Rehearsal report.

So we're three weeks from preview, and tonight is the night of costume fitting.  As someone who worked in a costume shop for two years, this is one of the real magic moments or tense moments of the production process.  It's magic if the designer is on the same wavelength with the director and actors, and all of a sudden people are transformed into their characters.  It's extremely tense if the designer has a different vision than the direction the production is going in,  and you can read the disappointment on an actor's face when she hates a costume.

Tonight's going well.  Most of the pieces are a good fit with these actresses, and the ones that aren't are quickly falling to the wayside.  I've been on all sides of this particular negotiation and it's really tough.  As the designer, you know you've looked a hundred places for that particular purple shirt, in that size, and it is more than a bit frustrating when one of the actresses doesn't fit into that perfect piece.  As the actress, it absolutely sucks to wear costumes that don't fit and try to adjust yourself through posture to make it work, whether it's too-small (too-pointy, too-big, too-tiny-heeled) shoes or too-big jeans with a crappy belt.  It's even worse when whatever the costume is fits you exactly as intended, but you feel like you look awful in it and don't agree with the designer's intention.  Perhaps the worst role in this set of negotiations belongs to the director, who has to read both the heart of the designer and the faces of her actors in order to say what stays and what has to change.  Me? I'm the stage manager, I just take notes so everyone remembers what's been decided.  No dog in this fight.

I love that this part comes early in this process compared with the sets and lighting.  Tech week begins for us on February 8, and between negotiating the moving of furniture, lighting and sound cues, and the addition of the real actual props (now with liquid!), it is SO GOOD to have the costumes worked out in advance.  This play has 23 short scenes and thus has roughly 21 quick costume changes for one actress who's in almost every scene.  The more I can map out in advance in terms of who is wearing what when, the easier tech weekend will be in terms of mapping the 22 transitions between scenes.  

Did I mention that there are roughly 11 different locations in the script?  Set shifting is going to be fun...but the production is in a rather minimal style so it will definitely all work out.  The play's events are not in chronological order, which may prove challenging for the audience. The trick is to provide just enough visual information to set each scene without cluttering up the stage with unnecessary stuff that takes forever to get on and off, thus bogging down the scene transitions.  I'll keep you posted on (if?) how we pull it off.