Update: SHOUT! The Birth of a Fringe Dress

Green is my favourite colour.  I love to wear green, it's my 'power colour'.  I have a beautiful emerald green pashmina scarf I never leave home without.  It's a colour I feel confident in.  Finding out I got the part of The Green Girl was serendipity enough, but to find out one of her costumes is a green fringe dress!!  Oh, oh, OH!

Karen Penney, bless that doll heart of hers, one of my bestest friends, had actually asked me if she could make this dress.  We're both of the crafty influence (that's on my other blog!) and enjoy taking on creative projects together from time to time.  It's an absolute privilege to have her talented mind create this dress, and she will be receiving full credit for her work - and a pair of free tickets!

We had spent an afternoon together doing a dress-fitting for the pre-fringe dress.  The fringe itself was hard enough to find, but with some excellent customer service at Dove Originals Trims, we've manage to find exactly what we need.  Oh, it's gonna look sooooooo good! 

Update:  Well, let's just say it's gonna look good on it's own, because we've managed a backup.  It seems that the fringe material needed for the dress may not get to us in time, so Alison, our director - and the smart lady that she is - bought a white fringe dress and applied some fabric dye magic - voila!

Alison had taken this photo in her garage, while the dress was in its final stages of drying.  Check it out - the great big Shout! magazine for the set is in the background!  Karen's dress will still be used for the first act - her work won't be for nothing!  The dress at this point is ... uh, we'll say it's finished.  Just some final touches and we're set.  Can't wait to show you!

SHOUT! Rehearsal Pictures

The 'Mod Rainbow'!

Wigs!  Go go boots!  Union Jack dresses!  Oh, man - this was fun!

Dan Pelton from the Orangeville Citizen is very good to us; he wants to keep us in the press and opted for another photo shoot - in costume!  The Mad Hatter Pub in Orangeville has an old-school British telephone box we were hoping to climb into like a bunch of college coeds - alas, it was bolted shut.  The weather certainly did cooperate for our 'London shoot' (rain!), so we pulled out our Union Jack umbrellas and mugged for the camera.  Lookit those colours - we felt like the rainbow in that storm! 

(I had a little fun with Picnik.com to give them a vintage '60s feel, and a little text flair.  Like?)

from left: Abi Adekoya, Samantha Russell, me!, Justine Christie, Elizabeth Glenday

ACT-CO Gala Awards, 2010/2011: Congrats to BMT's RENT!

A long-overdue congratulations to a few of my colleagues and friends for their recognition at the ACT-CO Gala Awards! 

Oh, that would be the Association of Community Theatres Central Ontario, for those not familiar.  Most community theatre productions are adjudicated by industry professionals and given constructive criticism to cast and crew in performance and artistic direction.  'Chicken Soup for the Actor's Soul', so to speak.

Josh Priess, our current musical director for Shout!, was nominated for Best Musical Direction, and the company received recognition with the Musical Adjudicator's Award for Risk-Taking and Commitment!

I'd also like to mention my dear friend Marg Argall, who was nominated for the Drama Adjudicator's First-Timer Director's Award!  She has previously been honoured by ACT-CO with her work in community theatre over the years, and her dedication deserves all the recognition she's received!

Congrats to my friends!  View the rest of this year's winners from across Ontario here!

SHOUT! in the British Canadian!

Well, whaddayaknow!  We received a little surprise with a feature article in the British Canadian newspaper!  You can pick up your copy in Orangeville at Blighty's Tuck Shop - and get me a Galaxy candy bar while you're there!  And your tickets for the show!

click to enlarge

Many thanks to the British Canadian for the press!

The Book of Mormon! The Musical: Worth the 20-hour road trip

Author's note: The following post will contain mature language and themes.  Just warning you!

I might be going to Hell for this, but I loved The Book of Mormon: The Musical!

Myself and three friends left Brampton, Ontario on Friday evening, to arrive in New York City on Saturday early evening to see something that could only be witnessed in person.  Jenna, one of the loveliest people you will ever meet - and the biggest Broadway geek in the universe - had this idea earlier this year to take a roadtrip for her birthday to see this show.  I have the privilege of being introduced to some of the best works in musical theatre by this wonderful woman, so this was something I really couldn't pass up.

I must take a moment to give a big 'thank you' to Jenna, Graham and Lisa for being such great friends in helping me out on this trip - especially this being a trip to celebrate Jenna's birthday.  I'm currently in between careers without much money for myself these days, and had earlier politely retract on a matter of making sure I was fed and had a roof over my head.  They had told me that it wouldn't have been the same if I wasn't with them, and they would help me out for this trip.  They knew my personal strain, and wanted to help relieve the pressure and have some fun.  I'm very glad to have this support system, and I had a great time, despite the consistent travel and motion sickness.  The company made it bearable, thankfully - I couldn't think of anybody else I'd rather be stuck in a car with for 20 hours.  Dan Savage podcasts, Cosmo magazines, the surprising 'Americanized' portion of the extra-large Timmies, all-day breakfasts and getting lost in a really scary part of Newark and dealing with actual traffic in New York City.  (At least it was slow enough for me to take some pictures, the tourist that I am!)  That's all part of the magic of the roadtrip, baby!  I must give credit to the beautiful scenery in upstate New York, I had abandoned an already-defunct knitting project and admired what I could while the car zipped by.  Some of these photos were taken by Jenna, our navigator riding shotgun.  Map-reading skills are tricky, so I have to give her credit for 'getting us lost' on really unique scenic routes both on the highways and in the city.  We were just too concentrated on finding road signs to take pictures at times.