiki all finished and waiting in the scene shop for it's debut. We think the library will give it a home after the play which is a good thing although we will probably have to glue the skull staff in place. they also want us to do some kind of write up about it

Lagooned 2008

2008-02-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

The wonderful trunk Puck built for the pirates

Puck built this wonderful trunk to use in the play. We needed someplace to hide a small piece of booty. It is a blingy piece of costume jewelry that I jazzed up with additional rhinestone pieces. Usually when we do a show he likes to have the cast sign the back of a flat for a memory, but this show only has sand dunes so he left the inside bottom of the chest raw wood so the cast and crew could sign it

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T04:36:00.000-08:00

Puck only had a 400 dollar budget for this show after they had overextended themselves on the last show and the cost of performance rights and such were paid. He did a remarkable job with what he had. Once the stage was populated with all the actors it really was lovely, plus an outstanding light plot

The peacock chair was one that we rescued from the curb and they sprayed it gold. Nothing like a little gold paint to jazz up wicker

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

This is Anna's Room off on the side stage

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

This is the main stage and a close up of one of the cool fans Puck made. The vases eventually got finished and were terrific. They were Papier mache

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

This shows the fans fully extended... when they were folded back they could not be seen. When Puck first proposed this plan I never thought he could pull it off. He had never seen it and never tried it. But he usually tries to add some new feature into ever show just for the challange

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T02:29:00.000-08:00

The dictionary stand is made from a portion of a plaster lamp that we noticed in someones trash. It had such a nice shape. Again a little gold paint really sets things off. It cracked though when the kids tried to move it and Puck was ready to give it up. I thought it could be saved and ran home to get some my plaster bandage material that I had used in the masks for The Birds. We glued it together and them bandaged it with plaster strips. Danged if it didn't do the trick and Puck was relieved not to have had to rebuild the dang thing.

The King and I 2007

2008-02-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Maddie played the part of Mrs Pearce the housekeeper in this show, but additionally got to sing and dance in all the big ensemble numbers. She had a blast with this show. Her cockney outfit needed to cover her Mrs. Pearce costume so we used one of her Rendezvous skirts, which suited the period quite nicely and had a nice drawstring waist all ready for a quick exit. She had found the cute little hat a year ago at Goodwill and the scarf was one her dad used to wear when he was a lad (very vintage now) I found the Edwardian ladies coat on EBAY and got it cheap because it was a little moth-eaten. This was not a problem for the cockney character, but it was a little long and we wanted the skirt to show and swing in the dances so I folded up the bottom and hemmed it up.

It is a great coat though and Maddie wears it as a real coat now. Her friends in the cast teased her about looking a little too Mary Poppin's like but it was good natured teasing

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Pearce's main costume was a beautiful bittersweet silk shirtwaist and skirt that I found on EBAY. I know I am getting a bit redundant about EBAY, but it really has been a lifesaver. Between that and Goodwill and the local resale place I am able to find pretty much everything I have needed for shows.

Any how the dress was stunningly beautiful, but the silk lace of the bodice was completely shattered. I asked the seller if she thought the colored part of the outfit would hold up under real wear and she said it was in very good condition. I took and chance and bought it.

I carefully removed all the shattered silk from the bodice and cut new lace using the old as best I could for a pattern. I had to do a little alteration from the original design, but I was able to be true to the costume and it came out beautifully.

It took me a couple weeks to finish, but it was well worth it and suited Mrs. Pearce to a T... then when I found the robe in that chocolate brown it was perfect.

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Maddie's main role was as Mrs. Pearce, Professor Higgins' beleaguered housekeeper.

They had a shortage of girls and she really wanted to be able to sing and dance in all the fun numbers so I worked very hard to create or find costumes that would hide other costumes. I was so fortunate to find this robe on EBAY. I must have looked at 15 different robes before finally finding this beautiful velor robe with the lace insert. It turned out to be a perfect cover up as long as she wore the scarf... perfectly appropriate for the damp London nights

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

Maddie was able to change costume for the ball so I could make this gown a little fancier. She still needed to be able to get out of it rather quickly though.

I had the basic gold gown on hand. It was a sheath dress with a very pretty Egyptian motif (tone on tone). I bought some lace for an over-skirt and found a lace jacket that looked good over the top. The sleeves were not quite right so after some hesitation I slashed them and beaded the edges. I thought the over skirt would look nice with the same treatment so I went ahead and beaded that as well.

Beading really doesn't take all that much time and adds such a nice glitter and weight to the garments. I topped it off with gold gloves and a lovely simple tiara. I remembered a lovely period buckle I had bought a long time ago at an auction. It was gold with turquoise acorns and was a great addition to the costume. She also wore my aurora borialis rhinestone costume necklace. Ironically she had used it as a prop when she played a thief in Sherlock Holmes and had to lift the necklace off a wealthy woman. She practiced and practiced with that necklace until she almost could have stolen it for real.

My costume jewelry collection has been quite useful for the stage

the dress was very pretty when she moved. Unfortunately when I dropped off Maddie's costumes and the costumer for the show saw her dress she decided the rest of the girls needed to be jazzed up as well. They went a little nuts embellishing the ball gowns and I altered a couple of them to give them a more period style. I had not intended to do that much work on the play other than contribute my daughter's costumes, which was quite an effort on it's own.

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

This was the third play those columns got used in. Puck built them for The Birds and we had to fight tooth and nail to get them stored in one of the car garages. The head of the maintenance department said if two or three years went by and they ended up collecting dust we would have to destroy them.

The following year the prom used them in their display and the drama department has used them every year for their dance. I believe they were used in Music Man and then came back for My Fair Lady.

It was my first foray into marbling but a friend had just done her walls and gave me the best tip. She advised me to use a feather but only in my left (non dominant) hand. That gives the wonderful random effect that you need.

The kids had fun at the end of the play exchanging hats

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

The hat was my biggest challenge in her costumes. I wanted to make something so spectacular it would astound. I found a fabulous fake bird at the half price Christmas sales and spray painted the heck out of it to get it from green to white.

I sent away to Australia for ostrich plumes. It was just a cheap to ship several so I bought quite a few. I ended up using most of them. I started with a large straw hat that I sprayed black and then I would test various arrangements of feathers and ribbons on the hat. This went on for almost a month and finally I bit the bullet and started attaching things. Curling feathers around and gluing the bird into place settled in a nest of polkadot ribbon.

All in all it turned out fabulous. I had to buy a 12 inch hat pin in order for her to keep it on her head and still show her face, but it is the best and most extravagant hat I have attempted. I hope she can wear it again sometime and that it doesn't just sit on a hat stand forever

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

this is the Ascot dress I put together for Maddie. I found the black and white spotted dress at Goodwill and took the full skirt off. I then attached it to a black on black patterned satin skirt that I made from scratch to fit her. I found the Edwardian Jacket on EBAY and added black spotted cuffs to the jacket that were a counter to the spots on the bottom of the skirt.

Because the whole thing needed to fit over the top of her Mrs Pearce costume we used a white scarf to cover up the bodice of her normal dress. She wore black satin gloves as well. I made the fake parasol using some lace I had lying around and a dowel we found in the basement and sprayed white.

The Hat set it all off beautifully and it was my second favorite of her costumes for the show. I put in a great deal of work on her costumes for that show, but since it was her last one in High School I wanted her to be perfection on the stage

My Fair Lady 2007

2008-02-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

Nosegay of Violets for Eliza's flower basket

I was helping out as best I could for the show and had been searching for violets for Eliza's basket everywhere. No one else was able to find any either so finally in desperation I decided to make some. I searched my over flowing house and came up with the design using materials I had

I am pretty proud of how nice these turned out. It is a little frightening that I had all the materials lying about the house... I cut the little petals out of felt; I poked fine gauge green wire through a small bead and then poked the two ends through the petals. I then wrapped 15 blossoms together along with some silk foliage I clipped from a bigger plant using florist's tape... this is the prettiest one, but they look very nice on stage :)

I made 5 bundles of violets and they are now displayed on my dining room table awaiting a future show

Broadway Lullaby 2007

2008-02-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

Broadway Lullaby 2007

2008-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

The long narrow picture at the back of the set in the hallway is my Paternal grandmother's graduating class from nursing school and the larger group of people stage left is her and her husband's graduation from Palmer school of Chiropractic. They are great pictures.

I also got a chance to use my great candlestick telephone that is really a lamp, but looks just like a vintage phone.

Broadway Lullaby 2007

2008-02-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

This was another show where I doubled up a couple characters to add more actors. We also increased the orphanage tenfold... because we had so many orphans I really wanted something special for their big Broadway flop. I decided on pinafores. That way any of their costumes could be covered up by the pinafores and the big group of the would be uniform. Some very good friends help make the pinafores and then I jazzed them up Broadway style by putting glittery patches on them. They looked pretty good up there.

Puck designed another nice multi level set for us. I learned in this show that I could use fabric iron on adhesive to iron on paper labels to make my old trunk look like it had traveled the world doing Vaudeville. I later found out that it worked a little too well when I tried to remove those labels for The King and I. I think steaming them would have been better.

Harvey 2006

2008-02-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

Harvey 2006

2008-02-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

This was the first play for the greek bust. The second performance during a scene change Puck and I were in the audience and heard a crash. We looked at each other and said "The bust" Sure enough it was in half a million pieces. They wanted to toss it,but Maddie and rescued as much as we could and puzzled it back together with a little plaster craft. We painted it white and it will be stronger than ever now. It is a little beat up, but will look fine on stage.

Harvey 2006

2008-02-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

Harvey was a great play and we had such fun with it. Maddie had fun painting the portraits of Elwood and Harvey and Puck had a great time creating his faux glass block. It was a fun period to costume as well although I needed to find many of the clothes for the ladies. Goodwill was quite a boon for Laura Ashley dresses which looked a lot like 1930's era fashions. Again much of our living room ended up on the stage. The green chair that I found curb shopping and was used for Alice, found a home in the Dowds living room.

Kiss me Kate 2006

2008-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

I finally found a use for the vintage 30's silk lounge wear. It was a little early in period for the show, but it had such lovely lines that could not be replicated I had her wear it. Unfortunately we had to repair it several times. The thing I was proudest of was Petruchio's hat. I had some wonderful cut velvet and I adapted a Simplicity pattern to create it. It turned out quite nice and he really liked it. I may use it in this years production of Lagooned for one of the pirates... we shall have to see

Kiss me Kate 2006

2008-02-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is the Too Darn Hot number

I think this was Maddie's favorite of all the dances in the show. The last picture is of Maddie's boyfriend at the time. I must have watched him 10 times wondering what was wrong with his costume until I finally figured out that he was wearing a belt with his suspenders. Sometimes you forget that kids just have no idea how clothing was worn. I never did get a picture of him after he fixed the look. It is too bad since it made an amazing difference.

Kiss me Kate 2006

2008-02-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

Maddie played Bianca in this production and Puck and I were only peripherally involved as parents. I found Maddie's 20th's century costumes and made headdresses for all the ladies. It was a very fun show though and one of Maddie's favorites

It's a Howl 2006

2008-02-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

It's a Howl 2006

2008-02-01T16:22:00.001-08:00

Again our thin little bookcase adds another play to it's resume. It seems to always hold the silk fern as well. It is the perfect piece for the stage. Looks classy and takes up a minimum amount of room. The gypsies were the cutest little things

It's a Howl 2006

2008-02-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

This was a fun little play about a high school for werewolves. It had loads of colorful characters and I pulled my main trick of multiplying characters. One gypsy became four, a couple wolves turned into a large pack and two friends became a crowd. We do our best to cast everyone who auditions and wants to be on stage. we usually lose about 10 per cent once they find out how much work is entailed, but most stick it out and enjoy each other and the experience.

Puck did an excellent job of giving us lots of levels and entrances and exits for our characters which really helped get all those people off and on and keep them visible. He is very good at inexpensive sets that look fabulous. He let's his middle school crew do their own work and does not go back and touch up what they have done. He tries to work within their capabilities and lots of kids who would not have a extracurricular spot to be in have found a home in drama.

I had fun loading up the lab with beakers and glassware that I filled with colored seeds and marbles. I even got a huge glass bowl and filled it with tennis balls for the coffee table since it was a home for were wolves. I don't know how many members of the audience got the joke, but I thought it was hilarious.

Alice in Wonderland 2005

2008-01-20T08:56:00.001-08:00

It is the little grouping of mushrooms that we kept. Puck gave the big one to the catterpiller :) I made that costume years ago for myself to wear to one of our Halloween parties and I am ever so glad I kept it all these years. That pictures with the hookah and caterpillar is being added to the huge mural at the High school to represent Drama. There is a picture of the Queen of Hearts too along with a couple images from My Fair Lady. I thought it was pretty funny that they chose the Hookah picture for school even though it is made out of a piece of lamp I picked up curb shopping and a candle holder I got at Goodwill. The chair Maddie is sitting in was another curb find and has been in a couple more shows since.

It took me 4 tries to get that black cat dyed black from the white it originally had been. The poor little kitty looked pretty awful for a few weeks. Maddie still has it on her bed and don't even get me started on flamingos. They all came home and there is one in almost every room of the house. Maddie took one to school as well.

Alice in Wonderland 2005

2008-01-20T08:53:00.001-08:00

Alice in Wonderland 2005

2008-01-20T08:49:00.000-08:00

Alice in Wonderland 2005

2008-01-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

This was my second favorite show and not just because Maddie was such a great Alice. It was horrendous to costume, but when all those kids got on stage they were beautiful.
The mushrooms Maddie made are ensconced right next to the computer now and I think of this show every day. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have always been my favorite stories and this play incorporates all the wonderful characters from both of them.
Oh and cup the Mad Hatter is drinking from is edible. That took some thinking on Maddie and My part. I think she suggested using my hard-tack recipe with a little food coloring... then we baked it over a little metal bowl. The handles fell off most of them, but we had about a 30 percent success rate and it was enough to do all the performances

The Music Man 2005

2008-01-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

Maddie play Zaneeta Shinn in this musical and did a great deal of scene painting for the show as well.

Puck and I helped a little with the scene painting. We created a false back and parts for an antique piano

The Technical Director and set designer for the play took an interesting tact. It was her first solo foray into design and building a show and she really did a great job although it was a huge one. She decided to photograph local buildings that could take the place of the buildings called for in the show and then she replicated them on stage.

Maddie painted much of the lovely Carnegie library that is represented.

I also helped out with a couple costumes that I had made for a previous play that fit the period.

The Music Man 2005

2008-01-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

The Music Man 2005

2008-01-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

Boondoggle in the Bayou 2005

2008-01-19T16:03:00.001-08:00

Kathryn this is the one we used your Louisiana License plate in. thanks again for your help.

Boondoggle in the Bayou 2005

2008-01-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

This was a fun play by one of our favorite play-writes Tim Kelly. It is always so difficult to find a play that has a large enough cast with a place for extras. We added the chorus girls because we had so many kids. They were adorable.

Jabberwock 2004

2008-01-19T15:47:00.001-08:00

Jabberwock is a great play written about the young life of James Thurber at the turn of the century. It is sentimental and very entertaining. One of the most interesting aspects of the play is that little hole in the wall where a progression of "Aunts" appear and speak to different topics. They have all sorts of opinions about how the world should work and how it used to work when they were alive.

It was challenging to costume them in their various periods. One aunt played two separate rolls. She is the one in the portrait shown.

Grandpa constantly commented on his Post Toasties. It took a great deal of searching to find a period picture of a Post Toasties box from 1915 or thereabouts and turn it into a prop. I think I finally found a good picture on EBAY

Jabberwock 2004

2008-01-19T15:20:00.001-08:00

This was probably the most spectacular set Puck was ever able to complete. It was three stories. The play is about the boyhood of James Thurber and was written for the centennial of his birth I believe. We had to get special dispensation to have a fixed set. Most of the time we have to keep them mobile because of all the use our theater has.

The hollow in the wall that looks like a picture frame was a spot for a series of ghost aunts from the past to appear and tell their little stories

Jabberwock 2004

2008-01-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

This is probably the best set Puck has ever designed. We had to get special permission to make it permanent early in the process since our theater is so multi use,but fortunately we got the permission. I don't think we will ever again see something three stories on the stage.

Guys and Dolls 2004

2007-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

Guys and Dolls was another fun one for Maddie. Puck and I did a little painting one the set and I helped out with costumes a little bit.

Maddie had the idea of putting a tiny monkey (ala King Kong) on top of the Empire State Building.

She got a big kick out of that one. It was hers and the tech directors little joke

Once Upon Camelot 2004

2007-11-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

Once Upon Camelot 2004

2007-11-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

Our first attempt at making papier mache on a big scale. We learned a great deal in the process. The trees turned out pretty good and the next time we made trees they were quite a bit better. This show had living trees as well and those costumes were fun. I still have them stored up in my attic costume shop. The girls had a rough time walking in them, but I thought they were cute

Once Upon Camelot 2004

2007-11-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

Every three years or so the school does an all school unit on the Renaissance. We try to coordinate the play to go with the topic and so end up with a few castles :) This was a fun show and had some crazy characters. It even had human rocks. They had lines so it wasn't totally awful playing a rock in Middle School. I split the jester into twins so two girls could have a part and they did a wonderful job.

Nicholas Nickleby 2003

2007-11-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

Maddie's first High School play and I adapted a velvet umpire waisted dress for her character of Fanny Squeers... She also played Miss Snivilichee, one of the theatrical troupe. I had a Queen of Hearts costume that a dear friend had whipped up for a Halloween party of ours. He had made the thing in only one day and it was fabulous. Of course I had to take it in quite a bit to get it to fit tiny Maddie. The same costume has been used for both Alice in Wonderland plays for the Queen so it has gotten some good use

The Birds 2003

2007-11-24T16:07:00.001-08:00

Puck built a beautiful set. It was the tallest set to date before he built Jabberwock. My biggest challenge were the magic stalks that had to grow on the stage. It took a while to figure out how to build them so they could be hidden until they needed to grow. That is where is is helpful to live with the tech director :)

Whenever they appeared they got a great "Awwwwwww" from the audience

I hope we can do that play again. I have those magic bean stalks stored away for safe keeping just in case

The Birds 2003 The Masks

2007-11-24T15:59:00.001-08:00

This was my favorite play that we ever put on. It was not a favorite with the kids however and I really never understood why. the costumes were fun, the makeup was fun. I guess it was a little too highbrow for them.

Anyhow it called for a narrator which I transformed into a Greek Chorus. It was mainly sixthgrade students. They each created their own half mask. I wanted them to be able to speak and be heard, but at the same time work and look like a group... a single unity telling the story of the play. They carried tall staffs and each entrance they put another thing into their staffs to represents the scene... we had snow and sun and rain and wind and finally birds

Sherlock Holmes 2002

2007-11-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

Sherlock Holmes & the Case of Moriarity's Meanacing Mayhem

I added a Busker scene to this show to cover up a scene change. The boy playing the banjo was a guitar player and I taught him how to play a few chords on the banjo for the scene. Maddie played the other part of the duo. It also allowed us to throw in quite a few more characters as city people. They sang "Ive got a loverly bunch of coconuts"

He is playing my dad's old banjo. There was no way I was loaning out mine!

Again there is a lot of our furniture on the stage including the bookcase which has almost as big a resume as any of our actors.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 2001

2007-11-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

The very first show ever put on in our theater and the first Middle School play after 7 years.

I just volunteered to help out and dragged Puck kicking and screaming into designing the set. We had absolutely no budget and had to beg borrow and steal to get paint and set decorations. All in all it turned out pretty well

Once Upon a Mattress 2000

2007-05-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Once Upon a Mattress was the second play that our Methodist Minister put on. Godspell was the year before, but I never got any pictures of it. We helped with costumes and the set on that one.

Puck was the technical director for Mattress and Maddie and I helped him build it. It was challenging to build that great high bed in an extra low ceilinged theater. I believe it was the last play ever done in that theater before our Performing Arts Center was built.

He made the mattresses by carving into foam and tucking fabric in to look like stacked up mattresses.

I painted the stone along with Maddie's help and some other students. Maddie hung around so much they gave her a part in the play by adding a chamber maid. I made her costume for the show and up until a few years ago it still fit her. She was so funny in the part.

One performance when they were doing their dance a large weight was left on the stage. It was a prop weight that said something like 100 lbs or something on it. Well Maddie knew it did not belong where it was so she picked it up like a feather and moved it off stage. It was funny, but we chided her about not remembering that it was supposed to seem heavy.

One thing that she insisted that we paint was a tiny mouse hole with a mouse peeking out at the bottom of the castle walls

this was the first of many castles Puck and I were to paint

Once Upon a Mattress 2000

2007-05-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

The little boy who is bowing with Maddie got added at his mother's insistence after she found out that Maddie had gotten a part although he had not contributed much if any work on the play.

The next year they did You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and again I got no pictures. Maddie and I did much of the technical work on that show. We painted the dog house and outlined all the major characters on foam board. Each character came out from behind their cartoon cutout. It was very cute

Alice in Wonderland 2000

2007-04-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

here is a picture of the whole small stage at the elementary school

Alice in Wonderland 2000

2007-04-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first Alice in Wonderland that Maddie was in. I was asked to costume the play and it was my first real foray into costuming. In college I was an actress and technical theater was very much secondary to performing. This play was the start of the technical phase of my life.. Maddie got the job of the caterpillar and I made her a shiny multi-legged costume. She had to become a butterfly at the end which presented a problem. I put a zipper in the costume and she wore a leotard to which I attached gossamer wings.

I strung the legs together so that when she moved her arms all the legs would move. It was pretty cool. I designed all the costumes and gave sheets to the parents so they could find costumes for the kids.

It also was the first time I worked on makeup for kids. I bought a book on makeup to refresh my memory. They were used to just putting lipstick, blue eyeshadow and thick pencil crows feet. I remember thinking that the crows feet were horribly heavy, but to my astonishment once the kids got on stage the lights that they were using totally obliterated the garish makeup. I learned a valuable lesson about a trial run of makeup. They were using scoop lights placed on the floor and the glare was very strong. I had a great deal of fun with Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the flowers were also fun.

It took a while to figure out how to do the cards since all the chorus which was made up of about 40 kids were cards. We ended up using poster board and drawing the suits on them. I gave each kid a suit and number to be so we didn't have any repeats.

All in all it came out quite well.

The last thing I did was make name plates for the walls. I used the Disney Cheshire Cat since that was the musical we were doing and then used word art to insert the name of each child. You can see them in the background. Each child got a memento of the play that way and I learned a great deal about word art.

Kings and Things 1999

2007-03-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Kings and Things 1999

2007-03-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

Maddie got the lead, well she played the dragon, which was the central character of the show anyhow in her next play when we moved down here. I made the costume and it turned out quite nicely.

Dairyland Darlings vs the Glamor Glitter Gang 1995

2007-02-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

This was a play that Maddie's kindergarten teacher wrote a grant to produce. It was an anti drug and peer pressure play that she wrote. Unfortunately she did not have a clue how to produce it. I had been doing some volunteer work in the class and so I volunteered myself and Puck to help out. It had been some time since we had done any theater, but Maddie had been cast in the show as the leader of the Glamor Glitter gang (the baddest baddie in the bunch) Puck donated some bicycle boxes to make the set and we had the kids draw trees on them, then dip their hands in paint to create the leaves (they had a wonderful time)

I helped with the glamor glitter costumes. I always love a little bling. Maddie still has those pants and that glittery top. In fact I think she still occasionally wears the top. The wigs were weird plastic sixties ones that I had when I was a kids and ended up in the dress up box that I inherited (thanks mom)

The show was a wonderful success and was Maddie's first real time on the stage. She has always been a fearless actor, but a serious one even at the age of five.