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.

Lions and Tigers and Library Sensors... Oh My!

Okay, so the title is a little lame, as is the topic, but I was thinking about this earlier and wanted to vocalize it. Is there anything that you cringe doing? Like breaking up with someone, telling someone that their skirt is riding up because of their tights or backpack, or telling someone that they have a huge blob of something on their face right after eating? Such an awful feeling. That is the feeling that I get when I walk through the big, white, plastic book sensors at the library. Every time I walk in or out of the library I cringe just slightly, fearful that I will be the terrible soul to set the alarm off. A few weeks ago I had gotten some books and looked over them at home, and was going to use one of them while writing a paper in the library. As I walked through the sensors on my way in, the alarm went off. I wondered why it had gone off, so I took the book out and gave it to the security person at the front. He looked it up, and somehow I had gotten out of the library without checking it out. It wasn't really a problem, but I was so shocked that the sensor had not gone off when I had left. All the paranoia, and the one time when I actually didn't check the book out, the sensor didn't go off! It was an outrage!

So, today, I checked out another book and the sensor went off! I knew I had checked it out and began explaining quickly, while slightly embarrassed, to the girl that I was certain that I had checked it out. She checked and said, "That's fine," let me walk through again and I left... was that really so hard?

"It's all cold and snowy outside"

This morning, I woke up and peaked out the window, and lo and behold, there was about 3 inches of the most beautiful and pure snow on everything. I don't always like the cold and the slush, but to be getting our first real snowfall on December 6th, I was thrilled! Now Christmas can come!

Actor problems

Last night, I had the joy of completing 4 of my required 10 makeup class lab hours. This meant sitting and listening to 3 hours of Children of Eden, washing beard hair ( don't worry, it wasn't attached to anyone, it was in preparation for Makeup class on Monday when 20 girls will all have beards and mustaches), and watching tons of actors put makeup on. This was a rather interesting experience. I feel like I have fairly good grasp on actors mentalities and other things, but I definitely had a few new experiences last night.

First off, one guy in the cast refuses to wear anything but MAC makeup (Don't worry, only onstage)... I didn't know guys cared that much... apparently some guys in theater do. I also discovered that one girl in our cast sings just like Judy Garland. It was really quite awesome! Also I got sassed by a member of the cast, and I am finally learning to dish it out as quickly as it comes... Mostly because otherwise I feel like a doormat by the end of the night from all those jazz shoes trampling all over me.

However, the choice moment of the evening was this: we had an adjudicator come last night ( for those of you who have no idea what that is, lemme splain. An adjudicator is someone who is knowledgeable in the theater and observes the show and then gives criticism and encouragement on the design choices in lighting, costumes, sound, props and scenic.). We were talking to him about some of the costumes choices which were made and telling him how the biblical costumes were supposed to show their basic costumes underneath in order to remind the audience that the biblical costumes were just symbolic and that underneath, every member of the cast was equal and just like you and me. Then the adjudicator said, "Well that wasn't the only thing that was open on _________ ( actor's name and character are omitted). He had something open on the lower half too. " Turns out said actor forgot to zip up a certain necessity... I told the adjudicator that that was not a costume problem... that was an actor problem.

Warm and Fuzzy time of the year...

It snowed this weekend. I am split in my opinion about snow. I love the first few times that it snows, and the lovely layer of perfect white that covers the grass and ground. There is something really lovely about the way that it falls past the window, and the way that it sticks to your eyelashes. On the other hand, I don't like the risk of slipping and falling. I don't like how the snow gets dirty and slushy when people drive on it. I don't like how your hands feel like they are going to fall off when you are outside for too long. But, I have found a marvelous solution for the cold: A heated blanket. Yes, you should all get one too... believe me, you won't regret it.

When it rains, it pours.

Ain't it good - an amazing song by an amazing girl!
Eve
Finale of Act I
Eve, Adam, Abel
Rebellious Cain... I love this picture!
The naming of the animals. I love all the motion in this picture.
And the set.

The title of this post sums up my theater life at the moment. Perhaps you were wondering why I had not update my blog with more exciting pictures from Frankenstein, or stories of how the mother's skirt fell off onstage once, or perhaps the time when we bought a gorgeous hair extension for a character and it almost went flying into the audience during a fight scene... I could have told you many stories about the exciting things that happened during that show, however, like so many things in theater, I moved right onto the next show.

The last two weeks have been full of Children of Eden that BYU is putting on. I am the assistant costume designer (such an official title, it makes me sound like I am actually important...) We have been working on getting problems sorted out like making sure no one will have to go onstage in the buff. Thankfully we have fixed it so that no one has had to do that...

Anyway, we have had a great time working on a lot of amazing biblical costumes as well as the basics that everyone wears which include: khaki pants or shorts, a colored t-shirt and then a multicolored tank top. The best and most time consuming part of the show was, of course, an entire set of animal head masks that are on stage for about 7 minutes... too bad, because they look amazing. I could not get any clear pictures of them today, but I will try again on Tuesday.

The great thing about this show is that the more you hear it, the more you love it. The music is amazing and although much of the stories of Adam/Eve and Noah/Ark have been altered, and the entire play is full of incongruities with the Bible, there is an amazing spirit that comes from this performance! I look forward to going to their tech rehearsals every day and wish that I could come every night of the run!