Miss Merrimack

USITT 2010

Are you planning on attending USITT's 2010 National Conference? This is a great year to go, being USITT's 50th anniversary! We'll be there (meaning, several of us from the UNC-CH Costume Production MFA program), and there are a few special events I want to give advance notice on, in which we'll be participating.

The Costume Commission Poster Session is the primary juried competition specifically for theatre costume production innovators at the USITT conference (as opposed to the other competitions like Design Expo for designers in all areas, or Tech Expo for production artists in all disciplines). It's sponsored by the Costume Design and Technology Commission. According to their official blurb, the mission of the Costume Design and Technology Commission is to provide costume design and production practitioners with opportunities to share ideas, to exchange information, to develop professionally and to impact on the future welfare and development of those in our field.

Here's what the CD&T Commission says about the poster session:

At every Annual Conference & Stage Expo as many as twenty scholars and professionals present their posters, each illustrating an innovative or imaginative design or construction technique, a solution to a problem, a classroom or management technique, the results of research, or other ideas, discoveries, or developments in the field of costuming. Poster presentations are widely accepted as meeting the requirements for scholarly publication. Poster presenters also have the opportunity to publish their work in the USITT journal Theatre Design & Technology.

Both myself and Randy Handley (aka handyhatter) had our abstracts accepted to present at the poster session this year!

My presentation will be on the parasol canopy and frame alteration innovations developed for the "Wall of Roses transform into Apple Trees" effect in PlayMakers' production of The Little Prince and its subsequent remount. Because we remounted the show, i had the rare opportunity to refine and streamline the modifications developed the first time around, and perfect the transforming canopy effect. Shanna Parks, a second year masters candidate, served as my crafts assistant on the remounted production last year and assisted in the construction of the final design; she will be a co-presenter at the session with me. Randy's presentation will be an in-depth look at his costume production management database program CAPS (Computer-Aided Paperwork System), for tracking and sorting all the documentation required for costume production, from fitting requests to measurement sheets to tech notes. We've been advised to expect an audience for our presentations of between 200-250 conference attendees. If you're at USITT this spring, drop by and check it out!

Another event i'm really looking forward to is the Member Author Signing session, at which i'll be signing copies of Sticks in Petticoats. I've sent off a review copy to Theatre Design and Technology magazine as well, so hopefully that'll be some advance input about the book from someone besides, you know, the author.


Carnegie Mellon's New Costume Production MFA Program

The ranks of costume production focus MFA programs have just expanded to a dirty dozen! We're glad to welcome Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, to the shortlist of schools offering a production-only focus. Here's the text from the official announcement:

Faculty and Staff members in the Costume Area including Barbara Anderson, Susan Tsu, Brian Russman, and Ken Chu are excited to offer a unique program that seeks to educate students who are sensitive to the interplay between artist and artisan. Our goal is to educate individuals who will be an integral part of the increasingly globalized theatre, television and film communities. We believe in flexibility and collaborative effort and are committed to producing innovators, thinkers, practitioners; artisans who can communicate as intelligent and conducive members of a team.

We are pleased to provide a broad ranging program that emphasizes the development and synthesis of skills including draping, flat patterning, tailoring, fabric painting and dyeing, jewelry creation, millinery, management and mask making, while allowing for investigation in fields of personal interest. All of this is in conjunction with training in the essentials of the world of Costume Design allowing for a wide connection to the theatre community. We encourage self-expression and seek to provide students with a great span of knowledge that will allow further self-exploration.

Join us in forging new territory as we undertake the adventure of marching toward the world of the future in Costume Production.

For more information please contact:

Brian Russman, Assistant Professor of Costume Production
brianr-at-andrew.cmu.edu / 412.268.3648

Pretty exciting! I think it's so new they don't even have a live webpage for it yet, as i couldn't find any link on the CMU Drama Department site about it. Once they have a linkable URL up and running though, i'll be adding them as the twelfth program on my list of links to costume production focus MFA programs in the US.


Kaitlin Fara's Fin de Siecle Clocked Stocking Pattern Published

Remember Kaitlin Fara's fin de siecle clocked stocking pattern she created for one of her footwear projects? Kaitlin researched stocking trends and knitting patterns of the period and, utilizing several obfuscatively-notated period knitting patterns, created a reproduction, transcribing her process into a written knitting pattern that can be read by knitters accustomed to modern knitwear pattern conventions and notations.

Over the break, she published the pattern on Ravelry.com, where it can be purchased for $2.99. (You do need to be a Ravelry member to purchase/view it; if you aren't but would like to be, request an invitation here.) Exciting!

I'm so proud when my students go the extra mile for publication of their work like that, and now, anyone who might need to knit turn-of-the-century clocked stockings has an extant publicly-available resource!


PRC Company Member Kenneth P. Strong

My final bit of news is one of care and concern. PlayMakers patrons and Triangle area theatre enthusiasts will remember the many thrilling performances of our dear company actor, Kenneth P. Strong, who in my time here has portrayed "The Aviator" in The Little Prince, and "Cleon/Helicanus" in Pericles, among many other memorable roles. Ken has bravely battled glioblastoma brain cancer for four(!) incredible years; over the holiday break, he entered a local hospice. Those who would like to leave him a message, well-wishes, and so forth, may sign his guestbook, here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kennethstrong1/guestbook

There is also an option to read updates on his condition, via the main journal that has been set up here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kennethstrong1

Ken taught many many undergraduates as a professor here in the Department of Dramatic Art, and after his diagnosis, would tell them about his condition, his struggle with the cancer, and then would say to them that if they wanted to do something to help, to tell him a joke, because "laughter is the best medicine." If you want to leave a note for him but are unsure what to say, a joke is a good bet.

Ack, I've been hunting around LA for some place who'll put Keyhole Buttonholes into garments with little success.

In NY I knew exactly where I could take things...

This came through the departmental listserv, and I know it'll be of interest to some of you, particularly undergraduates wanting to build their resumes. It's a great way to connect with a whole bunch of DC arts organizations all in one big event!


Washington, DC 3rd Annual Internship Fair for the Arts
Monday, February 15, 2010
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Harman Center for the Arts
610 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004
(near the Gallery Place/ Chinatown Metro station)

Sponsored by:

Arena Stage
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Class Acts Arts
Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Theatre
Ford's Theater
Live It Learn It
National Building Museum
Olney Theatre Center
Opera Guild of Northern Virginia
Round House Theatre
Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Studio Theatre
Synetic Theater
Theater J
Tudor Place Historic House and Gardens
Washington National Opera
Washington Performing Arts Society
Wolf Trap Foundation
...and other participants

Positions:

• Arts Management
  
• Artistic Technical
  
• Community Outreach
  
• Graphic Design
  
• Media Relations
  
• Production

Questions? E-mail sjameson-at-shakespearetheatre-dot-org

( best moments of 2009 )

I've experienced both the worst grief and some of the most joyful moments of my life this year. I've been tempted to say "Fuck 2009, on with the new", but I wonder if I'm wrong to treat each year as if it could be encapsulated by a single sentiment. A lot has happened. I've done a lot. I've gotten my Associates, started at a four year college, stood up for myself in a lot of ways, learned a lot of very difficult lessons, hurt people, been extremely hurt, rode on a plane by myself, bravely and stupidly met the person I fell in love with, got a B in Biology, chopped off 12 inches of my hair, found out how incredibly kind people can be, and lost one of the people I loved most in this world. 

If there is one sentiment that COULD encapsulate 2009, it's that I will certainly never forget it. 

My goals are to be kinder, become brave, and be more self-sufficient. And to write more music. 

GOALS: SMELL BETTER


I REALIZED I HAD THE LJ CUT TITLED BEST MOMENTS OF 2010 THIS WHOLE TIME WHAT A DUMBASS

i'm preparing a sales post and i'm back and forth about this skirt.  i got it from ITS last year.  if i keep it, i'll be buying more of the fabric and making it into a jsk.  the print is cute, but skirts just don't work on me (and it's a bit too big in the waist which doesn't help).

(click it if you need to see it larger)

or should i sell it and move on to something else?  especially given that i already have a dress i made with a fairly similar print (on the right, below -- animals instead of red riding hood, but the colors are so close)?

First post of the decade!

This spring, the graduate course i teach will be Masks and Armor. Because of the way some course-offering rescheduling has shaken down, I haven't taught the course since 2007. The last time i taught it, I recall that the students struggled with a couple of the topics we covered--scaling up from a maquette to a full size matrix [1], and molding and casting in plaster. We talked about it and looked at static images, but at the time i thought it's be great to do a demonstration of either of these things, but that it wasn't really practical--the class period is only so long, and it doesn't help much to get started on something as a demo that's going to actually take you 10-20 hours to realize. And, i have mainstage responsibilities to keep up with as well; it'd be one thing if i were making masks for the show i'll be working on (and thus have a built-in reason to do the sculpture outside of the course demo), but i'm not.

At the time, i thought, "Next time i scale up a mask from a maquette, or cast in plaster, i should make a video to show them the stages." In all my copious free time, of course. So needless to say, that didn't happen. And then, some time ago, i heard about some existing videos which, though not specifically tailored to the purposes of theatre, might be some good resources: John Brown's character sculpture training DVD series, and the Monster Movie Masks series by Omar Sfreddo and Anthony Giordano.

So, who are these guys?

John Brown has worked as a character sculptor for the toy and animatronics industries, and as a creature concept artist in Hollywood for such films as Mars Attacks!, Jumanji, and Monkeybone. He has released a series of DVDs through the Gnomon Workshop on various aspects of the character-creation scuplture process--everything from making armatures to maquettes to full-sized characters.

Omar Sfreddo has done creature effects for films such as Spiderman 2 and The Chronicles of Riddick, while Anthony Giordano has worked as a prop fabricator for Saturday Night Live. They've put together a three-disc series on sculpting, molding/casting, and finishing/painting monster movie masks of the 'giant rubber villain' variety.

The creature-creation demands of film are different than mask-making for theatre (for example, the high degree of close-up realism film commands is not applicable to theatre, while the allowance for speech acoustics and actor vision that theatrical masks require is not applicable to film), but there's enough of a basic crossover that i thought, it's worth checking them out.

The problem is, well, i'm successful at what i do, but i don't just light my fireplace with burning $100 bills because money means nothing to me anymore; educational DVDs are costly and i don't want to drop a few hundred dollars on DVDs sight-unseen, when they might be poor references or not useful with respect to my field.

That's where SmartFlix.com comes in! They're a mail-order DVD rental service, kind of on the same level as Netflix, except all their DVDs are instructional topics in a wide range of fields, everything from blacksmithing to working with fiberglass to firearms training to sewing techniques. From SmartFlix, i was able to rent the DVDs i was interested in for a fraction of the purchase price. It turned out to be a great bargain (3 DVDs for a week's rental came to $26, as opposed to a purchase cost of over $100), and completely convenient; like Netflix, they come with their own postage-paid return packaging so all you do is drop them back in the mail when you are done watching them.

So, on to my reviews of the DVDs themselves!

First up, the Sfreddo/Giordano DVD, Monster Movie Masks: Molding and Casting Latex Masks.

Okay, so clearly these men are good at what they do, given their resumes. And, my expectations of educational DVDs are much lower in terms of things like whether there's segue music, quick cuts between multiple camera angles, artistically designed credits and other text elements, and how many takes are possible. Plain fonts, stretches of silence, and occasional imperfect action segments ("Whoops, dropped my brush...as i was saying, apply the solvent here...") are to be expected.

This DVD though, it embarrassed me to watch it, the production quality was so slipshod and the presenters so unprepared and nervous. It's clear that both men are extremely uncomfortable in front of a camera, and they give the impression of having never taught any kind of workshop before. There were several spliced sections of text (such as tools/equip lists, supplies needed, etc) that were full of blatant spelling errors--at one point, even Omar Sfreddo's name is misspelled. Overall the actual editing is truly poor, as well, cutting the men off mid-sentence at illogical points in the presentation and struggling with volume issues. I'd crank up the volume to hear the sotto voce narration, only to have some dorktastic segue music blow me out of the chair. There's stuff on YouTube that people have made on their laptops that's better quality than this.

There were a couple of bits of good advice (for example, their "standard" of sculpting at 120% scale for "one size fits all" applications, or the use of a custom-made skin texture stamp created by taking a latex surface mold of an orange), but i felt they went too fast for the utter beginner and too slowly for someone with some experience in maskmaking already. I think these DVDs would have benefited from Sfreddo and Giordano hosting several real-time workshops with actual students, to iron out their own confidence issues and to preempt a lot of the problems with timing. Real students would make them stop and clarify, or they'd realize when they were spending too much time on something, and that would have ultimately improved the video itself. But, all that's moot, because the videos exist, and i am glad i didn't pay $60+ for them.



John Brown has an 8-part set of videos out, but many of them deal with full-body sculpture of characters, either for animatronics, CGI 3D surface mapping, or prosthetic production. I chose to check out just Volume 3: Sculpting the Detailed Head, which covers scaling up a creature head to full-head size from a 1/3 scale maquette.

Brown is a better teacher than Sfreddo and Giordano--he exhibits a bit more confidence in front of the camera (though his frosted Hollywood rocker hairdo made me laugh...er, admittedly only because it reminded me of a guy i used to date), and seems to have at least conducted a few workshops in real-time situations before making his DVD sets. He suffers from improvisational diction issues (lots of "you know, uh") and his propensity for prefacing teaching moments with the word "obviously" worked my nerves a bit. If it's obvious, why would anyone spend $50+ on a DVD about it? And if it's not obvious to the viewer, way to potentially alienate them.

He does show practically how to use a pair of calipers to scale up a sculpture from a 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 scale maquette, which is exactly what i was hoping to find in a video of this sort. Because in this video he's working life-size, i think it IS probably quite useful as a teaching tool in a maskmaking context, because it does very clearly illustrate how to go from small to large; granted, in theatre you will probably not be making a full-head orc mask (which is what he's sculpting in the video), but you might, and the exact subject itself is not what's important to focus on here for my purposes, it's the technique.

The editing is a bit crummy at times (though compared to the prior DVD it's fabulous)--some sections feature repetitive narration, and some sections could probably have been shown at double-speed. At one point Brown has a coughing fit, which is humorous but really, they ought to have rerecorded that section of the voiceover. And, there's a point where he spends some time working with epoxy putty with his bare hands that made the OSHA dork in me cringe--the MSDS for it clearly advises nitrile gloves.

He has some great points on the importance of visual reference materials and is clearly coming from a classically-trained art background when he lists off his examples, of which some include Michaelangelo's David, the portrait photography of Yousuf Karsh, the figure drawings and facial expression studies of George Bridgman. He also suggests other resources such as image searches on Corbis and bodybuilding magazines (for weird veiny muscular necks/heads). He talks a bit about exaggeration of features for extreme character looks (his example is the huge brow muscles in the orc face he's making), and ways to manipulate composition of the face to convey emotions (i.e., V-brows denoting anger, while pitched-brows convey worry or sadness).

One great aspect of Brown's presentation is the coverage of his own particular techniques and custom-modifications of sculpting tools--he shows how he's made several specific tools by modifying store-bought loop tools and wire rakes, created custom ergonomic grips with duct tape and foam, and even done things like cutting up a dog-brush to create a great stippler. He shows several sculpting techniques specific to face-renderings in clay, and is GREAT about keeping you apprised of "real-time" passage ("I'm about 4 hours into this sculpture now..."), which i find invaluable. He also has some good tips on lighting your sculpting space for maximum visibility--he recommends an overhead lamp, fluorescent so it doesn't put out heat and soften your clay or make you hot while you work, and with variable intensities, as lower light helps bring out the visibility of the details once you get down to any fine sculpting work that you might need to do.

The DVD includes a "Lecture Notes" section (basically synopses of the segments and links to URLs mentioned) and a "Bonus" section (some 360 pans of sculptures accompanied by laughably new-age music), which were ok, but i'd have preferred some PDFs of equipment/media lists and some trailers for the other DVDs in the series. Regardless, this is the DVD i plan to make available to my class as a resource when we discuss the leap from maquette to full-scale mask, as its shortcomings are overlookable and the material presented is excellent.



[1] By "scaling up from a maquette to a full size matrix" i mean, initially it is a good idea to sculpt a mask on a smaller scale--1/2 scale, 1/3 scale, or 1/4 scale--when you are working out the actual translation of a mask design with your costume designer. S/he may only have rendered it in 2D without any oblique or side view, or the design might not be as intricately defined as the mask will need to be. I can work up a 1/3 scale maquette in an hour or less, and can go through as many iterations as i need to in order to settle on a given design; this is FAR more efficient than working 10-15 hours on a full-size sculpture, only to find out that the designer would prefer the nose larger, the ears in a different location, the eyes further apart, and the forehead way more bulbous. Or something. But, once you settle on a maquette, you then need to scale that up to a full size mask.

A quick, quick, superquick post on this New Year's Eve to congratulate ALL the Triangle theatres honored in the Independent's Best of Live Theatre 2009 List. So many honors for UNC grant initiatives and PlayMakers productions, go us! But we haven't swept it, which isn't a tarnish--there's so much good theatre in the area that competition is stiff. (Winning's no honor if you're the only horse in the race, y'know.)

Nice to see Nickleby as the clear winner in overall production design, but also exciting that there are SO MANY other companies and productions cited for best costumes/puppetry!

Happy New Year, everybody, and may the coming decade usher in all the best.

We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

The surface design, fiber art, and dyeing community has lost a valued member in Pat Williams, who passed away earlier this month.

Pat was a weaver, fiber artist, textile production teacher (particularly in jacquard weaving technique), and an active member of the Surface Design Association. She was the founder and moderator of the DyersLIST, an email list for textile surface design artists working with the medium of dye. Of particular note for me--Pat was bravely participating in a clinical trial for a potential treatment of pancreatic cancer, a horrific iteration of the disease which also claimed my aunt Mary Ruth this past October. I know that Pat will be much missed in so many areas of the textile community.

Here is the official obit:

Patricia A. (Pat) Williams, age 65, of Brighton and Alpena MI, passed away Thursday, December 17, at University of Michigan Hospital with family by her side. Pat was a participant in a clinical trial for treatment of pancreatic cancer.

She was born on April 19, 1944, in Corpus Christi TX, to parents Ellsworth and Charlotte Johnson, who preceded her in death. After living in several areas of the country, she settled in Ann Arbor, teaching at Eastern Michigan University as a professor of textile arts. In 1990 she married Lawrence (Larry) Stewart, the cherished love of her life, who preceded her in death. Pat is survived by her brother Rick Johnson (Sue); nephew Erik Johnson and niece Stephanie Johnson Chambrovich (Hugh); step-children Shelly and Duncan Stewart; and granddaughters Samantha Boyer, Jennie and Julee Stewart.

As a master weaver in her own right, Pat's interest was in translating the colors, forms, and textures of nature into woven works of art. A celebration of her life and art is being planned for the spring, in conjunction with the generous donation of her loom and educational support materials to Eastern Michigan University.

Condolences may be posted at Pat's online memorial guestbook.

(and yes I did waste a pointless 15 min to make this. LOL COLLEGE)

SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT REQUEST

If you:

-Live in Chicago
-Kind of like me
-...and have old boxes

I NEED THEM. I have to pack up lots of stuff at my gram's house for the Salvation Army and etc. And since my grandmother was a serial hoarder, the more boxes the better.

Sorry about the "no comments" entry. I wasn't being Internet emo, I just wasn't up for a lot of chatter at the time. I'm generally okay, just a bit stressed because a death in the family is never good and it's even worse when it happens on a holiday. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with my mother because as usual she is making it into the "It's All About My Crazy Ass" show. There will most certainly be several outraged LJ entries in the near future as I attempt to not kill her with toxic brainwaves. I am looking forward to seeing my brother and danaeaphreal who is kind enough to put me up for the week. I am going to concentrate on this rather than on the fact that evidently my mother has decided to throw a fit if my step mother comes to the fucking funeral and narrrggggghhhhhhhh I HATE MY FAMILY WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MY BROTHER. YOU PEOPLE HAVE *NO* IDEA.

My grandmother passed away this afternoon. We weren't close but it's not something I'm apathetic about. I'll be back in Chicago sometime next week. Those who need to be in the know will be contacted.