Mermaid-like awhile they bore her up

In which our Diva's much-delayed dream project draws ever closer to reality

It's been over a month since I scrawled the words "END OF PLAY" in a spiral notebook, and just over a week since I typed the same ones into Celtx. Over a decade since the idea first hatched in my little brain, Unvarnished: A Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal is finally becoming an actual coming-to-a-stage-near-you solo theatre piece.

It even has a Facebook page, for which the wonderful Pre-Raphaelite social mediasphere has already garnered 161 Likes. I'm in contact with a venue for the first public reading, which will likely be in November or December in Elgin, and mulling various logistical considerations for touring the fully realized production.

With all that going on, of course I picked today to have a eureka moment about Ophelia's dress.

That's not entirely out of left field. In my text, the dress is the springboard for a little flight of fancy while Lizzie poses in the infamous tub, and it's always been important to my mental image of the show. But the details craved by my obsessive little costumer's brain (which couldn't help being a bit disappointed by the sad greyish thing the mostly gobsmackingly gorgeous Desperate Romantics put on Amy Manson; the designer for Emma West's Ophelia short film seems to have given it a little more thought, albeit on a restricted budget), are tantalizingly thin on the ground. Millais himself recorded in a letter that "To-day I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for 'Ophelia'. You may imagine it is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds." (The Tate Britain educational info on the painting estimates that this would be about £250 today.)

Now, it didn't take too long to decide that a 20-something guy's idea of an "ancient dress" -- even if that 20-something guy is a genius painter intent on getting his masterpiece absolutely right -- is likely to be defined fairly broadly. In all likelihood, we're talking about something kept in a trunk for a generation or two before it found its way to the secondhand shop where Millais found it.

Which somewhat remarkably gives us more to go on than the painting itself, in which the distortion of the water makes it nigh impossible to discern much about the actual shape of the garment. That said, the shape does appear to be relatively simple, which lends further weight to the likelihood that it dated to the first couple decades of the 19th century.

The advent of machine-made net at the close of the 18th century paved the way for the early-19th-century fashion for gowns of muslin overlaid with embroidered net, often in gold or silver thread. So I've been working for a long time under the assumption that the Ophelia dress fell into that category, as typified by this gorgeous specimen at the V&A.

However.

The place I've always been tripped up is the neckline, which is clearly a couple inches higher than is typically found on this type of dress, appearing to cover Lizzie's collarbones. It's one of the few structural details we actually can see in the painting...

...or so I've always thought.

That eureka moment I mentioned? Follow the red dotted line:

Yup. Right there in front of me the whole time: the actual neckline of the dress, outlined in reflective bluish highlights.

At first I thought maybe he painted the actual neckline, then altered it to look more medieval and/or better represent Ophelia's virginal innocence for his contemporary audience. But the more I look at it, the more I wonder what that lace flounce around the top of the V&A dress would look like if it were flipped up and clinging to its sopping wet wearer. I suspect it'd look a lot like this.

So, that's that direction settled on. Too bad I hemmed and hawed just a little too long about that perfect vintage sari on eBay; I probably could even have used the choli for the bodice! Ah, well. I'll just have to look around some more. Darn. Shopping. ;-)

Crew members your indie film needs

In which our Diva has noticed some consistent oversights

When I encounter someone visiting a film set for the first time, I can almost guarantee they will say something like "I had no idea there would be so many people! And they're all working!" I've heard it on big studio productions, and I've heard it on little student films with skeleton crews, relatively speaking.

The latter end of the scale is a necessity of minimal budgets, of course, but sometimes filmmakers let those crews get a little too skeletal. And I'm not entirely convinced that is a necessity. People doing double or triple duty is one thing. Entire areas of responsibility left to more or less fend for themselves is quite another. This list is in no particular order (mostly because the impact of the lack of someone doing a given job will vary by production), and by no means guaranteed complete, but these are the gaps I've noticed time and again.

Costume Designer. Okay, I said "no particular order," but this is the one I would probably be doing if I weren't an actor, so I get soapboxiest about it. Clothes do not just happen. Your clothes, what you are wearing at this moment, did not just happen. You might or might not have thought about the reasons you bought those particular pieces (or why someone bought them for you), and why you pulled them out of the closet or drawer this morning, but there are reasons all the same. Making a film is creating a world and the people in it. In order to do that, someone needs to figure out what clothes those people would own and wear, and why.

In the microbudget world, you're probably not making a detailed period film (and if you are, you'd better have at least a year to set aside for pre-production -- Team Witchfinder, I salute you!), and you're almost certainly not looking for someone to build a bunch of clothes from scratch. What you need is someone who pays attention to clothes and what they say about people, knows how to shop (especially thrifting), and preferably has a good sense of color. If you have no budget for wardrobe, that same knowledge is what they need to guide the actors to plunder their own closets effectively. Because I'm sorry, directors, but the vague guidelines I get the vast majority of the time? Rarely result in anything resembling the image you have in your head. And I know this stuff. A lot of actors don't. Directors don't have time -- or, often, knowledge -- to work out all the details of how to make a look happen. That's why they need costume designers.

Separate Director and Producer. That thing I just said about "directors don't have time?" It's going to be a theme here. There are exceptions to every rule, and if you're super-detail-oriented and driven, you might be one of them. But chances are there's a whole swathe of business and organizational stuff you dread having to deal with. That's because it's supposed to be someone else's job. Especially if everyone involved also has a day job. Riding herd on all the artistic stuff and the business stuff AND a day job? Will send pretty much any director to the hospital. That's why they need producers.

Script Supervisor. Another one that tends to fall to actors. Which, aside from the energy drain of keeping track of our own continuity, is just supremely uncomfortable in the chain-of-command sense. When everything is ready to roll and everyone is looking at me, I feel super-extra-squirmy holding up my hand and saying "Um, wasn't his jacket zipped up before?" or whatever, because it's not my job. It is, in fact, perilously close to telling the director how to direct, which is the biggest actor no-no in the universe. But unless a director has a flawless eidetic memory, sooner or later some detail is going to fall through the cracks in the course of making the big picture happen. That's why they need script supervisors.

Grips and PAs. Lots and lots of grips and PAs. Unless you are physically tripping over people in every direction (and, depending on how close the quarters are at your location, sometimes even then), there is no such thing as too many hands. Some directors take pride in participating in the grunt work, and that's awesome. I applaud that. But they can't direct the actors and hold a reflector at just the right angle and fetch fresh batteries and hold coats for actors pretending it isn't 30 degrees and make coffee and keep the gawkers out of frame and turn the noisy heater on and off and fetch extras from holding. That's why they need grips and PAs.

Makeup and Hair. Insert a lot of the same stuff I said about costume designers. Just because you don't need special effects doesn't mean you don't need knowledgeable people in charge of what your actors look like. Sure, most actors go around every day looking reasonably presentable, but most of us know sod-all about how to translate that for the camera, or how to look a way we normally don't. And a smart director knows that -- as with costume design, and a whole lot of other things -- it takes skill to present something in a way that the audience doesn't notice or think about it. That's why they need makeup artists.

But where do I find these people? If you have next to no budget, it's a serious question. In which case, if you don't already have one, you really need to start with that producer. That's when it's important for that person to be good at finding answers to things. Like "What does the person doing this job need to know?" and "Where should I look for someone who knows those things who might be willing to pitch in?" If you know people, you probably know people who can do these jobs. Organized and detail-oriented? Ask them to be script supervisor. Makes the rounds of all the thrift stores in the area once a week? Sound them out about costume design. Somebody's cousin is a Mary Kay distributor? Talk to them about makeup.

And of course there are scads of indie filmmaking forums, Facebook groups, and so on. On many of them, any post actually looking for crew (as opposed to spamming self-promotion) will get noticed and get responses. Obviously it's better if you're paying (even if it's just a modest stipend), but if you genuinely absolutely can't pay anyone (most definitely including yourself), there's someone out there who'll be interested in doing it for fun.

In all seriousness, if you can't find people to fill all the jobs a film really needs filled, I urge you to seriously consider whether you should be making this film right now. If you wait and do it right, if everyone has a great experience on your set because it actually felt like a team working together to make an awesome thing, if it's not a desperate shorthanded effort to just get something, anything, in the can so we can all go home and put this nasty business behind us? Not only will you have a better film at the end of the day, but you'll have a bunch of people who would work with you again in a heartbeat, will refer their friends the next time you need crew, and will proudly support and publicize your baby.

In their country fashions

In which our Diva plays dress-up

Got my first glimpse of P&P costumes at fittings last night. Can't wait to see them finished, of course, but all indications are that we're going to look pretty darn good.

Non-profit theatre being what it is, I'm amused that Charlotte's day dress is a makeover of Lucy's striped dress from Dracula (second photo in linked gallery). And that David (director of both shows), Carl (Drac last year, AD this year) and I all came up with the same "Wrong redhead!" crack independently.

Obligatory Shameless Plug: Pride and Prejudice opens October 16 for a three-week run. Call GreenMan Theatre at 630-464-2646 for reservations, or purchase tickets online.

Score!

Blue has a biker jacket.  It's polyester, not leather, but should read okay on camera.  I was hoping for a nice beat-up one, but I went on my lunch hour yesterday to my best beloved thrift store and it's GONE!  :-(

With opera rehearsal last night, that left me running around like a crazy person this evening, and discovering no jackets to speak of at the thrift stores near my house.  I found one I really liked the looks of at H & M, but even a couple sizes up the sleeves were just too tight.  Blue is a practical kinda girl, and I need to be able to move!  So I got the windbreaker one at Forever 21, which ought to do the job.  (Sometimes I work for people who have budget for wardrobe.  This is not one of those times.  This is one of the times when my own skills in that department come in handy.  Such is life.)

Song for today: "Strange Little Girl" by Tori Amos.  Creepy mystery woman tomorrow, sassy operetta diva at rehearsal Sunday... Guess you could call that pretty strange!

They like me! They really like me!

In which our Diva wins a metric heap of stuff 'cause she likes to make pretty clothes

I'll probably pay for it in sleep over the next week in order to get everything done for Shrew, but taking a few days to drive over to the lovely city of Toronto for Polaris was well worth it for many reasons, not least to show off the "clockdroid" (based on the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace") in a major competition. Not that I wasn't happy with the Best in Shows from two previous, much smaller events, but it's vaguely embarrassing when you're the only one in the Master division. In a jawdroppingly-well-run masquerade (kudos to Barbara Schofield and her crack organizational team!) that always attracts at least three or four Master-level competitors as well as the best and brightest of up-and-comers, it's a whole different ballgame.

So I was pretty stunned to walk away with Best in Show for workmanship and Best Master for the on-stage presentation, as well as one of two special awards from the International Costumer's Guild with an attending membership to next year's Costume-Con. I've been to one CC before, and picked up all kinds of nifty new techniques in various seminars, so I'm all kinds of stoked.

And now it's back to Padua.

(For those interested, my much more geeky-fangirl overview of the weekend is on my Livejournal here and here.)

I've moved! Except I haven't really.

Yesterday I got around to taking advantage of GoogleApps, and switched my wiliqueen.com webmail over to the Gmail system. I've been using the wiliqueen@ Gmail account for everything for nearly four years now, with the valerie@wiliqueen addy forwarding to it. Now I've just reversed that, so nobody should notice any difference unless you're particularly observant and see that everything will be coming now with the reply-to as the latter. But I'm posting this just in case anyone encounters any hiccups.

Importing all my archived mail via POP was easy as pie, but four years' worth? Took all day and well into the night. %-} Man, do I send and receive a lot of email.

I know I've been a bit scarce lately; June is bustin' out all over. I got slots for about half the general season auditions I put in for, which isn't too bad. One down (Marriott), two to go (New World Rep and Adventure Stage Chicago), plus New Leaf sent out an email saying they're booked up but will try to squeeze in walk-ins if you want to give it a shot.

I will NOT send a resume to Bailiwick and try to convince them I can squeeze understudying Tell Me On A Sunday in around my other projects. Not.

Today I have the terrible burden of hitting thrift and fabric stores for Shrew, World of Faeries, and Polaris purposes. Woe, woe is me! *dramatic hand-to-forehead* (If I'm not back by midnight, send in the rescue dogs...)

No rest for the wicked

In which our Diva has a few irons in the fire

Three-day weekend FTW! Will no doubt want another when it's finished, as I will be using it to Get Stuff Done, but at least I have it do that in.

Stuff to Get Done includes as many costume renderings for Shrew as possible. I was hoping to have them all done by now, but the real drop-dead date is the first rehearsal in mid-June. Will probably be sketching madly away while socializing with company today.

Tomorrow will be all about studying new scene for acting class, brushing up on audition monologues and songs (everyone and their dog has general season auditions in the next couple weeks -- also need to put in for slots for those!), and getting mailings together for agent queries and a couple auditions that require snail mail instead of electronic submissions. Also need to order prints of new headshots.

Search for better-fitting day job continues apace, with sod all to show for it. Suspect at least some of them are getting filed in the "overqualified" (i.e. "she's going to want too much money, isn't she?") category, while others are looking at my rather eclectic work experience and going "Bzuh?" Sent a snail mail resume for one last week that I would really love to get; not saying any more 'cause I don't want to jinx it.

Dear AEA: Your Contract Associate job sounds faboo. Whywhywhy do you have to say "Employees of Actors' Equity Association are not permitted to perform in or stage manage any Equity or non-Equity production"??? [emphasis mine] I do not love you. (Not that this is particularly news.)

Monday is for housecleaning and car shopping. Car shopping is a necessity because (a) the one-car household thing is getting OLD; (b) the one functioning car does not have functioning air conditioning, and I'm so not doing that another summer; (c) better mileage plz!!; and (d) need new car before driving to Toronto in July for reasons (a) through (c). Have been looking very seriously at the smart car now that they're finally available in the U.S. If you've ever parked in the North Side neighborhoods where most of Chicago's storefront theatres are, you will immediately understand the appeal.

Evenings are for writing. Was writing an action scene yesterday (um, yeah, for the Lizzie project. Sure. *sheepish g*), and getting up to walk through the moves (to make sure they made sense in real space as well as in my head) made me realize how much I miss fight work. Good thing there's a Babes workshop coming up in a couple weeks. (For which registration is another thing on my to-do list this lovely holiday weekend.)

So, still lots going on, but all of it worth the doing.

Chemistry, baby!

And I don't just mean the kind that happens onstage. Met with potential costuming assistant for Shrew, who is no longer potential. Got along like a house on fire, and she lives about five minutes away, thus relieving most of the usual logistical headaches of delegating. The fact that she doesn't just have sewing skills, but serious theatre costuming skills, pretty much relieves the rest. \o/

Now I really gotta get some sketches done before next meeting with director next week, as I would like to continue getting along with her like a house on fire...

Chipmunk Girl has left the building!

Or mostly, anyway. There's still a little puffiness around my jaw, but I only notice it because I know my face. Also, hooray for being able to open my mouth all the way! Should make it a heckuva lot easier to have a voice lesson tomorrow. Also means I can see where the wisdom teeth came out from, and man was I right about there not being enough room in my jaw! I don't know where the heck four more teeth were anchored! Am both apprehensive and excited about seeing an orthodontist once it's all healed. I've had this traffic jam in my mouth for so long, it's going to be strange not to have them so crowded that I slice through dental floss at least three times before I get them all.

Meanwhile, I have a completely irrational craving for a chili cheese dog. *facepalm*

Curiously, hurting more today than it has the last couple. Mostly stitches pulling, I think. Which makes me very glad the Vicodin doesn't loop me out to speak of, because I have stuff to get done, darnit. Have been itching to sing, and planning to give it a shot for a while tonight. The poor voice is like "Okay, cold and then sinus infection and then wisdom teeth... Are we DONE with all this stuff now? Can we get on with business plzkthx?" I really wanted to be in solid vocal shape before we started Suor Angelica, darnit, but that just wasn't in the cards. Ah, well.

Also need to start sketching for Shrew. And must go over to Chicago Actors Studio and get registered early next week. But those are for after BigBabyBrother's wedding this weekend, which, yay!

Next week. *deep breath * Next week will be NORMAL craziness. ;-D

Diva-About-Town

I know it's really too soon to have heard anything from Saturday's audition, but I am nonetheless antsy. The project is still living in the "Coolest Thing I've Seen In Ages" space in my brain, and the schlep up to Milwaukee is seeming like a pretty minor inconvenience. No idea whether I'll get a "yea or nay" from them, so the suspense and obligatory niggling suspicion that they actually thought I sucked will probably continue for a bit before I say "Okay, ain't happening."

In the interim, I did get hold of the guys with the very conveniently local horror project, but their casting guy couldn't make it Sunday, so it's rescheduled for March 2. They sent me the script, and it looks like fun, if not the Mostest Brilliantest Thing Ever. Plus, one of the characters they're looking at me for would give me firearms handling footage for the ol' reel. I'm no expert by any means, but I have enough experience to not look like I expect the gun to bite me, and have internalized the various safety procedures well enough that I don't have to use all my active brainspace for them anymore.

Tonight, it's into the city for another student film. The role they're looking at me for in this one is a dominatrix. Yes, I'm amused too. Although those of you who saw my Rosencrantz and/or Goneril won't think it's particularly farfetched. ;-> If it weren't FIVE FRELLING DEGREES outside today, I'd probably be wearing the outfit that prompted a coworker's visiting wife to ask who the goth chick was, but no way in hell was there going to be a skirt today. Everything else is the same, though, although for some strange reason I decided it would probably be wiser to wear the hiking boots outside and change into the four-inch heels when I get there. Call me crazy. (Seriously, I do NOT understand the women I see still running around in stilettos lately. I'd say they need their heads examined, but that's going to happen anyway when they fall and crack them open!) Plus I turned back to the redhead side of the Force in November and have decided to stay there for a while, and currently have the Bettie Page bangs thing going on. So I should be set there.

On the other side of the resume, I'm now officially designing costumes for The Taming of the Shrew at Theatre-Hikes. Primary challenge will be realizing the director's commedia dell'arte concept without killing the actors, who will be hiking a total of two miles between scenes in August. Fortunately, she's experienced with them and well aware of that challenge and of the inevitable necessity of compromise. So that'll be fun. They actually asked me if I was interested in doing Dracula too, but I'm not keen on committing to designing two shows in a row when I have no idea what's going on with me performingwise. Plus, it's the John Balderston/Hamilton Deane adaptation, which I dislike quite a lot even though it's the basis for most of what people know (i.e. both the Lugosi and the Langella movies).