I've been looking at Tulane University for grad school. Their costume design program looks amazing and the classes required. The required classes are getting me pretty excited. I've enjoyed all of my production design classes so far--particularly involving costume history and I can't wait for more of that. I'm dying for a theatre class. I've read greek comedies and tragedies--have been feeding an obsession with Shakespeare for the past ten years...and then there's my love for Oscar Wilde and Gilbert and Sullivan...but all of those seem basic as far as theater history. I want to get to know more than the obvious playwrights.
Speaking of--if you have any suggestions I'd love you if you shared them in the comments. Beyond the obvious most of my theatre history experience is from the shows I've designed for in classes at college. I know Showboat, Glass Menagerie, Glen Gary, Glen Ross, Lysistrata, Bus Stop, You Can't Take It With You, A Doll's House, and practically everything Shakespeare.
Lately I've been trying to increase my knowledge of Broadway musicals. I've found that public libraries have fairly decent soundtrack collections if you look for them. I have fallen in love with the concept of the Noble library system because that means I can go to most libraries and still check out CD's. And it always seems like each time I go there there's something new. Two weeks ago I took out a copy of Women in White which I found oddly reminiscent of Withering Heights and The Secret Garden mashed up with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. What's frustrating me to no end is the fact that i can't figure out the plot from the music...and I'd rather read the play than the plot synopsis in the booklet. I suppose next time I head that way I should look through the drama section? Hopefully it's fairly extensive.
A while ago I went on a random binge in the school library of checking out plays. I was the make-up artist/designer for two films that quarter...and decided to use my downtime reading plays...mostly movies that I knew were plays first. It's weird how much they change plays when they make them into movies. In The Philadelphia Story They completely leave out the part of the older brother and kind of sidle Cary Grant into the role of ex-husband/brother since they seem to play the same role. Then there's You Can't Take it With You which nixes characters and changes up things considerably...I think for the sake of getting it out of that one room for the entire run of the movie. My friend Stephanie actually inadvertently told me why Kiss Me, Kate is so different from the play. Evidently it's all to do with the production code...which is weird because evidently they changed an all black number to a song for Anne Miller to sing...I wouldn't think that'd have anything to do with production code. That's messed up.
I just finished up the two busiest quarters of my life and I am so relieved to be on summer vacation. Winter quarter I was working 20-22 hours a week on SCAD's production of Macb-th while taking four classes. I still don't know how I got out of it alive. I was taking an extra class too. Spring was just as busy but I didn't make myself sick the way I did in Winter (i came down with an awful stomach bug). I worked on six costume-related projects on top of classes. I was the costume designer for a film for the first time ever, which turned out awesome if I do say so myself--still waiting on the still photographer to get images for my portfolio.
"MORT" - Teaser from David M. Davis on Vimeo.
On top of that I worked on SCAD's production of Animal Farm (Catherine Crabtree and Tarynn Haas did an AMAZING job of costume desgining this show. Kudos to them!) I did a few alterations for An Impossible Marriage (I was at my brother's graduation for the run of the show so there wasn't much I could do for them there) I was a costume designer with Stephanie Ann Gift for Corinna Rezelle's senior show which turned out absolutely amazing.
and I worked with her again on my friend Tara Leisnsner's senior show as a designer along side her. Then I was assistant Costume Designer for Stephanie on a film called Isn't It Love (which was an absolute nightmare!! But the costumes were gorgeous!) I did some work on a movie called Amanda at the beginning of the quarter with Stephanie but that was minimal....and then at the end of the quarter we started pre-production for a film called The Lion and the Unicorn. I'm assistant designer there as well. It's going to be epic--but it's going to be a lot of work.
In a few weeks time I start my internship at the Boston Children's Theatre in Bifield! While I'm waiting I'm trying to improve my knitting skills (learning new stitches) and I'm teaching myself watercolor techniques. I'm taking portfolio and costume rendering for construction in the fall...so I'm trying to get a head start so I can look like I know what I'm doing when the class starts.
And that's it...that rambling mess is as much as I have to say to introduce myself and get things up to date. I'll update on the process of watercolor and knitting. Right now I've taught myself 5 new stitches. I've got this book that has a stitch for every day of the year...and technically it makes me up to 8 stitches because they've got garter and stockinette front and back (which I think is cheating! That shouldn't count as two stitches)
Love y'all!
Meghan
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