Day 9

jade necklace, forever 21 tank (my favorite), Bakers sandals, delia*s skirt that i bought way too long ago, awesome twist out that frizzed up in the Orlando humidity -__-

ick. i can't stand that watermark. currently trying to find the right collage maker....

My brother bought me a card reader for my digital camera so I can finally stop taking pictures on my webcam!

With that being said, I also have to start taking pictures before 10pm so that I can get good lighting. womp.

Day 9 was spent getting ready for the kids. We picked out more outfits based on their measurements. The men got sport coats--usually in a tweed, plaid, or solid, khakis, sweater vests or just sweaters, and then a pastel- colored blazer for formal attire, or just a black tux. some of the boys were teeny tiny and couldn't fit into the men's blazers, so we'll have to do some tailoring. Their chests were sometimes a 30 or 31, and the smallest we had were 36 (inches). We had to use a couple of different stocks, from places all over the area, to get enough blazers to fit these guys. My shoulders are currently feelin' the burn from having to reach up and pull blazers down from their hangers for hours. The costume shop is not made for  small people.

I didn't get to work on the women's outfits, but they were pulled daytime outfits that usually had a pleated full circle skirt that should reach just below the knees, and a short or long- sleeved button up. Some were just dresses with the same type of skirt. The girls' things take much longer to find, because dresses have to fit their chest, waist, and hip measurements. Guys can get away with ill- fitting things because they tend to be so boxey. Girls don't have such luck, and many of the dresses don't have elastic. Some of the girls, especially the larger one that I mentioned previously. All of her things will have to be hand- made. She was surprisingly cast as one of the main parts! I was surprised because she seemed so quiet and nervous, and also because she was larger than the part probably called for (Queen Latifah played it in the movie...but movies are much more accommodating). Oh, and I forgot to mention that she's playing Motormouth Maybelle...and she's not Black. I was slightly disturbed by this, but she is a Pacific Islander and fairly dark- skinned. I guess the few Black girls that tried out simply weren't good enough, or large enough. Two of the girls in the riot scenes are also not played by Black girls (they're not white either). For such a crucial part of the story, I would have liked for the serious tension on stage to seem all the more authentic by using actual Black girls vs. white girls. It's going to seem silly to have Black girls running around in the back as spectators when the Asian girl cast for the riot scenes is center- stage pretending to be Black. But I guess this is a "colorblind" production......

The boys were so easy to pick outfits for. They have such simple combinations--shirt, pants, tie, shoes, jacket. It's so fun to pick color combinations and play with patterns and shapes. I enjoyed being a costume coordinator for the day. It's much less stressful than being the costume coordinator at UNC and having less than 2 hours to run around the stock acting as designer, coordinator, and run crew. The pressure's off here, for now, and I can just enjoy being an intern and playing with other people's clothes haha.

The patterns will be cut over the next few days, and the cast will come up to the shop to have a fitting for the clothes we have already picked. I'm excited to see the kids in their costumes!