open mouth, insert foot

okay. i think i may as well just stop writing blogs now. every time i do, everything comes out wrong and people think things that i didn't intend for them to think.

so here is one last blog, for me to try and rectify what i started.

a) i was annoyed because we had so little time left and hadn't even done a full run through. i so badly want you guys to do well, but its hard to believe that you will when i haven't seen you do it. however, yesterday basically changed all of that. i've seen that we can do it without constantly calling for prompts, or forgetting when to come on. it's just i hadn't seen it at that point and didn't know if it was going to happen. now i know that you can do and i can honestly say that i think you will do well.

b) you're stressed. i'm stressed. i don't handle stress well. i wrote my last blog to get all that crap out of my head, in case i exploded during a rehearsal. i tried to make it focus on the way I was feeling, not a reflection on you. i even got someone to read it through before i posted so that it didn't look like an attack at you guys. apparently i failed.

c) i don't believe that i have criticised anyone behind their backs. just to clear up a specific issue as mentioned in a comment, any hand stitching looks crappy next to machinestitching, and that was what i meant. not that yours looks crappy. i didn't even know who'd sewn that bit until just recently. also, worrying that someone might make a mistake is not synonymous with actually believing that they will make the mistake.

d) i know i've been seen to be very unappreciative of help that has been offered me. believe me, i appreciate it. my initial irritation about it was due to uncertainty about my role in relation to yours. after that was cleared up for me, i thought that you wanted to help and so i found things for you to do, also changed my designs to incorporate things you suggested to me. **this is the place where i would put an example, but i think that would be bitchy so i won't**.

e) holly, i'd really like to speak to you about my blog, and your comments. there's a lot that needs to be said and i don't think it should be said here.

f) i've been very reluctant to make any comment on what i see ms mace doing on my blog, simply because she is marking us and i'm afraid if i write something that she sees as negative that will affect her marking. but after those comments, i feel this needs to be said. all through the rehearsal period ms mace has been concentrating her efforts on the actors. she is the director and obviously needs to be there to direct, but there have been times that i have wanted/needed to speak to her about something, and it was extremely difficult to find time to speak to her when every rehearsal is spent on the actors. i know that ms mace is the teacher and knows what she is doing, as she's taught year 12 drama before and we haven't, but sometimes it seems like when i need her for something, that i am so much less important than the actors. so, i'm not saying i want her to watch me "put together a costume stitch by stitch", but it would be nice sometimes to have her undivided attention for things that rely on her intent. or even knowing what to say in our presentation. i hate to say this, but really none of knew what we were supposed to talk about until the friday that we showed you guys, ergo couldn't prepare probably.

g) you have a lot of work to do for your onstage roles. it is stressful and hard for you. i can understand that. but from where i am sitting, it doesn't look like it. that is all i was trying to say in my blog. you probably thought i wasn't doing anything either cause for ages all i did was sit around at rehearsals and watch. and that probably irritated you just as much as it irritated me. i thought i had made it clear in my blog that it was my perception of this lack of work that was the issue, not saying that you didn't do any work.

h) i actually had no idea how much work this role would be when i chose it. the reason i chose backstage was that i didn't believe i could do well at onstage because i hadn't done drama last year. not because i love sewing. it's because i don't believe i could do well at performing. if i didn't like performing, i would have picked some other subject. hence my stress at the revelation of how much work it would be. plus, i don't think any of you know this but i am so insanely jealous of all of you onstage. i wish i was good enough to do what you can, but i'm just not. EDIT: i was just about in tears writing that sentence. i'm telling you this so you can see what this actually means to me.

i) and because this blog has gone for so long with so much in between, i'd like to take this opportunity to repeat point (a) to ensure you haven't forgottten it.

i was annoyed because we had so little time left and hadn't even done a full run through. i so badly want you guys to do well, but its hard to believe that you will when i haven't seen you do it. however, yesterday basically changed all of that. i've seen that we can do it without constantly calling for prompts, or forgetting when to come on. it's just i hadn't seen it at that point and didn't know if it was going to happen. now i know that you can do and i can honestly say that i think you will do well.

so yeah. i guess i have a few people to speak to now. no drama today, i'll see if i can catch them before drama tomorrow.

bye.

let's get cynical, cynical!

okay. this is just a quick one. i advise you not to read it if you are easily disheartened. in fact, don't read it at all. i just need to get all this out of my system.

i know the idea is to be hyped up about this, because it's coming up soon and we have to think positive, but does anyone actually believe what they've written? everyone seems to have such high hopes for themselves and the play in general, and i'm generally of the opinion that the whole thing is going to collapse around our ears. maybe it's cause i'm just a pessimist (although i don't like to think of myself this way), or maybe it's because i'm so far behind in what i should be doing.

i know everyone is stressed and i am too. this probably isn't true, but right the way through our rehearsing i've felt that i've had so much more to do than anyone else (except bec). which would be very unfair. and its cause of this perception of how little you guys have to do (what? learn a few lines, remember where to stand, geez how hard can it be?) that i've been so snappy and bitchy. so yeah. that's kind of an explanation why. also, it kind of sucks to work for two or three hours making something, and then to be told that you don't like it. geddit?

and when you guys just rock up to rehearsals and you don't know your lines and spend so much time mucking around, when i've spend five hours the day before cutting and pinning and sewing, and i still have a presentation to prepare and costumes to finish, and i'm supposed to have a handle on all of your characters, and you only have to know about your own characters and even then it looks to me like you've done no work outside of school rehearsals, and the rehearsals are a waste of time for me because i get more done at home but i have to be there anyway, but putting in late nights and early mornings and tuesday-off-for-trinity-sunday sewing and freaking out about giving you things to sew because if you screw it up i lose marks, and my costumes are supposed to match your character but so many of you still seem to be developing your characters so how am i supposed to match something that doesn't fully exist yet and it's not fair cause you guys don't have anywhere near this much work and ms mace spends all her time with you lot and doesn't seem to know anything about what i'm doing or how time-consuming it is or how much it costs and i'm trying to be nice but when i'm thinking all this it's insanely hard to not run out of rehearsals screaming after ripping apart all the stitches.

so yeah. that's about what's running through my head every drama lesson. vous comprenez?

you're what?!

Right - new blog post. Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, and a five-hour rehearsal which I was unfortunately unable to be at. Because I was busy working. From what I've heard it was very productive - well done y'all.

Anyway, I also used yesterday to give out some costumes that need to be finished. I feel a bit mean getting people to do it, but I don't think everyone understands how long things take to make. For example, those simple pink leotards take about an hour for an experienced, skilled sewer to do. And that's without cutting or measuring. For me, they take closer to two hours. And thats the quick and easy stuff. So you see I'm spending several hours night doing this. And that's the reason I wasn't at school on Friday - I took a whole day off to sew. Of course, my Mum is helping a lot, as she is a lot quicker with the machine, and knows a lot of handy tricks. However, all the designs, pattern collation and fabric selection was done by me. Fortunately, most of the difficult stuff is over with now, and I just have to work on simpler things. The only hard part is adjusting patterns to fit people who are very different from the sizes I have access to.

So that was just an update on the kind of stuff I'm doing. I know I don't do much at rehearsals except for watching and thinking, but there's a lot of stuff I'm getting done at home.

And now you've seen a few of the costumes. I've checked most of them, and they all seem to fit (although there are like twenty more that need to be made), which is insanely good for me as I don't really have enough fabric to re-do anything. However, if anyone has any MAJOR problems please approach me, I'd rather know than have you sulking about something. But please please please don't make any changes to ANYTHING without talking to me about it, okay?


Anyway, that's all I have time for! See you guys later!

EDIT:: Memo to self. Look up role of costume designer in theatre, also role of costumes in expressionism, for presentation.

then comes the toast to right good cheer

Good evening, and thank you for tuning into AllyNews. This is Ally in the newsroom.

Hello folks, and on the recent costume front there has been some enormous progress. Our representative spent four and a half hours in Spotlight yesterday, scoping out the frontline. A significant amount of funding is going towards this project and we believe it is our duty as the highest rating news service in Australia to update you on the distribution of these funds. Large amounts of fabric have been purchased, with some items currently unavailable, such as feathers, or put in the 'too hard for now' pile, like sequins. And now let's cross to Ally with the weather.

Thanks, Ally. Things are a partly cloudy over here at the moment, as Capers is finished for the year and it will be another nine months before it starts again. However, our viewers have sent in many favourable reports and so the temperatures are expected to rise to a sunny maximum in the next few days.

And that's all we have time for. Tune in tomorrow for your daily dose of Allynews on channel A.

of shoes and ships and sealing wax

Well, I figured it was about time to write again, seeing as my last post was **shock-horror!** two weeks ago. I just thought I'd jot down what I have and haven't done, just so I can get a grip on exactly how behind I may or may not be.

Here's what I've done:
Drawn up original costume designs for all characters.
Redesigned and redone about half of them.
Given out first-draft costume sheets
Revised costume sheets for some characters
Collated patterns for costumes
Sent out sizing sheets
Put thought into modifying patterns for different sized people (oh woe is me to have all my patterns sized 10-14).


Here's what I still need to do:
Get back everyone's sizes
Copy out patterns & make changes to some of them
Buy fabric
Cut fabric
Put together the basic pieces
Embellish with sequins, appliquee etc.
Prepare 15-minute presentation
Fix any mistakes, or 'unforeseen circumstances'.

So it's apparent I really haven't got very far. But I'm going to Spotlight this Sunday to buy things, and then I can work on actually making the costumes.
There are a few items that I have considered as a part of costumes, but they kind of come under props. So I guess I'll have to get them, as they are not on Bec's prop list. Or I'll tell her what they are so she can work on it.

I'm also putting a little thought into Hair and Makeup. I know that this isn't my area, but for some characters, like the clowns, the costume really isn't complete without it.

Something else: I need to get some dressers, I think. I won't be able to help everyone to get their costumes on and off, and I think some people will need help.

Anyway, off I go to look at clown-faces. See you all in 4&5th lesson today. And once again I won't be able to be there after school, as I have to be in theatre for Capers. But that's only for this week and then its over, so that should be fine.

Love y'all.
xoxo


EDIT:: Just looked at makeup styles for clowns. And I'm putting this here so I don't forget it. Whiteface clowns should be painted white on their face AND all the way down their neck. Apparently they should also be covered all over by clothes. Which mean I need to put sleeves on my costume design. It says here that if the neck isn't painted, it will be assumed that the clown is going to mime. Which is obviously not the case as Victoria has lines.

title-less

First of all, I would like to apologise for my rather angry-sounding blog of a few days ago. It wasn't written to be attacking, and I realise that Ms Mace asked you to think about things like that, it's just that I don't want to go into my interview saying that someone else came up with all the ideas. So I'm sorry for sounding so angry. Really. Keep on doing it, it was just my little vent and I wasn't attacking anyone.

Onto less controversial matters....We had a production meeting today. We didn't get much done. Ms Mace did a lot of talking, Josh got up and did his bit (which meant we argued about copyright for ages), and I basically yelled at everyone. Fun times.

The lack of time that we have is really getting to me right now. I'll probably get over it soon, but I'm the kind of person who tends to do things at the last minute, and I don't want that to happen with this. So I'm kinda stressed - apologies in advance to everyone that I yell at. I don't mean it.

Love always,
Ally

don't think las vegas, think wild west!

**phew** My fingers ache from all the typing...just finished costume lists for (most) characters. But more on that in a sec.

Today and and yesterday we have been busily rehearsing scenes from Mirror Mirror. Well, everybody else has been busily rehearsing. I've been watching and frantically making notes on costume ideas for the scenes we've covered. I have to say though, I am finding costuming for the Mum and the Voice really difficult, so I don't have costume lists for those two (sorry girls).

My costume lists have taken me all night, but I think I'm just about happy with what I've done. You'll all get them tomorrow at our rehearsal, but here's a little rundown as to what I've done. I've made a list of every scene that you're in, and what character you are in that scene. Then I've detailed what I'd like you to provide, and what I will make. I know that there will probably be a lot of shuffling around, but I figure once I've got these lists into people's hands, I can begin collating patterns and starting cutting very soon.

Oh the excitement.