All Theater, All The Time

This is getting redonculus.

I don't even know if I spelled that correctly. And I don't care.

I've been creating so much "theater" in the past week, I've forgotten about - pretty much everything else in my life. But "The Mousetrap" is open, we've had audiences (not huge, not sell-outs, but butts in the seat!), and my life continues.

We almost didn't get there, though. Wednesday night of tech week, the second dress rehearsal, one of the actors had an "episode". I don't want to say he was drunk or stoned,  because I don't have definitive proof, but something wasn't...right. In fact, several people thought he was having a stroke, at first. He was slurring his words, he was incoherent, he was missing his cue lines.....I wasn't there to witness the first act of the play; I was picking up some artwork for set dressing. When I got back to the theater, it was too quiet, the other tech people were just standing around, and the director wasn't to be found. He ws backstage, trying to figure out what was going wrong with his best friend. Yes, it was the director's best friend, and somebody I've known for over 20 years, who had a complete physical/chemical melt-down two days before opening. We had to pull him from rehearsal, because he was physically unable to go on. The night ended with the rest of the cast waiting in the green room, while the director and the tech director held down this actor until his brother arrived to pick him up. It was ugly. This is an actor with a long history of alcohol addiction, who's been in recovery; turns out he's had a couple of relapses lately. There are other issues in his life right now, I won't go into them; but he needs help. I can only hope he gets it.

Fortunately, a couple of cast members knew another actor who played the same role just a few years ago; he was available, and willing to step in at the last minute. One rehearsal with the rest of the cast, and he went on opening night! This man is my hero.

Situation #2: on Friday afternoon, about 4 hours before opening, my husband, who's in the play, fell through a riser in the audience, and sprained his ankle. Badly. Like, we thought a broken ankle or blown knee injury. But he went on; fortunately, his character is using a walking stick, so he had a support ready to go, and he got through the show. He did go to urgent care today, for x-rays, after his ankle gave out on him again and swelled up again. Nothing broken, but all of the ligaments are torn. This will be a long recovery for him.

So my creations have been small, theater-related, and dictated by others. Set dressing for an English manor, snow-covered shrubbery, a newly-painted fake fireplace, a cartridge-pleated skirt, and a hero shirt (or a pirate shirt, or puffy shirt, or Renaissance shirt, whatever you prefer to call it!) are some of the projects I've worked on in the past week. I also created a couple of food items, including a mock shepherd's pie, with turkey, and a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. My kids deserved a treat!

Sorry, there will be photos in the future. But I'm so fricken' tired right now, I don't have time to upload them.

And today's creation? A new measurement sheet form,for a new zip drive, for a new theater project I started tonight. I was getting upset with myself, for not creating anything today; when I remembered this simple technical creation from this afternoon. I'm golden.

Of Mice and Man-boobs

Fifteen days down, 351 to go.  Fourteen creations, and a mini-shopping spree.

Three plays in process, 5 more in the planning (just through May!).  There will be more plays later in the year (I hope!), I just don't have anything booked or scheduled yet. 

Zipper tape flowers, for reals.

Saturday was my husband's 50th birthday.  To commemorate the day, I got the biggest cinnamon rolls in the Twin Cities for breakfast, plus a pecan roll for myself.  Except he had a breakfast meeting scheduled for 10 a.m., so the kids and I enjoyed our rolls, whilst he went elsewhere.  I had a cave tour at my part-time job, so I wasn't around for lunch.  But we all managed to be together for dinner.  We had a lovely, large meal at Chianti Grill, then waddled over to a big old bookstore to attempt to walk off some of the pasta and birthday cake.  Which is to say, I was in a food coma all evening.  Fortunately, I  finished the second fingerless mitt (from my previous post) Saturday afternoon, so I did create something.  And they're lovely.  I found the zipper flower pins in a bag of trims that my stepmom recently gave to me; I wanted to add my own touch to these lovely mitts.

My Sunday consisted of a board meeting for my theater company, as we prepare for our second production, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.  Then off to a stumble-through and production meeting for Slasher; during which darling husband and 2/3 of my offspring decided to text or call me within a 30-minute span.  All independently, unbeknownst to the others.  And all because the hubs forgot to get milk.  The one thing he needed to get at the grocery store - and he forgot.  Well, he's 50 now, and his memory is going to pot (along with his belly.  This man is not aging well.)  Which meant a quick stop at the store on my way home, to purchase said beverage.

Finally, home. I fixed myself a late supper (good thing I have veggie burgers in the freezer; made me feel better about Saturday's splurge), poured a glass of vino, and settled in to watch the Golden Globes.  And thought about a quick project to work on from the comfort of my couch.  Because of the Golden Globes, I passed on the second episode of  Downton Abbey on t.v. (I'll catch it today online!), but I still wanted something inspired by the gorgeous outfits seen on that show. 

I had a small amount of black velvet ribbon trim left on a spool; certainly not enough to trim anything, but the perfect amount for a choker.   The women of Downton Abbey wear beautiful chokers paired with long beaded necklaces for their fancy dinner parties.  Also on hand, a beaded/sequined applique, perfect with the ribbon, and a plain hook clasp.  This was an easy handsewing creation - I turned under the cut ends of the ribbon, sewed each clasp half on the two ends, then centered the applique and hand-stitched it in place.

I feel like quite the fancy lady with my alpaca-silk mitts and velvet-beadwork choker.  These may be the last items I create for myself for a bit; with so much costume work in the next few weeks, my creations will include the following items: a horror film-inspired mask for Slasher; man-boobs for The Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspre, Abridged (yep, just like Shakespeare's day - men playing the women's roles); and perhaps some little gifts for the cast of The Mousetrap, inspired by the title.

Seriously, the book just happened to be there.