An update and a video

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately. Been working like mad the last few weeks to put up my latest show, with almost no help until this past week. It's a really big show too -- my biggest yet, both costume-wise and cast-wise, and set in a time I knew nothing about, so all around pretty effing hard. There's a short video clip of the 2nd scene on the Playhouse website, and they've actually already managed to put the show photos up as well, which I believe is mainly due to recent sales drop-offs on the main stage. They're trying to account the low sales to poor advertisement, so they're trying to get the word out on this one... of course, the last show on this stage sold out every night (heck yes it did), so no worries on that ground. Anyway, to see pictures, visit http://www.playhouseonthesquare.org and click on "Compleat Female Stage Beauty" on the left (no, we didn't misspell Complete -- that's how they spelled it in 1660, and that's how the playwright wanted it spelled). You can also click on "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" if you want to see a few from my last show.

Rather than reporting directly to my boss lately, she's had me reporting to one of the higher-ups via bi-weekly e-mail reports, with minute-by-minute details of what I did that day. I have a task list, all of which are related to the move of our costume shop next week, which I am expected to have completed by then... she thinks it's a lot of work and will keep me out of her hair, but I should have it done in no time. The bad part is that she hasn't scheduled me any time at all to start on my next show, and I have first production meeting this coming Wednesday. I don't mind, though, because finally I'll have a real log of everything I do. I always tell her things like "Oh, I stopped working when everyone else was ready to leave" or "No, I left my paperwork here last night", when I really work over the number of hours we're required to every week without noting the overtime. This is because 1) I don't have time to actually *use* the overtime, nor anything to do other than work, nor money to do anything else with, and 2) she freaks out if we work over the scheduled hours, stay late at night, or fail to take our a half-hour break at 5:00 every evening (and I don't remember the last time I took my break). As it is, if I feel like I absolutely *must* get out of the house on my day off, I usually end up shopping for my show, as there really isn't much to do in this town other than shop or eat, and I don't need to shop for myself. And I'm the type of person who works till the job's done, which oftentimes means either working late at night or taking things home to finish. And I don't tell her this stuff because she freaks out. And I don't want to seem preachy or like I want attention\recognition for it... I'm just trying to do my job as well as I possibly can.

My next show should be relatively simple, though. Six people, maybe two outfits each (maybe basic outfits for one or two of them, with pieces they can change), set in 1960. The characters are Orson Welles, Joan Plowright, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Kenneth Tynan, and a stagehand named Sean. And I'm getting a pretty early start, trying 1) not to lose the "Stage Beauty" momentum, 2) to balance the additional load of beginning my 3 summer shows via e-mail and phone conversation, and 3) needing to start thinking about packing up, getting rid of things, tying up loose ends, etc. I'm getting pretty tired of this constant moving thing and am hoping to find someplace to be for a little longer pretty soon. Maybe I can see if I can get a ship this fall, if none of my other job apps work out, and then I can pay the bills and have time to work on things like grad school applications. Of course, interviews and whatnot would be pretty hard while living on a boat, but if I find a place that wants me bad enough, they'll be willing to work it out, I'm sure.

And the real reason I decided it was time to post is this video. I was doing YouTube searches for songs we used to sing when we were kids, and I found this fantastic video of some missionaries re-enacting an odd version of the Snowman song. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if we hadn't left the Church... I can't tell if life seemed so much more planned because of the Church's ideas, or if it was just because I was a kid and every new idea seemed as if it was certainly what was *going* to happen. Maybe it's just because now I only have a base, where the Church set up walls -- for better or worse.

For Mom

Knit something dangerous

Scarf I made for my friend Jay for Christmas. He's a pirate, in case you didn't guess.

Linky

Just letting anyone who might want to know, pictures from the shows I've done here are now on the Playhouse website! Start here: http://www.playhouseonthesquare.org/0708/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf.html The shows I've done so far are Virginia Woolf, Lies and Legends, Frog and Toad (that's the good one) and Plaid Tidings.

Also, the full 2nd review of Frog and Toad is here: http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid%3A37154

Frog and Toad review, take two!

So a few weeks ago I got this review for "A Year With Frog and Toad" from John W. Sparks with the Memphis paper The Commercial Appeal (in which my costumes were referred to as "smart and witty"). Well, a new copy of another local paper, The Memphis Flyer, came out today, and we got another glowing review, this time from Chris Davis. The entire article isn't yet available online, so here are some snippets:

"'Three things you cannot dispute,' we're told in the song 'Get a Load of Toad.' 'Bamboo comes from a bamboo shoot, rutabaga comes from a rutabaga root, and Toad looks funny in a bathing suit.' And he does." (I'm just proud of this one because it took me a while to decide what I liked best for the funny bathing suit. It makes me happy every time I hear the kids cracking up during the matinees when he comes out of the water.)

"Overwhelmed by his newfound success as a mailman, Snail (Cochran) strips down to a gold-lame-accented mail carrier's uniform while singing 'I'm coming out -- of my shell.' Although the gay illusions soared over the kiddies' heads, the joke was out of place. That's not to say it was anything short of fun or fabulous." (Notable because 1. the song isn't actually a gay reference, I think it's just the person playing it; 2. this is the most controversial bit of the play, which of course means it's the *only* controversial bit; and 3. I made that outfit!)

"Oddly enough, it's [director Scott] Ferguson's eye for kitsch that makes the completely sincere A Year With Frog and Toad such a winner. Who else might have imagined birds flying south for the winter as mid-20th-century flight attendants or transformed a pair of moles into fur-wearing Russian spies." (Hm, I can think of someone else who could've imagined that. Hm... maybe... me?! I love you, Scott. But I will fight anyone for full credit for the moles being spies.)

And finally, the most important line of all, though it's only half a line because the second half is about sets.

"Laura E. Jordan's costumes are exemplary."

Heck yes. I win! However, in addition, the new copy of The Animal World also just came out, and (long story) there's a picture I took in it! It's Selina's (Costume Shop Manager) new dog, Rilo. I took the picture the first day she got the dog. Here's the photo in context, but if you want to read the article (it's about separation anxiety experienced by pets when their owners leave the house and how to help prevent it) you can download the issue in PDF format at http://www.theanimalworld.org/.

Project monogamy?

I feel like I used to be so loyal to my projects. If I started something, I finished it. If I stepped away from it... well, I usually ended up frogging it when I found it again, because I knew I'd either never remember where I left off or, since I make up most of my patterns as I go, I'd never remember what I'd wanted it to look like.

While going through all of the crafty bits I have here in Memphis with me, I've found not one, not two, but no less than *five* separate yarny projects that are in some state of incomplete. Two are just because they're recent and I haven't felt yet like I know where I want to go next with them. Two are because I missed a deadline I had hoped to hit, and now am waiting for a reason to continue them. The fifth was because I got the job working on the cruise ships, and left it at home. Who needs a casual sweater in the Caribbean, especially when it adds to your already-astronomical baggage weight?

I've picked up the fifth project again, though I'm fairly certain I'll have to frog it in the end anyway, because I don't think it will fit me or just about anyone else I know and would give a sweater to. Oh well, at least it's practice.

What makes matters worse is that on Wednesday, I bought lace and sock yarns and size 3 DPNs with the idea that I would start knitting socks and soon make myself a really pretty lace shawl (which, of course, I would probably sell instead, since that's what happens to most of the stuff I try to make for myself).

My room

After intensely cleaning my room on Monday, I decided to take a couple of pictures, since you might be interested in seeing the state in which I live.



What I like to lovingly refer to as my "sleeping nook". It seems like a nicer name than "the only place my bed will fit". If you can't tell... I like pirates.

Keepsake shelf. Among other things, it holds:

- Harry Potter books

- Two pirate coloring books

- Christmas ornament from the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale last

November... you know, the one that just hopped into my bag all on its lonesome.

- Pirate legoman from Jason

- Jack Sparrow keychain from Sam

- Various alpaca yarns

- The first yarn I spun

- Gryffindor tie

- And further down, of course, we have Bertram Jude Flamingo.

Aaand knickknacks! I don't normally have a lot. But after finding all of these things while out and about in thrift shops since being here, I enjoy my little whatnots.

Okay, that isn't really much of my room at all. It's rather a large room. But it's kind of hard to get pictures that represent it and don't make it look ghetto. Not that it isn't ghetto. Because it is. But that's what happens when you're an intern in company housing.