WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 158

 

Another rick rack wearing lady. And sequin belt. 

No idea where she's from, any guesses?

I've been under the weather and the real weather has been pretty awful....hot, humid, rain, repeat. Staying indoors playing video games and watching Twin Peaks. See you in 25 years? Well, it's been 25 years, Laura Palmer.

I may have some news in a short while, stay tuned

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 157

 

Another pretty doll from my sister-in-laws collection

Misstress of the side eye? Could have something to do with her odd left arm. Yeah, she standing on the heater temp regulator.

 

 

GOODBYE PSST 2015

 

Another summer stock season has come and gone. We struck the last show on Sunday. It's always bittersweet, happy to have a successful season over, sad to be having new friends leave and go on to the next chapter. Here are the last photo from 2015. The production photos were taken by our awesome lighting designing, Genny Wynn and the others by the cast and crew.

The second show of the season was  Always....Patsy Cline. Based on a true story of a long time friendship between Patsy Cline and a fan named Louise. Two actors and an on stage country band. Lots of Patsy Cline songs.

 

 The band.

 Louise and Patsy meeting for the first time at a roadhouse. I made Patsy's dress and jacket.

 Patsy's finale dress, which I also made. It has tiny rhinestones which aren't showing up in this photo.

 Ashley Rose was Patsy Cline and Rebekah Matheson was Louise. Rebekah is a graduate for VSU Theatre and Dance and teaches  English at a local high school. She also played the some role 15 years ago at Jekyl Island Musical Theatre Festival. Ashley Rose is one of our Equity actors this summer. The handsome fellow in the middle is Tyrell Ruffin, VSU class of 2015 and was the Scarecrow in The Wiz, spring 2015.


The third show was The Little Mermaid, I've posted some photos already, here's the rest.

 The Mersisters and Flounder "She's in Love". Left to right: Caroline Hatchett(soon to be Dr. Hatchett), Sarah Wildes Arnett, in the front Laurie Sutton, John Laurent Dean, in the back Audrey Moore, Larren Woodward and Heather Priedhorsky

 The Pretty Princess singing contest. I tricked out the store bought corsets and hemmed, by hand, the skirts. Hmm, not sure what's happening with the green one. Left to right: Audrey Moore, Tyrell Ruffin, Caroline Hatchett, Matty Hogan, Caitlin Miller, Wendell Hester, Michael Hegarty wearing the coat I made, Haley Aguero, Brandon Chandler, Heather Priedhorsky, Dillon Stewart and Hannah R. M. Findlay

 "Under the Sea" fish. Sarah Wildes Arnett and Laurie Sutton. Because they "swim" the shoes actors wear are a roller skate called Heelies. They have a wheel in the heel that let's the actors "swim".

 Ariel and the seagulls. Cassidy Dangler, Larren Woodward, Wendel Hester, Olin Davidson, Holli Smith, Laurie Sutton, Sarah Wildes Arnett, Matty Hogan

 Ariel"swimming" up to the surface, with her sisters

 Larren Woodward modling her mermaid costume. Kenan Burchette made the shells.

 Kenan and Abby at the after party.

Abby Vincent and DeAnne Keys our stage managers for the seasons. Without the both of them, we would have been clueless. Three cheers for stage mangers!

The shows have been struck, the costumes have been laundered or sent to the dry cleaners, the shops cleaned up, the cast and crew have moved away, the season is over. The best season so far is over! Yeah for sold out shows, rave reviews and happy audiences. Who knows what next summer will bring?

 

 

THEATRE OR TREASURE? TREASURE WINS

 

Thrift store shopping is so much fun. Like you guys don't know that already. After I got done with PSST and before my vacation, I popped over to the Catholic Charities St Frances  Thrift. Hadn't been in for awhile and I picked the right week....all the clothes were 50cents. 

 Spent about $8 for all this. The orange fabric is a vintage table cloth and the crosstitch table runner were regular price ($3 and $2) A dinner jacket, 1970's dress pretending to be from the 40's, homemade 70's dress, cute blouse and a small floral try for my sister-in-law.

When I vacation I love to check out the local thrift stores. I always find awesome things in Charlotte.

 Vintage trench coat for the Doctor and that's not a fur coat, it's corduroy! That's for me.

 Coffee, anyone? The coffee maker is in beautiful condition. The mask has no labels. Let's pretend it's real and from Africa and not TJMaxx.

 This whole pile was from the Goodwill Outlet. A pretty afghan,  2 vintage jackets for the Doctor (the one on the left is suede) a Chinese top, dress shirt, ditsy print shawl, Korea scarf, another homemade 70's dress and 2 ties. The BFF tossed in a couple of purses. She does love the purses. They are at her house.

 Game of Thrones themed tie?

 The Doctor got a San Francisco 49er's hat, if he can get it away from Roxy.

We also went to Value Village on South Blvd

Chinese-style bathrobe(going to be outwear), golden jacket, Ellen Tracy scarf, and a tie. I have magic powers: I said that morning I wanted to find a pair of silver princess shoe with lucite heels. Yep, found a pair. The green shrug was too pretty to leave behind even thought it's too small....it was $3.

Tomorrow is the last day of PSST 2015. The past three weeks of shows have been sold out. That makes me very happy. And it makes all of us who love and work in live theatre happy. Nobody in theatre gets upset if you call them "sell outs". 

SUMMER VACATION

Because of unexpectedly working for a month, I had to move my mini-vacation from 4th of July weekend to last weekend. Such is life.

 

This state of Georgia seal is at a roadside rest. Yes, Georgia has been a state since 1776. It started out as a prison colony, like Australia, and was the 4th state admitted to the Union. The colonial history of the South is often forgotten.

 

I went to visit my BFF in South Carolina on the day the governor signed a bill removing that flag from the state house lawn. 2015 and South Carolina finally admits they lost.

I've talked about Goodwill Outlet stores before. Here's what the one in Charlotte, North Carolina looks like. Some people yelp that the stores are "dirty", no this one is clean. It's on Freedom Drive if you're interested. And it's $1.39 a pound. I'll show you what I found later.

Who know Rock Hill, South Carolina would have a really good French cafe. Here it is......

It's called Amelie's, like the movie. And is in an old bank downtown. Wishful thinking that anybody would be sitting at the outside tables, it was tres hot that day.

Love the light made of pots and pans.

Yummy French pastries.

And a Love Locks fence. I don't think this one will fall down anytime soon. That one next to the red one is my BFF's and mine.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern  Art had an exhibit called The Art Books of Henri Matisse, so we went.

This awesome statue by Niki de Saint Phalle is outside, and the best thing about the place.

A view of the lobby painting from the second floor

I liked the bathroom. 

The Art Books where that, pages from art books framed.

My sad faced BFF who wanted to see real Matisse's. Not, in her words: "Pages from a book I can buy on Amazon"

Cheer up, Bestie! We got cool museum pins.

Then she got attacked by a creepy statue.

 

So that was disappointing. But........

There was a few real Giacometti's.

So that sort of made up for the disappointment.

Went I finish taking photos of all the treasure I found, that will be up soon. And I finally have the production photos from PSST that I was missing. So stay tuned for more theatre!

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 156

 

In honor of yesterday being Bastille Day, she could be French

or not.

Had a lovely little vacation visiting my BFF. When I got home my (new) dropbox account was full of production photos. You know what that means: we'll be diving back under the sea. Not being a fan of what Disney does to fairy tales, cleans them up to make them safe for the kids, it is fun to work on them. In real life I'm NOT going to make a 2-piece sequin boned bodice with a fish tail skirt to wear around town. So bare with me on the next post.

Speaking of my vacation, I took photos this time. 

later!

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 155

 

Let's go to Asia. No clue as to what country this beautiful lady is from.  I wonder if the fabric for her top was special made for dolls? She's pretty little and so is the pattern. Most regular fabric's pattern would be overwhelming.

Finished up my part of summer stock on Friday, went to the party and rested all day Saturday. I'm waiting for the photos of the finished productions, so stay tuned.

 AS PROMISED, SOME PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW

I haven't gotten the production photos yet, these are some publicity shots and backstage hijinks.  The show was Disney The Little Mermaid (not Hans Christian Anderson's)

 The Mermaid herself.  Holli Smith.

 King Triton and Sebastian, (Herb Porter and Drew Coleman).

Ariel and Flounder,( John Laurent Dean)

Someone's friend made a photo collage! Sebastian with a prince (Tyrell Ruffin) Ursula (Barbara Dare Thomas*) with Flotsam and Jetsam (Brian Bruno and Chris Hallows) Ariel's sisters and father (Sarah Wildes Arnett, Larren Woodward, Heather Priedhorsky, Herb Porter, Laurie Sutton,  Audrey Moore, Caroline Hatchett) Ariel and Prince Eric, (Britton Hollingsworth)

Olin Davidson as Scuttle the seagull

 Mermaid and a pretty princess, (Sarah Wildes Arnett and Hannah R. M. Findlay)

Another pretty princess,( Caitlin Miller).  There's 4 more princesses that I don't have photos of.

Ursula with Flotsam and Jetsam. I made her skirt and bodice, Kenan Burchette built the wig and Zach West made her tentacles. The shell was made using a 3D printer .

The costume in the mock up stage. It was way easier to sew muslin than sequin fabric! I found sequin stuck to my knee one morning while I was showering.  The Prince, Grimsby and Ariel at the palace.

The coat I made for Grimsby ( Micheal Hegarty)

* Barbara Dare Thomas is our Equity actor.