The Return of Productive Lass!
A couple of fast, challenging projects turned out to be exactly what I needed to shake off the blah.
handled most of the costuming and mastersantiago schleped and built and painted the sets with some help from the cast, and my job seemed to be making sure that everybody else stayed on track and had the necessary resources to get their stuff done. I guess I am becoming a producer.
The day of the show, I was a nervous wreck. I still felt unprepared and anxious, and I really couldn't sit still. We got up, breakfasted and dressed, then went down to court to see how the schedule was going. I stood in the back of the hall, vibrating myself into another dimension, and when they finally took a break, ran back to our room to change into costume. The schedule was going to be tight, and I didn't want to hold things up any more than necessary.
Of course, the play was wonderful. The audience was enthusiastic and responsive, and we were totally energized. I think this high is going to stay with us for a while: we're already thinking about next 12th Night, and that's a good sign.
As to the rest, well, I didn't do much. I lounged a lot, read a little, indulged in a cocktail and visited for a bit. Didn't shop, didn't stay through much of court, dropped in on the last couple of minutes of the pel meeting and missed the laurels all together, indulged in a cocktail and visited a little, and generally recharged and relaxed.
The following weekend was our cast party, for which we owe many, many thanks to the fabulous Miyake family for putting up with us. Lots of food, much hilarity and a chance for all of us to watch the video and actually see our own performance for the first time all the way through. And we walked away still happy with it, so yay us!
So after 12th Night, I went straight into costume mode for the Stanford Savoyards' production of Princess Ida. I had two weeks -- luckily, they had a small cast and I borrowed or pulled most of the costumes from stock. There were some things that I wanted to do that just didn't get done, and in hindsight I really should have managed my time much better, but still I was mostly happy with how they looked. Again, tremendous gratitude to seamoose who was my armorer and thelbk who let me raid Gold Key, plus everybody else I borrowed stuff from.
And I guess they were fairly happy with me, since during strike I was approached about coming back to costume Iolanthe in the spring. No promises, since I want to make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else I've got coming up this spring, but I admit I'm eying Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book and wondering if they've the right stuff in stock.
More to the point, though, I find myself renewed about doing stuff in general. Somewhere in those two weeks, I started feeling enthusiastic about sewing again, and thinking about projects on my backlog, like mastersantiago's blue coat that I screwed up last November and put away because I couldn't bear to look at it, or the scrolls that have languished in the closet because I just wasn't interested in going back to them. Having a couple of hard deadline projects to see through, projects that had to have some finished product at the end, really helped me shake the cobwebs out.
There's already stuff coming up that I want to get started on. I want to audition for The Sorcerer in the spring; if I get cast, it'll mean missing June Crown (again!) but I can live with that. I've also made a bid to produce HMS Pinafore in October. I haven't received confirmation yet, but if I do, it means missing October Crown, as well. Again, a trade-off I'm willing to live with.
I've got my fabric piles ready to start making new clothes; mastersantiago and I are both in desperate need of new stuff, and there's a bunch of little gifts I want to make just because. And I haven't turned out a new scroll in ages so I'd really like to get back to my ink and paints.
Tonight is Mt. Laundry, with a base camp set up at Dirty Dishes Station. I need a clean space to start creating again.
handled most of the costuming and mastersantiago schleped and built and painted the sets with some help from the cast, and my job seemed to be making sure that everybody else stayed on track and had the necessary resources to get their stuff done. I guess I am becoming a producer.
The day of the show, I was a nervous wreck. I still felt unprepared and anxious, and I really couldn't sit still. We got up, breakfasted and dressed, then went down to court to see how the schedule was going. I stood in the back of the hall, vibrating myself into another dimension, and when they finally took a break, ran back to our room to change into costume. The schedule was going to be tight, and I didn't want to hold things up any more than necessary.
Of course, the play was wonderful. The audience was enthusiastic and responsive, and we were totally energized. I think this high is going to stay with us for a while: we're already thinking about next 12th Night, and that's a good sign.
As to the rest, well, I didn't do much. I lounged a lot, read a little, indulged in a cocktail and visited for a bit. Didn't shop, didn't stay through much of court, dropped in on the last couple of minutes of the pel meeting and missed the laurels all together, indulged in a cocktail and visited a little, and generally recharged and relaxed.
The following weekend was our cast party, for which we owe many, many thanks to the fabulous Miyake family for putting up with us. Lots of food, much hilarity and a chance for all of us to watch the video and actually see our own performance for the first time all the way through. And we walked away still happy with it, so yay us!
So after 12th Night, I went straight into costume mode for the Stanford Savoyards' production of Princess Ida. I had two weeks -- luckily, they had a small cast and I borrowed or pulled most of the costumes from stock. There were some things that I wanted to do that just didn't get done, and in hindsight I really should have managed my time much better, but still I was mostly happy with how they looked. Again, tremendous gratitude to seamoose who was my armorer and thelbk who let me raid Gold Key, plus everybody else I borrowed stuff from.
And I guess they were fairly happy with me, since during strike I was approached about coming back to costume Iolanthe in the spring. No promises, since I want to make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else I've got coming up this spring, but I admit I'm eying Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book and wondering if they've the right stuff in stock.
More to the point, though, I find myself renewed about doing stuff in general. Somewhere in those two weeks, I started feeling enthusiastic about sewing again, and thinking about projects on my backlog, like mastersantiago's blue coat that I screwed up last November and put away because I couldn't bear to look at it, or the scrolls that have languished in the closet because I just wasn't interested in going back to them. Having a couple of hard deadline projects to see through, projects that had to have some finished product at the end, really helped me shake the cobwebs out.
There's already stuff coming up that I want to get started on. I want to audition for The Sorcerer in the spring; if I get cast, it'll mean missing June Crown (again!) but I can live with that. I've also made a bid to produce HMS Pinafore in October. I haven't received confirmation yet, but if I do, it means missing October Crown, as well. Again, a trade-off I'm willing to live with.
I've got my fabric piles ready to start making new clothes; mastersantiago and I are both in desperate need of new stuff, and there's a bunch of little gifts I want to make just because. And I haven't turned out a new scroll in ages so I'd really like to get back to my ink and paints.
Tonight is Mt. Laundry, with a base camp set up at Dirty Dishes Station. I need a clean space to start creating again.