Emerson Drive

Like most people, I like music. Unlike most people, until yesterday, I had never been to a concert before. Symphony concerts, yes. Contemporary music concerts, no (Sort of weird for a person who was raised in the entertainment capitol of the world). For my birthday, my boyfriend, Adam, bought me tickets to go see the country group Emerson Drive. Last night we went to see the concert at the Scera Outdoor Shell in Orem. It was SO fun! The weather was good, the band was good, they played almost all of my favorite songs, and ended with a bang when they sang "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," and the fiddler outdid himself with unbelievably fast and ridiculously amazing fiddling.

Verdict: I like concerts. I like them a lot.

Emerson Drive during "Moments."

Adam and Me, sharing a non-photogenic moment in the pre-concert excitement.

The Curtain Rises...

There comes a certain point in a production where an audience becomes necessary. If you have even been to a preview performance, or opening night of a show, you will understand. There is a level of heightened enthusiasm, the excitement and delight of the first laugh from an audience, the excited murmur from the audience prior to the performance, the hush that comes over the audience as the curtain rises or the lights go dim. Of all the exciting things in live theater, this is perhaps, my favorite. Last night, we at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, had our first preview for Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing. With a few small hiccups here and there in the costume department (I was sitting next to the designer, and was privy to all the dresser notes that were taken), the performance was enchanting! It is so gratifying to be see all of your hard work before you and presented in a full and fun manner. It is also completely delightful to see something that I made, onstage, at the Festival! After all, I have been coming to see shows at the festival since 1997... It is rather thrilling to have finally created some of the costumes!

Benedick, Claudio, Don Pedro & Leonato

Kym Mellen as Beatrice

True Love

Have you ever seen a sight so beautiful? I now own 4 pairs of shears, and 3 of them are Gingher... I LOVE Gingher shears... They make the most satisfying sound in the world when they cut fabric. You should try them sometime. They could possibly change your life.

Photo Call

One of the most frightening and exciting parts of the costume design world is that at some point, everything has to be finished, or there is the possibility that actors can walk out without clothes, or at least clothing that fits. For many shows, it is for some sort of publicity photos. The Utah Shakespearean Festival is no different. On Friday, about half of our costumes for Much Ado about Nothing ( the show that I have been working one) have to be completely finished, down to the label being sewn in. On some costumes, this is not a big deal, because the alterations are minimal or simple. For others, however, it means clothing has to be built from scratch and completely finished by this date. Rather daunting, and yet there is something to completely fulfilling about building and finishing projects in such a short period of time. Here are a few samples of things that I have built that will be used in photo call.

Beatrice Bodice: Back view
Front View
Dogberry Jacket: Before
After:) Don't worry, none of the stains or anything is permanent. Any guesses how this was achieved? *As a side note, the designer who originally had this made walked over today to look at it, and was very sad to see that it was so dirty... I was rather thrilled that even he was fooled into thinking that it was permanent and that I had ruined his costume:) *

Another watch costume... I like the plastron (large center piece with the buttons)...

The costume shop at the Utah Shakespearean Festival

Here are pictures of my new home. I spend about 9 hours a day here, and really love the work that goes on here. It can be challenging, stressful and busy, but overall, it has been an amazing experience. I have learned how to do all sorts of things and have now spend about 5 hours at the storage location with beautiful costumes. Life is good!This is the room that I work in with 4 other people. We are the 5 working on Much Ado about Nothing.

Dear Cedar City,

I like you so much. You have nice big apartments with washing machines and private bathrooms. You have beautiful mountains. You have quaint little shops. You have the Utah Shakespearean Festival and a glorious costume shop. You have nice people who have come from all over the U.S. to make marvelous theater. You have beautiful places to go running. But best of all, you are only 3 hours from the people that I love most in the world.

sincerely,

Landen

Inspiration

I have not talked about Costume Designing for a while, (perhaps a few of you appreciated that)but since my personal life is none too interesting right now, I want to return there for a few minutes. Like many professional fields, research plays a huge part in costume design. It tells you what time period you are dealing with, what happened, what influenced clothing, who the important people are, what clothing looked like for certain classes of people ect. In addition to that, the designer has to know what the show is going to look like overall, before the show ever goes up. I am designing an anachronistic (without a time period) show, but because of limited resources, it will probably have a futuristic/stylized contemporary feel... If I can get everything to work out right. But one of the exciting things that I get to do in the field of research, is look through hundreds of magazine images to find the images that will best convey my concept, and then show them to the director in order to be corrected on the points where my research doesn't match up with the feel that the she is creating. Here are a few samples of what I have been doing the past few days:

A Lazy Sunday

My two sleepy companions on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Saying Goodbye...

(me, Megan, Lisa, Katelyn, Tracy, Michele, Jessie)

I have never had trouble saying goodbye. At the end of High School, I was ready to leave, at the end of my marathon Church History trip after my senior year, I was ready to say goodbye, even the end of my freshman year I was ready to say goodbye. Every-time a romantic relationship ended, I have been able to walk away without too much regret... but not this time. On Wednesday, I said goodbye to all 6 of my roommates and best friends. We have been friends since my freshman year, and we have lived together, eaten together, studied together, gone to church together, confided in each other, played together, and been stressed together for last two years. That has now come to an end, as 2 of them leave for missions in the next two months, and 2 more of them are probably going on missions in the fall... It is a little weird and very sad to look back at those two wonderful years and know that they are over forever. Never again will we all live together, share food, and the same bathroom. Like anything, life moves on and I do as much as anyone. Goodbye Apt #208 and its wonderful memories! I will not forget you.

More Fancy-Shmancy Events

My life at BYU is rarely this exciting with two big event posts in a row, however on Saturday, I went to Dining Out, the ROTC for the Airforce's big end of the year dinner and dance. It is a VERY formal event. All men are required to wear their uniforms, bring a date, give that date a corsage, as well as never leave that date unattended. At dinner they have a tradition of 'the grog.' This word strikes terror into the hearts of every cadet there because it is a toilet bowl filled with a revolting combination of things that they have to drink if they break a dining hall rule or have failed to dress correctly. Last night was a virtual grog fest. Apparently there were a lot of rule breakers who attended last night. Apparently some of the cadets were unaware of the 'white dress shirt for formal dinners rule...' At any rate, there was a lovely dinner, an excellent speaker and a very fun dance afterwards. There was also a sinfully delicious chocolate cake!

Me and my date, Jordan Holmes... too bad I am wearing 3 inch high heels and he is still almost a foot taller than me...

Table # 28 - the crowns were because they are all graduating this year... Yes, they did get grogged for breaking dress code:)

A Night at the Country Club

Yesterday afternoon I got a rather strange text message from one of my friends. It said, "I would like to cordially invite you to a formal high society meeting tonight at 10PM." I was not quite sure what this meant, so I asked him what this 'high society meeting' was all about. He replied that the society "is just a fraternity dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and the celebration of truth." How often do you get a text message like that? I was intrigued. So I accepted my invitation with honor and was prepared in my best country club attire at 9:55PM (please note that he would have called to invite me had he not been in class from 2 until 9PM).

He escorted me to his house where other couples in fancy dress were arriving. There were chocolate mint pirouette cigars, and wine goblets with pineapple juice and jackets were required. The official weekly meeting began and after introducing those of us who were new, the men sang the official high society song, written by my date. Then came general announcements and then we had a 10 minute or so discussion on what we give value in our society. Then, we danced. Not just ordinary dancing, but these boys knew how to dance. Swing dancing, waltzing, the foxtrot and more. The songs chosen included Bobby Darren, Frank Sinatra, and other famous old artists. It was a night full of class. And I felt sort of like this... but without the lace.

The Glass Menagerie

The newest project that I am working on is Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie. This is not a BYU production, but a community play in a little theater in Provo. Here are some of the publicity photos. You should all come, because it going to be awesome:) And because I designed the costumes. It opens March 12th and runs through March 27th at Provo Center Theater.

Charred Towel

This morning I had a bunch of errands to run, and when one fell through, I had time to make lunch. Macaroni and cheese sounded like a good idea (Remember that I am a college student... I eat that kind of stuff). So I put the water filled pot on the stove and went to go get the butter from the fridge. After a moment, I glanced over at the stove to see the burner smoking like crazy! Literally, billowing off the stove. I rushed over to realize that I had turned on the wrong burner... A coil that had a dishtowel sitting on top of it, coincidentally. I am not sure why there was a towel on it, but because the towel was on fire, it was not the moment to figure that out. I quickly poured baking soda on it, and within a few seconds, the fire went out... Needless to say, it was a cooking adventure to remember. And I didn't burn down the apartment building.

Dressed to the Nine's

I am giving a presentation this weekend on fashion between the time periods of the Renaissance until the 1700's. I decided to show some movie costumes to demonstrate the clothing I am talking about and some of the people who influenced fashion and wore them.

Are these not to DIE for! They are so gorgeous!

Enjoy!

The Duchess

The Duchess

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl

Marie Antoinette

The Duchess

The Other Boleyn Girl

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society" - Mark Twain

Two Sundays ago, a good friend of mine asked me if I would be willing to go suit shopping with him. I had never been suit shopping, nor did I know very much about suits, but it sounded like fun and a good experience for a girl who should know things about suits. For instance, how was I to know if two-button or three-button jackets were in? Or if the pants should be cuffed or not? I was clueless. So Saturday rolled around and we drove off to the mall full of hope that we could find the perfect suit. He tried on about 8 or 10 at one store and sort of liked one of them. So we moved on to Macy's where there was NOTHING to choose from! (I am sure that Macy's has a plethora of qualities, but suits are not one of them) We decided to go to Nordstrom because everyone knows that Nordstrom sells awesome things. So after wandering, with the help of a salesman, through their men's suits, my friend found a suit that he wanted to try on. Navy blue with a blue on blue stripe, European cut. Into the dressing room walked my friend, out walked an Italian Model. From that moment on, I decided that if I had any doubts about what clothes can do for a person, my belief in their power has now been solidified. I have known this guy for a while, but until that moment, I had never been so overwhelmed by his presence. It was amazing. A little glowing moment of my Saturday. Too bad the suit was expensive, so we had to buy him a different suit. I was, however, pleased to hear him say, as we approached his car, "I am starting to understand why some people might enjoy clothing." It was like music to my ears.

Moral of the story: Don't underestimate the power of a good suit.

Glamourous

Don't you wish you could have one day where you looked this spectacular! I know I do:) Happy Saturday!

Christmas Break

Hopefully you all had a nice Christmas vacation. Based on the fact that I have not written in several weeks, you can guess that I did. It was quite lovely and now I am back to the grind, working hard and going to school.

The picture above probably needs some explanation. For several years when I was younger, my dad made something called a Buche de Noel. It is a French cake that looks like their traditional yule log. Because I took French this past semester, I had this strange desire to be a part of this and help him make it this year. So we did. I thought it turned out rather nicely, although I never want to eat a meringue mushroom again because I am almost an entire pan of them while we made this cake... just thinking about it makes me slightly queasy.

Some of the other fun things from break were the visit of two of my cousins, from either side of the family, as well both of my sisters and their husbands coming to spend some time with us, as well as sewing up a storm and learning to watercolor. Overall, a most satisfactory break.