Shout! pictures :-]

Here are some of the costumes I did for "Shout, The Mod Musical" that is running at our high school.  This was a fun show to costume, and I really wanted to be as authentic as I could with what the script described and the time dictated.  My daughter Carolyn directed the show, so she introduced it.

The show is about five young women that make their way from 1962 to 1972, chronicled by the magazine "Shout" with its various features about fashion, music, and "coming of age" in the sixties.  As our disclaimer at the beginning of the show says, "We neither condone, nor condemn what went on in the Sixties Generation". haha...  Each of the women are characterized as a "color", which matches their personality.  Orange, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. 

Orange Girl--maternal and idealistic.

Red Girl--youthful and awkward.

Blue Girl--model, actress, in her "Mary Quant mini".

Green Girl--how can I put this nicely?  Um, the "free-spirit"... ;-]

Yellow Girl--"loud and thoughtless, quite possibly American".

Fashions changed through the years.  Here is the Blue Girl in her sequined top and plastic skirt:

Here is Orange Girl releasing her "Inner Purple".  She stays purple through the rest of the show.

Notice the Cage Dancer in the back.  We had two Cage Dancers.  I dressed one in a white dress with black fringe, and the other in a black dress with white fringe.  It was mesmerizing!  The ensemble girls I dressed in black and white bold prints. Similar to the psychodelic artwork of the day, but not in color so as to compete with the Color Girls.  You can see most of them here. 

At the end they all had 70's costumes on.  I know I can relate to each one of these styles!

Hot pants with a bolero vest, the Maxi dress, long-sleeve top with mini skirt, print tunic with split bell-bottom jeans, and a long flowy scarf with a mini dress.

Welcome to my world! Next show is "Forbidden Broadway" opening in April.  That one will be loads of fun to costume and to watch.  The show parodies all the major hit musicals on Broadway in the past 20 years or so: Annie, Les Mis, Spam-a-Lot, Chicago, etc. And some of the more memorable stars: Carol Channing, Mandy Patinkin, Bebe Neuwirth... 

Can't wait! 

busy busy busy...

...costuming costuming costuming three shows!  And they all open the same day.  Why can't I say no?  That's a topic for another time I guess...

One show I'm helping my daughter Carolyn with, and only doing a few costumes.  It's Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and I love the concept.  They are making each character as a character from a different story.  For example, the boatswain is Captain Hook, Prospero is Merlin, the Sprite Ariel is Superman, etc.  What a great idea, huh?  Should be fun to watch.

Another show is called "Sherlock's Last Case".  1900's England, one of my favorite eras to costume.  There are five characters, and not so much to do, but I did have to make two Sherlock capes *and* two deerstalker caps, which I had never done before.  Also a lady's formal gown and a couple of lady's everyday dresses.  I love thrift shopping for things that I can make into period pieces.  For the formal gown I found a rather plain dress with a lovely jacket with fancy trim.  The jacket was perfect for the time, and I simply made the dress into a skirt by putting elastic right under the arms!  It turned out nicely.  [I'll insert pictures when I'm finished and will get the actors to model them, so keep checking back!]

The last show is huge.  It's the musical that Carolyn (yes, she can't say no either...) is directing for her high school.  Oh, and she's also in the ensemble...8-/  The show is "Shout! The 60's Mod Musical".  The costumes are really fun--five girls, each represented by a certain color: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and Orange (which changes to Purple mid-show).  They each have at least three color costume changes spanning 1962-1972, each have Union Jack dresses (British Flag--luckily we were able to order them online), and each have their color raincoats. 

In addition to the Color girls, there are five ensemble singers, which I'm putting in black and white bold shapes, two cage dancers which will be in fringe dresses, the band, in 70's hippie outfits, and the editor of the "Shout!" magazine who is a conservative Dolores Umbridge type. 

I love costuming.  I have done Children's Theater (Anne of Green Gables, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, to name a few), Community Theater shows (Jane Eyre the Musical, Oliver!), and school shows (Twelfth Night, Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe).  Here are some pictures of those past shows.

                      Cast of Jane Eyre. Many modified prom and bridesmaids dresses, and...

                                                 ...curtains!!  This is Blanche Ingram's ballgown.

 Jane Eyre I put in browns.  The play starts out with her memory of her childhood, so I made all those costumes in sepias.  I had her start out in brown, then gradually brought color (reds) into her costumes as she gained more and more confidence in herself.  I made a lot of capes for this show!

 I costumed Fagin's Gang for Oliver!  My daughter Carolyn played Dodger. She is fourth from the right, in the top hat.  Several people were surprised when they found out she was a girl at the Meet and Greet after the shows.  BTW, I also painted the backdrop that you see there.  :-]

This is The Raven (Death) from Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe.  My favorite costume from that show!

My Favorite Topic--Part 1

Most mothers will admit that their favorite topic of discussion is their children.  I am no exception to this rule.  My children are the most interesting and fulfilling aspect of my life here on earth.  Since I have heard that "a very good place to start" is the beginning, that is where I will start.

I grew up in a household with three children.  I was the youngest.  I experienced the worst side of this phenomenon, which is the "two against one" syndrome.  Hence, when discussing the topic of children with my future husband I was staunch in my desire of having either two or four.  We have four.  :-]

The oldest is a girl, just as I had planned.  I had an older brother after all...  Melinda was talented artistically.  She loved to paint, draw, and create.  When 14, Rhonda, the director of our children's theater, asked her to costume her production of "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp".  She designed, and I sewed.  She had a great eye for fabrics and character concepts.  From then on she costumed (having learned to sew herself) many of Rhonda's shows, overlapping her talents with costuming for her high school drama program.  She did shows such as Aida, Cyrano de Bergerac (which she also directed), and Oklahoma!  As a Junior, she not only received Critic's Choice at District Thespian Competition, but was selected as the District Representative for all the technical theater entries.  She is now majoring in Costuming at one of our large State Universities.  She is quite respected by her professors, and earned two scholarships after they saw what she was capable of doing.

Now 22, she still loves to paint, create and design other art, and has a website displaying her work.  She is fluent in German, having taken 4 years in high school, and living for a year in and around Cologne after graduating high school.  She is also a successful retail salesperson at White House Black Market.  I love spending time with her, as she has grown into a gracious, intelligent and need I say, talented young woman.