Wrap-Up

The last day of the show went spectacularly. I got to work with a great cast and crew and had a great overall experience. Definitely something I would do again! While the show was exhausting to work on, the look came out how I wanted it too under budget which is great for a high school production.

Last Day of the Show

Yesterday went flawlessly! Even when one of the girl's hair fell out it was only a minor hiccup because it fell perfectly into the braid out of the bun, so it looked natural. The costumes look wonderful! It's so exciting to see all your hard work onstage. Turning in the budget worksheet and receipts today to my director. I have to say, working on the budget sheet taught me a lot about Excel I hadn't previously known. Good stuff to learn! The budget came out way under the 650 dollar budget. Costumes came in at around 125 dollars. The show looks great, and it was exhilarating to see the actor's excited about the show.

Day one and day two

The first official dress rehearsal was very hectic! I had finished the aprons for two of the girls over the weekend and while one of them fit perfectly, the other definitely needed some alterations. I was happy to see that most of the garments that I was making were fitting very well and the alternations were working perfectly. While I still had a few alterations to do for various garments, the overall look of the show was in place.
The second rehearsal was much more intense. We worked more on hair for this one as we realized that in the first rehearsal that the girl's hair needed more bobby pins and hair spray to stay in through the multiple dancing scenes in the play. Braids and buns have been the top two hairstyles for this play as they usually stay out of the character's faces and look accurate. There have only been a few more adjustments that are necessary before tomorrow's final dress rehearsal.
Today I've been working on budget worksheets. I've been keeping my receipts of everything I have bought as materials for the play and am making a spreadsheet of how much I have spent and on what. I will then turn the worksheet and receipts to my supervisor to get repaid.

Official Start of Dress Rehearsal Week

Tomorrow starts the first official dress rehearsal! Although we have had the actors been wearing the costumes for the past few days to make sure the photographers from the local papers could take pictures that would accurately portray look of the show. I have been working on the aprons for two of the women today, trying to make them look individual. A majority of the costumes needed adjustments, so I have to have those done by tomorrow too! The dress rehearsals are very important in determining what needs to change before the final show. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get time to sit and watch the whole show, so I can change anything before the final shows.

Friday December 30th

Today marked exactly one week until the show. On Thursday, we decided that all of the characters should have a costume change for the second act as the majority of the characters had a change. I did a few more pulls from the costume shop to complete the look of each character. Some of this involved a little bit of buying from Goodwill such as the gansey, a kind of fisherman's sweater, that one of the characters wears. While I purchased one at Goodwill I had to readjust because the first was in too dark of a color. I also found the perfect shoes for the narrator of the story that will work perfectly. A lot of the characters need small little adjustments that will be done this week, and I'll put the finishing touches on the jacket then too. The jacket itself is done, fully-lined and everything!

Jack's Uniform

Today ended my search to find a white British military coat for our character Jack and began my adventure in making a new coat for Jack! Overall the materials were relatively cheap, the lining, interfacing, twill fabric, and notions came to about only 40 dollars. A good price for a coat that will probably get used more than once in shows. I have about half of it done right now. I also went in to see the director today to talk about the costumes which lead to all the character wearing their costumes for practice. The director loved the overall look of the show and commended me on making the sisters look like a tight-knit family. I was pleased to hear that he liked the look of the show so far even though there were crucial pieces like Jack's jacket missing. Hopefully I will have the jacket done by Friday, but it will be surely done by Monday at the latest. We're coming up onto dress rehearsal week for me which should be pretty stress-free as most of the characters already have their costumes put together and just need nips and tucks here and there. There definitely are a lot of modifications that need to be changed before dress rehearsal week, but that's the price we pay for pulling from stock. I believe it's worth it though! Saves the department lots of money and keeps me on budget!

2 weeks until the show!

This weekend marked the 2 week mark until the opening show. While the actors are getting a bit nervous, so am I! It's scary thinking about how little time I have to costume the show, basically about 3 weeks. We did all the final pulling on Friday and began to wrap everything up, yet there are still a few pieces that need to be discussed. The general's coat is still causing great concern, as I'm not sure where we can attain such a coat and renting one might not get here in time. The show being so close is getting nerver-racking. It may come down to having to make a coat similar to the director's instructions which is only scary because it would have to be done over a weekend! The pulls for the costumes went well, and I had another meeting with the director to show him what I had purchased for the characters and pulled. The characters are all dressed in similar muted tones although I would have loved to have a completely sepia-toned set of costumes, it's not practical in budget and time constraints to go by that strict of a look. However, the muted will look very good on stage and accurate to the time period. Within the next few days we will be working on trying the costumes on and possibly pulling different pieces if some do not work out. Then the week after that will be dress rehearsal week!