From a theatre colleague here in Chicago who's gearing up for DragonCon. She's hoping to find someone local, obviously, but it might be possible to work out the logistics with someone she can meet at the con. She knows it's a longshot, given that costumers going to DC are likely to be busy with their own stuff, but I told her I'd put it here and see what happened.

I'd commissioned a costume from someone who, owing to unexpected problems, is not going to be able to construct this costume for me. So, I'm scrambling to try and find someone else to take on this project.

The budget for this costume is about $175.  I have a basic design and the original costumer is willing to sit in on the initial meeting to talk specifics.  I realize the budget and the timeframe are both tight but if you know of anyone reputable who would be willing to work with me onthis, I think it could be a lot of fun and a great creative opportunity for him or her, particularly as they would have a free hand (within budget) with the fantasy elements.

I have no idea what the project is, but if you're intrigued and think it might be doable, holler and I'll hook you up by email.

Are awesome! We are here and here. Yay, Pixelbarrel!! (And if you haven't seen the video of the Doctors' presentation, go check it out. It's like a case study of how to do a group presentation right, and is completely hilarious.)

Also, yay Google blog search, for it brought me to shing_ and her fabulous con report with many photos, including a couple fantastic ones from during the masquerade presentation, which made this icon possible.

I really do promise to post more Polaris reportage (and pictures!), but can't guarantee that it will be before Shrew opens on the 26th. I'm not really worried that I won't have everyone dressed or anything, but it does mean there will be essentially zero free time (and possibly a short night's sleep or two) between now and then. If you hear from me, it'll probably be 'cause I'm on break at Office of Doom. (Speaking of which, how does three business days away translate to what seems like about two weeks' backlog???) Unless you come out to Villa Verone, 'cause a girl's still gotta sing.

See you on the flip side!

As I think I've mentioned, at least obliquely, I'm understudying the Widow in Shrew, because Kate is getting married one of the performance weekends, so the Widow is understudying Kate and it made sense to have me understudy her instead of trying to hire in another actor for a small role for one weekend.

So, as Murphy's Law would have it, I was asked last week to go to rehearsal tomorrow and Tuesday. And of course am heading for Toronto (or rather, the waystation known as my uncle's house in Detroit) Wednesday night. Ergo, today was packing day.

Costume stuff is as ready as it's going to get (it's not a proper costume unless the last details are finished at the hotel! *g*) and packed. Regular packing will take place Tuesday (since it's a telecommuting day) between work and rehearsal. Wasn't able to borrow the Hoffmann windup key, as I haven't had time for a voice lesson the last three or four weeks so I haven't seen Solange to ask for it. Is okay -- the last two clockdroid presentations went over fine without it -- but I was hoping.

Possibly will hit the hardware on lunch hour tomorrow to see if I can find anything that will read in a ballroom as a clockwork key, but not holding my breath. Got both wigs (red for Friday night's reception, blond for the masquerade) washed and set yesterday, thus avoiding a repeat of the last two clockdroid presentations, when the wig wasn't quite dry and there were a number of bobby pins involved in hiding the fact that the curls weren't quite doing what they were supposed to. (Note to self: pack hairspray.)

Also want to hit Hobby Lobby for a fan to go with the black-and-white ensemble for the vampire reception. Which looks pretty damn good if I do say so myself, despite having been thrown together in about four hours Friday night with highly safety-pin-intensive construction methods. ;-) How much do I love that bustle drapes look terribly impressive when in fact they are the easiest thing in the world to completely fudge?

Need to print flyers for thanatos_kalos' Who conference and label with LJ icon and username to put on my badge. Am thinking some combination of the above errands may get done in Detroit Thursday morning.

The rest of my Sunday evening? Is SO downtime...

A moment of silence for Satine (the car, not the courtesan), towed off this afternoon and donated to the Greater Illinois chapter of the Alzheimer's Association in memory of my grandpa. Would have been more appropriate for her predecessor, which actually started out as his car, but this works.

In an attack of temporary sanity, I have determined that having the polonaise (out of the silk my mom gave me after she used something else for her dress for my wedding) made for the "Victorian Vampire Reception" at Polaris is Simply Not Going To Happen. I did manage to get it cut out, at least, so when I do have time to pay proper attention to the construction, I have a head start. Maybe I'll make a goal of finishing it before the year is out, and figure out something to wear it to.

My brain is therefore busily spinning an alternative plan to jury-rig something around my existing Victorian corset (which is white, so I'm thinking in a black-and-white direction). I should be able to make use of a few things that have been languishing in the Scary Fabric Stash awaiting a purpose. It would probably take me longer to comprehensibly describe what I have in mind than it will to actually put it together, so you'll just have to wait until there are pictures. *evil g*

Finally found a source for the buckram teardrop-shaped Juliet cap I want for Bianca. I used to be able to pick them up at any fabric or craft store with a bridal department, but for the last three or four years nobody has stocked them. Bonus: Other handy hat forms on the same page that I haven't been used to finding easily in the past.

Posted for my own reference, and for fellow costumers who might find the link useful.

Got my panel schedule for Polaris, and one of them starts at 6 p.m. Saturday. The masquerade is, of course, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Green room check-in (including polaroids, so yes, you have to check in in costume) is from 2-6:30.

Thankfully, I therefore have a couple options for not having to actually do the panel in 40 pounds of Very Space-Occupying Clothing. One is to email the masq director and ask if we can do a late green room check-in. The other is to check in early, change, do the panel, and change back. I'll probably go with the latter, as I try to avoid making Them What's In Charge deal with more crap than they already are.

Either way, very very glad the clockdroid doesn't involve hair or makeup. Yay mask and wig!

darkmagess? Remind me I need to make specific plans for food to happen, or I'll be VERY sorry by about 7:30...

It's entirely possible I'm actually the last person to know this, but Farthingales now has a store in L.A. The stays for the clockdroid costume finally used up my stash of good plastic boning, but I haven't had occasion to order more until now, and wasn't looking forward to what's happened to the exchange rate in the interim. (That's going to be scary enough at the con next month.) Also, domestic shipping FTW! \o/

Have succeeded in quest to make pink_blasphemy into an andpuff fan (she's just finished Blood Trail and is about to start into volume 2 of the omnibus edition). \o/

This means it's only fair that I give a shot to Twilight, which I've been assiduously avoiding (unless you count cleolinda's epicly hilarious summaries). I should know this universe for the vamp powers panel at Polaris anyway, right? I'm fully expecting my experience to go something like this, but am determined to find the sparkly Twinkie fun. Having come to the conclusion that I was just never That Teenage Girl (which is not to say that I was entirely mature and rational by any means; I just wasn't that particular flavor of irrational), I'm taking it as a challenge.

What the heck. I can deal with Cathy and Heathcliff (albeit while wanting to beat the pair of them, particularly the former, roundly about the head and shoulders with a rubber chicken). I can deal with this, right?

Also need to try to get Evernight read, so that I can plug claudiagray knowledgably. Probably the wisest course is to reserve it at the Library of Awesome (reason #937 to love living in Elgin). I looked for it at Target the other night and had no luck, although there were two or three other YA vampire series. For all the conventional wisdom (for the last, oh, decade or so) that editors aren't looking at new vampire novels, there are certainly enough of them being published!

There is, of course, also Much Sewing (and, er, still a rather forbidding chunk of sketching) To Do. Kate and Petruchio need costumes for promo photo shoot next Thursday, then I swing into full production to get the show ready to go by the 26th. Plus a couple things in mind for Polaris. It is a happy thing to be working in the nice cool basement...

Yesterday I got around to taking advantage of GoogleApps, and switched my wiliqueen.com webmail over to the Gmail system. I've been using the wiliqueen@ Gmail account for everything for nearly four years now, with the valerie@wiliqueen addy forwarding to it. Now I've just reversed that, so nobody should notice any difference unless you're particularly observant and see that everything will be coming now with the reply-to as the latter. But I'm posting this just in case anyone encounters any hiccups.

Importing all my archived mail via POP was easy as pie, but four years' worth? Took all day and well into the night. %-} Man, do I send and receive a lot of email.

I know I've been a bit scarce lately; June is bustin' out all over. I got slots for about half the general season auditions I put in for, which isn't too bad. One down (Marriott), two to go (New World Rep and Adventure Stage Chicago), plus New Leaf sent out an email saying they're booked up but will try to squeeze in walk-ins if you want to give it a shot.

I will NOT send a resume to Bailiwick and try to convince them I can squeeze understudying Tell Me On A Sunday in around my other projects. Not.

Today I have the terrible burden of hitting thrift and fabric stores for Shrew, World of Faeries, and Polaris purposes. Woe, woe is me! *dramatic hand-to-forehead* (If I'm not back by midnight, send in the rescue dogs...)

Panels yay! I am slotted for the following:

( Big Damn Anti-Heroes )

( Dracula )

( How Did You Make That? )

( Lighty or Nighty? )

( Revamping Vampire Powers )

( Whedon's Witty Wordplay )

And I don't just mean the kind that happens onstage. Met with potential costuming assistant for Shrew, who is no longer potential. Got along like a house on fire, and she lives about five minutes away, thus relieving most of the usual logistical headaches of delegating. The fact that she doesn't just have sewing skills, but serious theatre costuming skills, pretty much relieves the rest. \o/

Now I really gotta get some sketches done before next meeting with director next week, as I would like to continue getting along with her like a house on fire...

Via ithildyn, this might just be the most dangerous link I've seen in ages.

Period textile books that come with swatches of modern fabrics for reference. ZOMG.

After a soul-suckingly hellacious couple of days in Corporate America, I submit the following Facts of My Tuesday:

• I remain happily up to my eyebrows in a fandom that has somehow managed to avoid descending into a snarling weasel-pit of shipwars. With a canonical triangle, yet. I have no earthly clue how this has happened, but I'm so not questioning it.
  
• It took five painless minutes and much less energy than it would have taken to run him through with my smallsword to submit an Angie's List report on the sewing machine repair guy from whom I finally got back my Bernina today after nine months. We loves Angie's List, yes we does, my preciousss.
  
• On a related note, I now have my Bernina again. neonhummingbird? We need to talk costumes soon if you're gonna have 'em for Worldcon.
  
• It was brought to my attention this morning :: kowtows in lizbetann's general direction :: that the 1982 Broadway revival of Camelot is FINALLY out on DVD.
  
• Cadbury's Creme Eggs are reliably and consistently yummy.
  
• Maureen O'Hara with a sword will never, ever not be cool.
  
• My "This way to the egress" mug (which each of the production staff received as a gift from the Barnum cast) is still made entirely of win.

So. For the first time in aaaaages, I think I might actually make it to an out-of-state con this summer. Possibly two. But not three. And I want to go to three. *sigh*

( The pros and cons of summer cons )

Just looking at the above, Doors Number One and Two seem to be carrying the most weight. If I have to bring it down to just one... I dunno. Other elements to consider: Shrew, as already mentioned. World of Faeries, for which I've been asked back as Unseelie Court, this time with no rehearsal commitment 'cause they know I know what I'm doing. Whatever might come up to audition for that I don't know about yet. And there's the rub that makes it tough to plan in general...

( Various audition adventures. )

On the other side of the resume, I'm now officially designing costumes for The Taming of the Shrew at Theatre-Hikes. Primary challenge will be realizing the director's commedia dell'arte concept without killing the actors, who will be hiking a total of two miles between scenes in August. Fortunately, she's experienced with them and well aware of that challenge and of the inevitable necessity of compromise. So that'll be fun. They actually asked me if I was interested in doing Dracula too, but I'm not keen on committing to designing two shows in a row when I have no idea what's going on with me performingwise. Plus, it's the John Balderston/Hamilton Deane adaptation, which I dislike quite a lot even though it's the basis for most of what people know (i.e. both the Lugosi and the Langella movies).

Okay, so on Fandom Wank (yes, I still skim it occasionally, despite its being primarily a morass of petty pointlessness), there's a post about some wankfest erupting from a post by some guy who was all indignant about seeing the actor playing Flotsam in The Little Mermaid on Broadway sitting outside the stage door in partial costume, smoking.

The wankfest is perfectly understandable, because the OP is all "ZOMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!111!!" and has of course set off the standard smoking-debate hobbyhorses.

However, not a single person in two pages of FW comments makes what I immediately keyed in on as the relevant point: Anyone caught smoking in costume should be summarily shot.

Sadly, that's neither legal nor feasible. But generally speaking, they'll WISH they had been when the wardrobe mistress gets through with them...

Thing What I Have Learned This Weekend: Going to a con with 18 hours' notice (up to and including participating and taking Best in Show in the masquerade) can in fact work out quite well.

If, of course, (a) said con is taking place forty minutes from one's house, (b) one remembers where one put away the nine zillion pieces of the already-existing costume one intends to present in the masquerade, (c) one actually manages to pack all said nine zillion pieces in one's car (despite forgetting one's camera), (d) one runs into old friends like jennetj and new friends like maiac who give one a bit of a focus for one's rather hyper and scattered brain, and (e) new friends like maiac are kind enough to volunteer their hotel rooms as changing space so one is not reduced to wrestling with pocket hoops in a very small public restroom. (Not enough gratitude in the world.)

It also helps to have friendly and entertaining guests like Tanya Huff; a dealer's room chock-full of tempting pretties (to which I did not succumb); a hotel full of smart, creative and free-spirited people to chat with or just watch go by; nifty and interesting panel topics; and a nearby Chipotle.

Definitely the ol' general interest con experience I've been missing, if a bit condensed into one day and lacking the late-night silly fun to be had when staying in the hotel.

And okay, a whole new crop of people oohing and ahhing over the clockdroid isn't bad for the ol' ego either. :-)

Every year since I moved here, I've told myself "I really must keep track of when this WindyCon is, because I haven't been to a nice general-interest con in ages, and that's the one that's close."

So how did I manage to miss that it's this weekend? And that Tanya Huff is the author GoH? *headdesk*heaaddesk*headdesk*

Oh, right. I think it has something to do with being a trifle busy the last several months. Too damn many lives at once...

I'm fairly certain I'm crazy enough to pop over there tomorrow and buy a one-day membership at the door. I might be crazy enough to do the masquerade, even though I haven't made any of my intended tweaks to the clockdroid costume, or steamed it, or done a CD with the ideal-length cut of the Doll Aria, or printed any references for judges who might not know the source, or set the wig because it's all wilted since last year... (Also, Barbara Wright is a crazy person. Running two masqs two weeks apart???)

Even with no notice, this really works out better for me than Chi TARDIS, which I'd already 90% decided not to do this year, what with the in-laws here for Thanksgiving, etc.

Blast it, if I'd just twigged to this a day or two sooner. Arg.