Back from the "Real" World

Sorry for my lack of posts lately. Life has been crazy. Osama the Hero ended up being a bit more work than I thought since it involved blood and there was no wardrobe person, so I had to do laundry after each show. But the show went well (with the exception of the small audiences...but everyone who saw it liked it). Here is a picture to show you how things turned out...

That shows the entire cast and all of the costumes. A pretty simple show, but really I wouldn't have wanted anything bigger to go along with my 40hr/week job. Overall, I was happy with how the costumes turned out, and the director seemed really happy with them. The performances took place in one of the small black box studios at the Athenauem theatre, which was a nice space to work in.

In other news, things at Steppenwolf are still going well. We just opened Love Song and we are currently in tech for the upstairs theatre show Love-Lies-Bleeding. We have also been working on costume for the upcoming Chicago Opera Theatre show, which has been very interesting since we got to work with designers from Austraila. On April 8th was the Steppenwolf Gala and Cotillion. The Gala is the theatre's big fundraiser of the year. I volunteered at the Gala, so I got to see Gary Sinise, the Sinise family (Gary looks just like his dad), Terry Kinney (Julia Stiles's dad in Save the Last Dance), and Jeff Perry (currently playing Meredith Grey's dad on Grey's Anatomy), as well as several other ensemble members (Malkovich was not there this year). I also got to meet Joan Allen (she introduced me to her daughter and then I carried her things to her table while she got ready for the ensemble introductions) in addition to Eddie Cahill and Carmine Giovinazzo (Gary's CSI:NY co-stars who I shared an elevator with and showed them where past production photos were so they could find pics of baby Gary and make fun of him). The decorations where spectacular. They basically set up a tent in the parking lot next to the theatre, but you would never guess you were in a tent. Below is a picture. It isn't a great picture, but it gives you an idea. If you look at the really bright part, that is the stage where Gary Sinise's band performed and the orange backdrop is acutally a wall of oranges (plastic, but still...that's a lot of oranges).

When I was done helping at Gala, I went across the street to Cotillion (aka Steppenwolf prom) where the party for the staff who couldn't go to Gala was. Basically it is just another reason for us all to get together and drink, but this time we got to dress up.

Other than that, not much else new. My apprenticeship is finishes on May 31st, but I am doing wardrobe for the garage show, The Sunst Limited, so I will be around Steppenwolf until mid June. I finally saw Rent live and loved it although I could not get over how tall the actor who played Roger was and how much taller he appeared in his plaid pants. He was a giant compared to everyone else onstage. This upcoming Sat. I am going to see Wicked, so I am excited about that. I finally have a little bit of free time back so I am hoping I get to rest more and continue my search for employment. And hopefully update this thing more.

I miss you all and send you my love!! Until later...