raspberries to the universe...

OK, so when, in a previous posting, I asked the universe to supply a white dress, I guess I should have also specified that it be a drama free delivery...

All this went down about a week ago, and in the grand scheme of things is just a bump in the road, but it still rankles.

See, the producer, the actress, and I (the stage manager and de facto purveyor of all things vintage) went over to the local university and found a glorious mid-1800's looking white gown (size wee damn small!) but that was w/in an inch or so of fitting our actress (who's a full time seamstress, so no worries on the alterations). The thing is stunning... embroidered net fabric, boned bodice with pin tucks for miles. This lovely thing probably has 100+ man (student) hours in construction ... so we signed the EXTREMELY reasonable rental contract and packed it up.

White gown. Emily Dickinson. We're good to go, yes?

To my way of thinking the dress is about the only thing you really need to sell this show. It's sort of integral to the visual language of  a piece about Emily...

But then the producers get this case of the heebie-jeebies about a white dress and the copious amounts of ink and tea in the show. The contract says $500 replacement fee if the dress is damaged. Not unreasonable, but apparently this was enough to send the producers over the edge.

Long story short-ish... after a lot of griping and sniping, we have been forbidden from using the dress in the show. Some lady they know says she has a bunch of "vintage" clothing and she'll sell them a couple dresses for $70. Uh huh. OK.

What makes me worry is when the produers come back with questions like "Are you sure the dress has to be white?"

IT'S A GODDAMN SHOW ABOUT EMILY DICKINSON. OF COURSE THE DRESS HAS TO BE WHITE! SHE ONLY MENTIONS THE WHITE DRESS WEARING THING ABOUT HALF-A-DOZEN TIMES IN THE COURSE OF THE PLAY!!

Headdesk.

Anyway... so the costuming is back in the hand of the producers. The director is out of state working on other projects for the next six weeks, and the actress and I are just going to concentrate on getting Act I memorized over the next weeks.

Le sigh. The extra headaches when trying to put on a show with a company with VERY little money.

bagged books

Made my annual pilgrimage to the book sale today. The local chapter of a nationwide philanthropic woman’s group holds a GIANT book sale once a year at the local Agricultural Arena. The first two days the books are full price. The third day, they’re half off. And the final day, today, it’s everything you can stuff in a bag for $5.

I’ve been going to this sale every year since I was a little girl and my Dad and I would drive over the mountain to attend. Back then it was in a church fellowship room. Many of my favorite childhood books from my 28_Books series back in February still have their distinctive blue and white price tags on them as they sit in my study filling up my shelves, still precious all these years later.

But the sale is huge now. So I just wait until the last day and go paw through the books no one else wanted and see what is ripe for the picking. There wasn’t a lot left when I went over at lunchtime today. I think there were 6 sad books left on the science fiction table. Mostly what’s left is cookbooks, outdated textbooks, John Grisham novels, and biographies about people no one seems to care about.

Now and then there are hidden treasures. I’m not sure anything I got qualifies as a treasure, but I did a lot of just picking up things that looked interesting. So for the sake of all you eclectics out there… here’s what I came home with for my $2.50 (since it wasn’t a full bag they only charged me half price, which shocked me. They never did THAT before).

If we are what we read… what does this say about me? …

( read the list here... )