WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 209

Back in June I first posted this doll, then realized it was a pretty crappy photo. Here's a re-do.

Much better than glare off the plastic front of the box.

"Don't mess with my Mom!" Watch out, Cersi, she coming for you!


I lied, here's one last photo from PSST. The wedding dress Clark made and finally posted a photo. That's the lovely Heather McCall wearing it. The train is insane. And the veil is 31 feet long.

So long that Clark had to work in the hallway. It's in 2 parts: the first part is attached to a headband and is shoulder length.  The second part is 6 yards of fabric cut in half, lengthwise, then sewn together, gathered onto a band and snapped to the dresses shoulders. She wears it down a staircase. I order to not get caught on everything backstage, it lived in a laundry basket and was feed out behind her by a couple of bridesmaids. but guess what? It still got some rips. That's life on the wicked stage.

That's it on summer.

YOU CAN STAND ANOTHER SUMMER STOCK POST, RIGHT?

The weekend of July 16-17th was the closing shows for PSST 2016.  Here's the last batch of photos. On to Fall Semester.

 Me and Kailah Gordon at the Secret Santa party. Kailah was our company manager and a VSU Theatre major.

 Christopher Taylor in his dancing fork costume for "Be Our Guest", and Tsung-Ju Clark Yang as the Awesome Wardrobe Head. (he's also my school year student assistant)

 From Ring of Fire. I made the "Minnie Pearl" hat. Chance Wall and Ashlee Dutson

 I lovely montage (Heather McCall made it). "Sweet n Low Down", "Delishious"

 Another montage made by Heather, she was very funny as the modern dancer/girlfriend. The "Delishious" number takes place in the bubble bath and me spent lots of time making bubbles.

Here's some photos the cast took in their bubble costumes. We used clear plastic Christmas ornaments. They were painted and sprayed with glitter paints, then tied together with elastic, then sewn into a "necklace" that was snapped onto nude leotards. That way the leotards could be washed. They wore matching "swim caps". The 4 fellows in the number were really happy with the outfit.....haha.

We had a wonderful cast and crew, so many talented kids! I wish them all the best of luck in their future endeavors. As always, the production photo were taken by Genny Muncy and the backstage ones are by the people in them.

  

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 208

Still have a touch and go internet connection. The company is coming by tomorrow to check everything. They keep calling about the appointment. Yes, come out. 

What do you think of this naked doll? Male? Female? Who cares? Probably from the late 40's. Painted on hair and shoes, because bare foot is just wrong!

I've probably collected enough photos for another PSST post. Backstage hi-jinx and some show photos. We had an awesome season this summer. No clue as to next summer's shows. Looking forward to hearing about that. I'm still in organizing  mode. It never ends.

BEAUTY and THE BEAST CLOSED TODAY

Here are some show photos, which were taken by Genny Muncy

 Belle and her father (Megan Wheeler and John Payonk)

Belle and Gaston (Jonathon Brian Furedy)

The company singing "Gaston"

Babette (Sarah Wildes Arnett) Lumiere (Olin Davidson), Maurice, Chip (John-Laurent Dean), Mrs. Potts (Ashlee Dutson) and Cogsworth (Alejandro Gutierrez)

Yep, that's a real little boy in the teacup. He has a bench to sit on while his in the teacart.

The Beast ( Payton Crim) and Belle.

In the library

Mrs. Potts, Babette, and Madame de la Grande Bouche (Heather McCall)

photo by Rebekah Odell-Mathison 

A friend's little girl loved meeting Belle. We have a fancy new curtain to take photos in front of. The other side says "Valdosta State Theatre and Dance)


I took some backstage costume shots. How does an actor wear a chest of drawers? And sing and dance in it?

It's built around a harness and wooden frame work, and lots of padding. The clock that Cogsworth wears is made the same way.

 Here it is, resting between shows.

Mrs. Potts teapot costume just hanging around.

When the chest of drawers turns back into a human, she wears this, which was too big for the cubby and needed it's own space.

Tomorrow is the last show of the season, then strike and on Monday all the out of town cast and crew will be gone. It's also a sad time when that happens. We had a very good season this summer, lots of sold out or almost sold out shows and a good, hard working company. It's hard to believe that in a month fall semester will start and I'll be working on 3 new shows. 

WHAT HAPPENED?

Where was Weird Doll Wednesday? Pick one:

1: I'm lazy

2: internet connection issues.

Yes, internet connection issues. All day yesterday. We thought it was fixed, guess not. 

I'm posting this from my work computer which is why there are no photos. All my photos are on my home computer.

Fingers crossed that this problem gets fixed today.

Until next time.

ONE WEEK LEFT, HERE'S SOME PHOTOS FROM THE SEASON

First up (the second show) RING OF FIRE. It's called a "jukebox" show because it's 31 songs that Johnny Cash either wrote or made famous.

 This is from the opening number when the cast all introduce themselves by saying "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash". They each tell the story, through songs, about Cash's childhood and early days. The first act is his early life, the second is after fame and fortune. That's Chance Wall, who was Pippin in our musical in the spring of 2013

 Here's the rest of the cast from left to right: Payton Crim, Chance Wall, Olin Davidson, Ashlee Dutson, Megan Wheeler, Heather McCall and Alejandro Gutierrez.You may remember Megan as Mary Poppins from 2014. And Olin played Bert in that show and last year was Scuttle in The Little Mermaid.

ACT II, after fame and fortune.

 The men singing the "prison" songs: Orleans Parish Prison, Folsom Prison Blues, A Boy Named Sue. What's your favorite Johnny Cash song? Mine is Ring of Fire.

The third show is Nice Work...If You Can Get It. It's a collection of Gershwin songs strung together as a love story involving a playboy, a female bootlegger and her gang, an anti-booze Duchess, her bother a Senator, his daughter the playboy's girlfriend and a Long Island estate. Hi-jinx abound

 And SHOWGIRLS!!!!!!!!! Opening number at the speakeasy, Sweet and Lowdown.

 Chance Wall and Megan Wheeler as Jimmy Winter and Billie Bendix. Or Pippin dancing with Mary Poppins.

Jimmy doesn't look to happy that Cookie (Alejendro Gutierrez) is dancing with Eileen Evergreen (Heather McCall)

 The Duchess Estonia Dillworth (Jacque Wheeler, our artistic director, director of Beauty and the Beast, the area head of the theater program and Megan Wheeler's mother!) Will she find the 400 cases of bootleg gin in the basement? Will Jimmy marry Eileen or Billie? Will Cookie and Duke find love? Will we find out who the real boss of the bootleggers is? Hi-jinx abound!

 Two of the showgirls posing backstage. Jeanne Schwenck and Sarah Wildes Arnett. Sarah is one of our dance faculty, dance captain, choreographer for Ring of Fire and teaching an on-line class. We like to keep busy around here.

When the cast isn't on stage they have other duties(besides posing for photos) This is the scene change assignments for Nice Work.  All that stuff on stage doesn't move itself on and off, although that would be cool. So, between  singing and dancing, remembering lines and costume changes, the cast has to remember to move a chair, bring on a pillow, set a hand prop on a table. Show biz is a lot of work.

Hope you enjoyed a tiny glimpse into summer stock. I'll try to get some more photos from Nice Work. Next up Beauty and the Beast.

Photos: production shots by Genny  Muncy or Paul Levy

               backstage by me or the cast members

 

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 207

Let's take a break from those GoT dolls.

 Not sure what country she's from, by the long blond braids my euro's on north Europe. But who knows? The black lace on her head reminds me of Spain.

Just got back from a short vacation. It was CRAZY HOT. Stay inside and binge watch TV shows with your best friend hot. We did get to a couple of thrift store ( take that weather!) Didn't find much, but it was fun.