Opening Night--Day's activities forA Into the Woods

It has been a very busy week in preparation for INTO THE WOODS, but everything came together last night, and the show was beautiful!  Yesterday morning I woke up with a vision and a mission, and I used a huge canvas drop cloth that I had found when cleaning out the garage 2 weeks ago (by the way, I have no idea where it came from), to create 4 tree costumes. 

Robyn Folsom and I emailed several times between 6 and 7:30 AM (she's my dear friend and the director of the show).  Then she picked up paint from SMS when she dropped her kids off, and brought it to me.  I spent the morning painting the canvas to look like bark, I borrowed a fan and another heater to help dry the paint--just caught our neighbor Colleen Resch in the nick of time before she left for the morning...then finished the painting by 11:30.  I hung it outside hoping and praying that the wind and sun would dry it, but after 45 minutes it started to rain.  So I set up the the heater and fan again in the garage.   Quin/Dad came home for lunch, and I was standing there with a blow drier thinking how am I going to get this dry so I can sew it and be at Footnotes choir rehearsal at 3:00?  So, he said why don't you use the leaf blower?  This is so funny, I'm standing there with a blow drier and he thinks of a leaf blower!!  I'm cracking up thinking about that!  Anyway, I told him if he found it and set it up, I'd make him a sandwich for lunch--so it timed out perfectly, and he had that thing suspended in the air blowing on the 14 feet of canvas by the time I was done--and it made a mighty wind!  By the time we were done eating, the canvas was dry, and it was around 1:15 when I started marking the canvas and cutting.  After a few tension, and needle issues on my sewing machine were conquered I sewed 4 tubes, with a slit at the feet and some shoulder straps on the inside, and I finished at 2:30.  This gave me just enough time to change clothes, grab all my stuff, and get to rehearsal at 3:00.  It was crazy.  We had Footnotes from 3:15-4:45, then I went over for call time for the show.  The trees showed up, and skinnied into the tubes, then I cut arm holes, head holes, and trimmed up the bottom so they could have the right length.  A couple of moms added some leaf vines, and we had tree costumes!  I ran around helping other issues with the show, and then videotaped with Quin's new tripod--that was a first for me!  The show was great, all went well. 

Anna as Cinderella in the forest with the Baker's Wife

 

 

The mysterious forest with the Wolf and Red Riding Hood

After the show ended at 8:30, I went straight to Chorale rehearsal and directed that for the last 45 minutes.  Needless to say, I was an exhausted heap by the end that day!  I can't believe I got all that done!  The trees were sooooo happy with their new costumes, it was so worth it.  They looked like part of the set--it was so cool!  At dress rehearsal both nights their felt costumes weren't finished--the backs hung open waiting for velcro I guess.  They were made from beige felt, with zig sag bottoms  about ankle length.  Anyhow, they didn't work with the whole set look, so putting this together at the last minute was kind of a miracle.  I felt so blessed and helped along the way, and didn't even feel tired till all was said and done, and then boy did it hit!

 I was so blessed--there were so many tender mercies.  You know, even the fact that we cleaned the garage out 2 weeks ago is amazing--were were supposed to go out of town for the weekend, but our family cancelled, so we were going to go out for a night just the two of us.  But then, we just couldn't justify spending the money, and leaving with so much work to do around our house.  So, we cleaned 2 garages and really felt great about our accomplishment.  We almost threw away the canvas, because it had a mouse nest on top, and they had chewed a hole in the fabric.  Somehow I was constrained not to throw it away, as Quin and I talked about it we thought it could be used for something  for the VPA. It was such a huge canvas, I thought we could just trim off the area with the hole in it, and not have to bother with the mouse issue.  I got the scissors out, and when I went to do it. I was constrained again, thinking "it wouldn't be that hard to just wash that corner of the fabric, and then patch the hole if we use it for a flat for a show.  So I washed it and set it out to dry.  Later, I asked Robyn if it could be used for Into the Woods, but she said they had everything done.  So,  it was in my mind as resource when the tree issue became so apparent at dress rehearsal.  They were the only incongruous costumes on stage.  So the last piece of the story is, I had exactly the right amount of fabric, and the mouse hole was exactly in the right place for an arm hole.  I barely evened out the edges and it was about the right size as well!  Also, when I was laying out the lines to cut the pieces, I had guessed 40 inches per tube, and I found out that that was the size of the felt pieces as well.  When I put the lines on the fabric, I thought I had better add a little extra for shoulder space so I added 2 inches.  The costumes fit PERFECTLY, there was NO room to spare, and if they had been bigger they would have looked bad, and would have been hard to keep on and move comfortably in.  So, I'm talkin' tender mercies here.  There is something way bigger than me working for the VPA.  I know from the number of sewing projects that I have done on my own, to know there was divine intervention here. 

Well, that was a looong story.  I'm just feeling happy today that I am able to do what I do.  The resources I have of every kind, materially and spiritually just astound me.  I am so blessed!