Pimento cheese and ham biscuts

Raleigh Creative Costumes closes tomorrow. After 32 years in business it only took one person to close us down. I am angry. I will be honest. The shop has been a part of my family for 32 years. When I was talking to Doug Haas, the owner, on Sunday; she said that lots of people had been calling or coming by and saying the same thing--that they are angry about this.

So we are having a party. A big party. A blow out. We are having food and drinks and food and drinks and food and drinks... If there is one thing that the crew from RCC can do it is eat. That and make good food. I have been specifically asked to make two dishes: pimento cheese and ham biscuits. When I was talking to my friend Jason a couple of days ago I told him that I had to run to the market and get the makings for the pimento cheese and biscuits. Jason asked who died. This is a passing. The end of an era.

Now I make very good pimento cheese. Pimento cheese has been called Southern caviar. I can see that, I think. The problem with store purchased pimento cheese is multi-fold. First, they use cheap cheese. I use 2 lbs of sharp cheddar cheese. Some people use colby jack or monteray jack cheese or cheese with jalapeno peppers. You must use cheddar. You must also hand grate the cheese. I split the cheese into two wedges to make the grating easier. Keep the cheese loose in the bowl, do not let it clump because this makes it harder to mix the mayo and pimento. The second reason store bought pimento cheese is awful is that it somehow ends up looking pale. The reason, since store bought pimento cheese is made in a vat in the back of a warehouse someplace no where close to the deli counter at your market. Too much mayo makes the final product slick and look pale. Slick pimento cheese does not stay on a cracker. Slick pimento cheese is not pimento cheese--it is soup! After mixing in the mayo (mix it in slowly, working the cheese up to the mayo and not the other way) taste it and see if it still has some bite--which is important!!!! Now comes two important parts. I add some Worcester Sauce, not a whole lot, but just enough to add a little kick. Taste again (tasting is a running theme here...). Now add the whole jar of pimentos, juice and all. Mix it and (guess what) TASTE AGAIN.

Now the trick to really good pimento cheese is to make it two days before the party and let it sit in the fridge.

How the good Jewish boy from up North ended up being able to make good ham biscuits I will never know. I had five people ask me if I was going to make ham biscuits for the party. The trick for good ham biscuits is two fold--make them small and thin and the quality of the ham. Small, thin biscuits are less cakey than those monster biscuits that some people make. The idea is to taste the ham, not the bread! I use Boar's Head deli meats. Boar's Head has to be the best deli meat out there. I was so pleased when Kroger started carrying it. I first got hooked on Boar's Head deli meat in New Haven working on a project at Yale. I have to confess that discovering Boar's Head and getting to go to the Yale Center for British Art were the highlights of my time spent at Yale. It beats having done a world premier, it beats being at Yale, and wow being at Yale. Not a little bitter am I?

It is going to be very hard to say good bye to RCC--no matter what I make for the party.
David

Dresses and taxes--shopping for vintage clothes at home and abroad

Two things are inevitable in life for all people. For me, one of them is shopping in vintage and thrift stores. I am looking for clothes not just for me to wear, but to add to my stock of vintage items to use for shows and study. I look for vintage items all over the place, and almost every trip I take I will combine the fun with some vintage store action. That, of course, makes the trip deductible on my taxes. You cannot blame me for thinking ahead.

This past weekend I took off for points North: Washington, DC and Baltimore. I have lots of friends from school in the DC area, most of them working as lawyers for people on the Hill or in the journalism trade. This trip, however, was two-fold. I went to the National Gallery of Art, one of my favorite places to just go and be surrounded by paintings, and then headed off to U Street, in Adams Morgan, to hunt for vintage clothes.

The NGA has established a loan deal with the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA, where they will loan each other works of art that ordinarily would not travel save for big exhibitions (and sometimes not even then). This time the loan from West to East. The Norton Simon sent Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Boy in Fancy Dress (“Titus”) circa 1655. It is a lovely little work—radiant, the face on the canvas just glows. The tragedy is that at some point in the paintings conservation history it looks like the canvas has been relined. With relining a painting is put face down (i.e. paint surface down) on a powerful vacuum table and the old canvas is slowly removed almost down to the paint layer and a new canvas is reapplied. The problem is that this process flattens the paint so that any brush strokes are now just flat. There is something about Rembrandt’s paintings of this period that have a three-dimensional aspect to them. The Gallery has put “Titus” in the same room as the 1659 Self-Portrait that they own. You can see the differences that the conservation process has created between the two paintings. The nose in the Self-Portrait is amazing, in that you can see every brush stroke and the paint is very thick in parts. When you then look at the “Titus” you can tell in the details of the costume where the paint did what it does in the Self-Portrait. Still, what an amazing painting it truly is. It is on display until the beginning of September. So, why is it called “Titus,” you ask? When it was purchased by Norton Simon in the 1960s it was thought to be a portrait of the artist’s son Titus. Titus was born in 1641, so he would have been fourteen when the painting was done (the Norton Simon is very generous in its date range for the painting, dating it between 1645-1650—which is just a little too early as a comparison between it and the paintings in the NGA collection show), and this is most certainly not a fourteen year old boy. Plus, the two known portraits of Titus by Rembrandt, in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, do not match up with the young boy in this painting.

Enough about that. It is a fantastic painting, and I will be seeing him again in a couple of weeks when I head back up to Baltimore.

Hunting for vintage clothes! It is harder and harder to find quality, inexpensive, vintage clothes these days in stores. They are out there, but you have to be patient and look and hunt and look. What defines vintage? Well, for me vintage is pre-1965 (the year I was born). Yes there is eBay, and I buy on eBay a whole lot. But there is something about engaging in the hunt and spending the day in dusty antique malls and trendy vintage stores. When I first started seriously buying vintage in the late 80s I could go up to Dupont Circle in DC and go nuts. I also used to be able to get good stuff in the thrift stores around here. Now kids think that the late 60s, 70s, and (help me) 80s are vintage. I did score a couple of nice dresses on 18th Street and U in Adams Morgan, and they do have more, so I will keep Meeps on my list. But so many of the stores I used to shop in are gone, victims of higher and higher rents (don’t I know from THAT!), and changes in buying habits. Plus, the good stuff from the old days is getting harder to find as museums and theaters are buying for their use.

What do I do with all of the vintage items I own? To be honest, I rent them out for shows. I only buy good stuff, and am very careful about buying online. I inspect seams and closures and zippers and the like to make sure that if I am paying $65.00 for a dress that it is worth it. Most of the vintage items in “Strange Fruit” were mine, and I rented them to Long Leaf for the production. Why do I rent them? Well, they do have to pay for themselves. I pay, on average, $40.00 to $100.00 for a dress. Then I clean it, strengthen seams, replace closures, and I store it. All of this costs money—and while the initial purchase, cleaning, and supplies may be tax deductible, the dress has to make back its initial investment. It takes a dress about four rentals to make back its initial investment. I do not rent them that frequently, so it may take a little while for an item to pay for itself. Plus, I rent so I can buy more items! I do not have an unlimited cash flow, I work for the State of North Carolina full time, so if I want to support my interests they have to be able to help with the trip.


It is fun going to vintage stores. I have a blast making a day of it—list in one hand, bottle of water in the other, and the ATM card tucked safely away in the shirt pocket. The card whispers “use me wisely…”

How does this work for my taxes? Well, I itemize. I like to travel and I take every legal deduction I can. So, if going to vintage stores in DC, like going to the fabric store in Virginia Beach, make those trips deductible, I am all for it. I keep every receipt I get through the month, even from the grocery store. At the end of the month I go through them all and keep what I can deduct and get rid of what I cannot. Then I photocopy the ones I can, since they fade and get dark over time. I have a filing folder with slots labeled “Books, Magazines, and Media,” “Sewing supplies, business supplies,” and the like. All of the copies get filed in there, stapled together by the month. That way, come 1 January I can just hand it all to my Mother, who is a certified tax person. Then I just have to wait for all of the W-2s…

I hope people had a super holiday!

The process of creating a costume

How a costume is created.

I am occasionally asked what goes into creating costumes for a production, be it an opera, straight play, etc…. I am always glad to educate people in the way of my world. I worked with one company that actually appeared to NOT want to know what I did and how I did it—and that was their loss. After all, goes my line of thinking: I am spending your group’s money. If you do not want to know how I do what I do that is fine with me, because for all you know I might be spending your money on wine, women, and song. Ignorance, ladies and gentlemen, is not bliss.

How the magic happens.

I get a call from the company that wants me to work with them. With Durham Academy, I get the shows from the drama teacher. I read the script or the libretto a couple of times. The first time I read it for the reading, no notes, just straight reading. Then I read it and I take notes. I make a list of all of the characters with notes about who they are, their relationships with other characters, their back stories as revealed by the action in the work, etc…. I also make a page for each scene in the act. I note the time of day for the scene, where the scene takes place, the characters in the scene, and what happens to move the plot forward. From these two lists I note if there are any possible quick changes, any costume items that may need to be preset back stage, and any costume items that might need special attention. I then do the costume plot. A costume plot is the outline of who wears what when. Needless to say, a costume plot is very important.

During my first meeting with the production people I ask for production crew and cast list and contact information for the cast. I email them and ask for measurements. If they live in the area we can set up a time to do measurements. If not, they can email me measurements, but they have to be current measurements. I have had people tell me that they cannot send me measurements because they are losing weight. I am afraid that it does not work like that. We can adjust a costume after it is made much easier than we can scramble to make it if a singer waits until the last moment to get measured. I do ask that performers tell me if they have any allergies, tattoos, interesting things that have been pierced, if they are right handed or left handed. I especially want to know about allergies to pets since I have a cat at home and my Mother has a dog, and my studio is in my Mother’s basement. Plus, you really do not want to do anything that will harm a performer.


I start my research after I have read the script. When I get the assignment for the production I ask the director a couple of key questions. The most important is “when is the action set.” I need to know if we are taking a work and moving the time period. Shakespeare plays are a classic example of time shifting. Hamlet can be moved to 20th century Denmark or to a corporate boardroom in Los Angeles. I need to know the concept so I can do my costume plot and research to fit the director’s vision. We are lucky in the Triangle area to have so many research universities with diverse curriculums. North Carolina State University has a College of Textiles, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke have renowned Art History Departments, and UNC has an internationally known theatre program. That means that these institutions have libraries that will be full of books on costume history, textiles, art history, and the like. One hidden gem is Joyner Library at UNC-Greensboro. Until the 1960’s UNC-G was Women’s College. They had an incredible Home Economics Department. That means that Joyner Library probably has every sewing-how-to book ever published. Knowing 20th century period sewing techniques is wonderful, because it is little details like getting bust darts right in a 1950s dress that make things look authentic. Also, for some reason, Joyner Library has a HUGE collection of books and magazines about Hollywood and the movie industry. So if you want to look at Hollywood film magazines from the 1930s, they are there on microfilm. Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s had a major impact on the domestic fashion industry in the United States. The library at the College of Textiles at NCSU has an expanding collection of early books on textile history and textile production for their Rare Books Collection. The titles collected include early 20th century imprints on dying techniques, working with various fabrics, milling machinery, and stain removal. I have copied most of these books for my own use, because a lot of the dying techniques like batik and dying silks have not changed. Plus the stain removal stuff still works now, one hundred years after it was first published! I also have a large collection of art books, museum collection catalogues and exhibition catalogues, textile books, books on costume history, designers, etc… My personal library must number at least five thousand books, magazines, articles, and the like. I know this because I recently moved them from my storage unit to my new house. I still have boxes of books that I have not unpacked because I have run out of bookshelf space.

Researching “Venus and Adonis” was fun. I love the court masques that Ben Johson and Inigo Jones designed for the Tudor and Stuart Courts in England. Chatsworth, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, has the largest collection of Inigo Jones drawings for the Stuart Court Masques. The Cavendish family has always been very generous in lending items from their collections, so the Jones drawings are reproduced in many exhibit catalogues, and there is at least one book devoted entirely to them and the symbolism of English Court Masques. For “Venus and Adonis” Geoff Zeger, the director, and I wanted to create two different worlds: the classical world of Venus and Adonis, and the Elizabethan world of the chorus. The four costumes for the singers and dancers pretty much copy the Jones drawings from a masque created for the court of Charles I. Did I mention loving to do historical research?

With all of my research and costume plot and notes in hand, I am now ready to begin the design process. I can draft patterns and can alter existing commercial patterns if need be. There are a growing number of really good commercial costume patterns out there from Butterick, McCalls, and Simplicity. There are also historical pattern companies out there that people who do historical recreations use. There is a big difference between a commercially created pattern and a pattern used for historical recreations. People who do historical recreations make sure that every “t” is crossed and “i” is dotted—they have period closures rather than zippers or snaps or metal hooks and eyes (closures depend on the year of the costume). In short, these patterns, while they are wonderful in terms of period detail, are not always the most ideal for stage use. We need to be able to make one costume serve for a long time, so I may cut the fabric a little too large and sew it to fit the singer. We have to plan for quick changes, so lots of hooks and eyes and laces, like those on dresses from the 1880s need to for show rather than for actual use. If you use a zipper to do the actual closing and holding together of a costume, who is going to notice (if you hide the zipper) that the laces and hooks and eyes are simply decorative…

Shopping fabrics for shows is always a challenge. I get a budget from the production company, and I am honest if I think the show can be done for that amount. I do not like scrimping and cutting edges. While I do not want to spend a whole lot on fabric, I also do not want to only shop at the $1.00 a yard pile at Wal Mart or someplace like that. I shop shows all over the Triangle, and I know where I get discounts and where I do not. I use coupons where I can. I also shop in DC and Virginia Beach and online. My father and stepmother are supporters of the Virginia Opera Company, and they arranged a tour of the costume shop for me at their headquarters in Norfolk. The costume shop manager turned me on to a great fabric store up there. This way I can combine trips and make a visit to see my folks tax deductible—the mind is always working! Choosing fabric colors is always fun. It helps to know what a performer looks like so you can pick fabrics that are flattering to their complexions. In the case of one singer I have worked with a couple of times, it is hard to pick fabrics that will work with his skin tone. He is very pale, and I do mean pale. Too strong a color over powers him out so that all you see is the color on the stage. Too pale a color washes him out so that all you see a void that happens to be singing. For “Venus and Adonis” it took me two hours to find the fabrics for the costumes that needed to be built for the production so that they would all coordinate.

Sometimes the libretto will give me a clue as to color choices. The red dress that Dessie wears at the fish fry is specifically mentioned in Lillian Smith’s novel. All I needed to do was choose a pattern and the fabric. I chose an original 1931 Vogue pattern from my collection and resized it to work for the wonderful Rita Addico. If you look up Long Leaf Opera on YouTube you will see the fitting for the red dress.

For “Strange Fruit” I used mostly original vintage items from the 1920s and 1930s. I have a large collection of vintage clothes and I am always on the hunt for quality vintage items that I can use on stage. I love eBay for that reason. There is also an excellent vintage store in Virginia Beach, and here in the area we have Beggars and Choosers in Pittsboro. My car has a little autopilot button to the parking lot beside B&C. The trick with vintage clothes is that the singers have to be very careful, because it is not like there is a backup in case something happens to the original! When I tell people no food and drink in costume I have my reasons!

Fabrics and colors also need to be discussed with the lighting and set designers. No one likes a surprise when it comes to these things. Lights can change the colors and read of a fabric from the stage to the house. Several years ago I did a production of a Kauffman and Hart play and was not told (and we really did not have any production meetings, but that is another story all together) that the walls of the house were going to be orange. Well, more burnt umber, but really orange. Surprise!

I do will renderings, if asked, of costumes. Now I am not the best sketch artist in the world, and renderings take time for me to do. I put the bits of the fabric I am going to use for the costume on the drawing. I can scan the images and put them on a CD for the other techies to have—it is all a part of good communication. Besides, all of the costumes and the costume plot have to be approved by the director—so having renderings or a research notebook is a good idea.

The notebook is your sacred text! In my notebook I have contact lists, copies of the measurement charts, a copy of the costume plot, the libretto (if it will fit), copies of my research, and other notes. I always make at least three copies of the meaurement charts. One is kept in the notebook, one in my studio, and one is for me to have when I give a sticher a costume to build. It is important that the sticher have a performer’s measurements when they are building a costume. I have also learned that having copies of your research on hand is always a good thing. On many an occasion I have had a performer question their costume. It is nice to pull out the notebook and say ”Ingres, Portrait of a Lady, 1829, the Frick Collection, New York.” I have worked with directors who have wanted to me to redo period waists because they are not flattering to the actress. Well, the show is set in 1900, not 2007—waistlines were different! This was the same director who allowed a performer to wear a contemporary cocktail dress rather than the period appropriate dress I had made for her character. “It is not flattering on me,” the young lady complained. This was also the director who told me that she had taken a costume history class in college. Well, I took four years of costume classes in college, so I think that I know what I am doing by now.

After everything has been approved and communicated in terms of patterns, fabrics, trims, etc… it is time to start cutting. I cut one costume at a time. Each costume gets its own plastic bag (I reuse Target bags) which contains: the cut fabric with the pattern piece attached, all the thread in all of the colors, a copy of the instructions for making the costume piece, any trims and notions (buttons, snaps, zippers), and a copy of the performer’s measurements. When I am cutting a pattern I measure all of the pieces to make sure that they will fit the actor. Sometimes, if I know it is a costume piece that we can use and reuse over again, I will cut it a little too large and change the seam allowance that the sticher will use when building the costume. With women it is important to have bust inhale and exhale measurements and with men you want the same measurement for their chests! Performers move, so you want their costume to be able to move along with them. You also want an over the bust measurement—from the top of the shoulder (where the shoulder seam in a blouse is) to their waist. Some people are short waisted with a large bust and some people are long waisted with almost no bust—and that has to be accounted for in their costume so that things will fit properly. As a rule for pants or skirts and dresses I ask that the sticher not put the hem in the bottom of the garment. That gets measured and put in after the first fitting. It is important that you fit the garment with the shoes that the singer will be wearing and that the singer is wearing proper foundation garments. I do not allow performers to “go commando” in my costumes! The wearing of proper foundation garments is fundamental. Plus, I have to do the laundry, so—well we won’t go any further.

When costumes are made it is called building. This process pretty much is like construction: lots of different pieces that have to be put together in a specific way. Like I said above, I do try to make it possible for a costume to used as many times as possible. It is easier to take in than to let out! We use large seams when we can so that a garment can be resized as need be for different singers. That makes fittings all the more fun and why it is important that the sticher have good instructions!!!!

Laundry. This is an important part of the fabric picking process. You really want to use fabrics that can be laundered or dry cleaned, but sometimes that is not possible. Fabreez and stain removal products and rubber gloves are your best friends. People laugh, but I handle all of the laundry for shows with rubber gloves. I also use Dryel for the things that normally would be dry-cleaned. We do not have a quick turn around dry cleaner here in the Triangle, so I use Dryel when I need to have something ready on the quick time for a show or photo call. My student assistant from Durham Academy and I spent 6.5 hours doing laundry for “Strange Fruit” during the day of the Friday opening. It got so bad laundry-wise that I had to bring my laundry from home to do while I was at Memorial Hall or I would not have had clean clothes!

I have a great crew that usually works with me on shows. My Mother serves as my chief cook and bottle washer and she keeps me in line and organized. My friend Shirley Rollins is an incredible sticher, and she sews without pins. One thing that I hope will come from the Festival this year is that I will be able to have one or two of my students from Durham Academy as assistance. I still need to work on the details for this program.

Once the costumes are made and fitted and altered the show can go on! By now I am accustomed to not seeing my name in reviews, I guess that means that I have done my job.

When the show is done the fun of strike begins. I have an inventory of all of the costumes from hats to shoes and in between. For “Strange Fruit” there were over 200 costume pieces on the stage. All of them have to be cleaned, either in the washer or at dry cleaners. I take the items to the cleaner and get them back when they are ready. Since the cleaning is free I am willing to wait until Medlin Davis can finish them up. The rest go in the washer and dryer or get Fabreezed. State law says that these items must be put back into storage clean—so I do it.

The opera festival is done for me now. It has been a terrific experience, three shows, two world premiers, over 300 costume pieces—all in two months! Here is to next year!

The Thing.

The Thing:

Please note that anything I say in this post are my opinions, my thoughts, my feelings and mine alone. They in no way represent the thoughts, etc… of anyone else involved in the production of “Strange Fruit” Memorial Hall at UNC, or Long Leaf Opera.

This is a bit of a ramble, but it is a very emotional topic.

I am sitting at my desk in my office still in a sleep deprived state and running on very faulty sugar levels and emotions. I spent a whole lot of time the last two days crying and thinking. I saw the final quintet for the first time on Monday and the lynching scene last night and the final quintet with the Thing. I cannot help but call it the Thing. Dummy depersonalizes it just too much, and it is a highly personal Thing.

The music and lyrics for the final quintet are so powerful. I started to cry when Erina went down on her knees and you can see the emotions in all of the faces. I sat in my seat in the audience with tears coming down my face. Listening to them apologize to Big Henry, and listening to John Cashwell, who is singing Tom Harris the mill owner and only Caucasian on the stage at this moment, say that this was not what was supposed to happen simply tore me apart. I went backstage right afterward and just hugged Rita and Erina. We were all crying because there is nothing you can say. Just nothing. I drove home Monday night getting home at midnight and sat up for two hours with my kitten and just processed.

Last night we added the Thing. I also saw more of the scene before the final quintet. Watching the townspeople put the bag and noose over Jason’s head has to be one of the most terrifying scenes I have ever seen. It cannot be all acting that Jason is doing up there. I cannot imagine what it feels like being up on that stage and having a bag put over your head and a noose wrapped around your neck. I do not watch horror movies, I have no interest in them. This is not a horror movie, horror movies are fiction (I hope, but with some of the people out there in this world, who knows). There was a piece on NPR a couple of days ago one the rise of horror movies like the “Saw” trilogy and the now popular “Hostel” series. The director of the “Hostel” series objected to the term now being used to describe these movies “gorenography.” I think it is rather fitting. But, like I said, “Strange Fruit” is NOT a horror movie. This is real life, these things happened, they are still happening in parts of the world today—call it necklacing (the practice of putting a car tyre around someone’s neck, dousing it with petrol, and lighting it), call it drive-by-shootings—call it what you bloody well want; but it is still happening now. When the Thing came down from the flies I thought I would, well, I do not know what I thought I would do. I just know that I went cold. It is like an accident, you cannot help but stare at it. And it goes down so slowly, and the music, since the quintet is starting is so powerful. And the Thing is realistic, in a red union suit with hands and shoes and the bag and rope, the costume that Henry is wearing when he is taken from the jail cell. It has to be realistic, it just HAS to be. Anything less would turn a powerful horrible statement into a cartoon, and that would be wrong, just wrong. I think that Laurie, our props queen, has done a fantastic job in creating it so that it is not a cartoon figure.

I am not sure if the people on the stage knew that the Thing was coming or not. I could see the shock on people’s faces. My student assistant asked me if I was ok.

Back stage we were all a mess. Erina hugging the baby doll, Rita and Denise and me crying. People standing and processing what has happened. Of course they have to go back out on that stage in a trice and finish up the show almost like nothing has happened since it is a year latter. How they do it I do not know, but I give them much positive energy and encouragement.

So, why the Thing? We discussed this last night, at length, after rehearsal ended. At first I really questioned the need for it. I thought it was in poor taste when I first heard about it. In the novel, much like in Joseph Conrad’s “Typhoon” you do not see the lynching just as you do not see the storm that you know is going to destroy the boat. There are all of the events leading up to it, and then the devastating aftermath and its effect on the town. One townswoman says she is going to let her children stay up late to watch the lynching. People did this, they really did—they brought picnics to make a day out of a lynching. Then, this happened in the days of yore, this grim fascination with watching the execution of another person. In England this happened at Tyburn, in the South, in plenty of places all over. Then in the book it is the next day. No actual description of Big Henry’s death. Sam Perry describes dragging Dessie away from the crowd, afraid they would lynch her as well. There is some reaction from people in the town. But there is no lynching in the book. How do you describe something so awful, so primal, so disgusting, and emotionally charged in words for a book? What words do you use to describe man at his basest? Many years ago, in graduate school, my class on museum studies was discussing the creation of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. There was talk about possibly putting sound in some of the exhibits like the barracks from Poland. Someone in the class asked why they did not pipe sound in the recreation of the gas chamber. I was sitting at the head of the table, and I looked up from the text for the class and said “Because there is no one who can tell you what it sounded like inside the gas chamber.” The whole class got quiet as the reality of what I said sunk in—because there is no one alive who can tell you what it sounded like inside a gas chamber in a concentration camp. I think that the Thing sends a powerful message to people. This, unlike the mess in a horror movie, actually happened. It happened here in North Carolina, it happened in Oklahoma, it happened in Texas. It is happening in Haiti, it happens in South Africa, in India, and it still happens in America.

When we moved to North Carolina we came at the dying tail end of Jim Crow. 1967 was the year of the of the Loving decision that made anti-miscegenation laws illegal. 66 years into the twentieth century and we needed a Supreme Court decision to strike down laws that made inter-racial marriage illegal. But our schools in Wake County were still pretty much segregated, and there were still places along Hillsborough Street in Raleigh that did not serve people of color at the counter. That still happened into the early 1970s in a few places across the street from where I now work. My first supervisor here at the Library, the charming, wonderful Doretha Blalock, was the first full time African American para-professional employed by the NCSU Libraries. And she could not get service at the lunch counters across the street from where she worked. In 1970. Makes you think, doesn’t it. Are the old Virginia Slims cigarettes ads wrong, have we really not come a long way baby? Now it is signs in some places about speaking English only. We are in the sixth year of the twenty-first century and we still need a Voting Rights Act, because there are people out there who will call African Americans and tell them that they do not vote on Tuesday, but that they vote on Wednesday, that they need a government issued ID in order to be able to vote, etc…

I once asked my Mother if we had moved to North Carolina earlier would she and my Father would have been involved in the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1960s my parents were in Israel, where they met—and in the 50s my Mother was not in the States, my father was in the Army overseas and in graduate school. Her answer was “Yes, I am sure we would have been involved.” We came to North Carolina because my Father got a job teaching Spanish at Shaw University, one of two Historically Black Colleges or Universities in Raleigh. We had as many strikes against us as you can guess: Jewish, foreign, Yankees, teaching at Shaw. And, to add insult to injury, we stayed, making us “Damn Yankees.” We could not join a swim and tennis club, the ones in Raleigh (most of the pools were still mentally segregated by people) that took whites did not take Jews. The first “country” club to take Jews opened in 1971. Our membership number was 97. I still remember the stares my interracial best friend, Nancy, got when we went to the pool that was sort of near us down Wade Avenue. It was private, I cannot remember how we got in, but it had to have been 1974, and people were staring at her. It closed in the early 1980s or late 1970s, still privately owned, and still “exclusive” in its membership. The land was too valuable to be a dying pool, and is now townhouses (which flood because the land was fill in the first place and they did not take into consideration that it was at the bottom of two hills).

Will the Thing shock people? Will it offend people? Well, yes, it will. Will people shake their heads and mutter that it was “not in good taste.” Yes. Will it make people think? Will it make people realize that this is a part of our not-too-distant past and our very active present? I sure as heck hope so.

Many thanks go to the cast and crew of this production. What an amazing group of people.

For more on the 1967 decision ‘Loving versus Virginia’ see the Wikipedia entry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia

Load in at Memorial Hall.

To quote a “Dilbert” cartoon: the employee of the week award goes to Alice for boldly trying the door knob.” Thank heavens for my friends and especially for my friend Stephanie. Without them I would be nothing.

I started the load in process for “Strange Fruit” yesterday. The redone Memorial Hall is just posh. I remember it from my days as an undergraduate at UNC, and it was awful: no real dressing rooms, almost no back stage space, no fly system, no pit… the list of nos continues. Now, fantastic dressing rooms with lots of light and makeup mirrors, large bathrooms with showers, two “star dressing rooms” for individuals. Having read some of the contract riders for musicians that are posted on the Smoking Gun website, I can tell you that some stars demand a dressing room all to themselves. Shades of Virginia Woolf, I guess. There is a large area for meeting or a lounge near the dressing rooms.

Now that the encomium for Memorial is done…

My friend Stephanie agreed to help me with load in last night. With my Mother temporarily out of the game recovering from her hand surgery, I knew there was no way I could handle it all on my own. The first thing I did was make my LOTOD (List Of Things tO Do). I noted where all of the costumes for “SF” were, be it my house, Mother’s, or my car. I listed what I needed to bring from various locales like my sewing machine, an iron, seam rippers, scissors, etc… I made sure I had time to snuggle with the Tiger Kitten before I left the house, because I knew it was going to be a long night ahead of me. I got to Memorial and there was no one around that I could see, and no doors open that I could find. I did not, however, try the one door that I was told in an email to try. I made some phone calls, I left some messages, I started the crossword puzzle in the “Daily Tar Heel” while waiting for Stephanie. I thought about food…

Stephanie arrived and we went to dinner. I like Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta, so I know where I am going to have dinner tomorrow night as well. While we were walking back to Memorial I worried about having to start late if the building was not going to open until 7.00. We got to our cars, and Stephanie looked at the loading dock and asked “did you try that door.” Up she goes, turns the knob, and the rest is history—hence the “Dilbert” reference above.

The first thing we did was go downstairs to the dressing area. There is one huge dressing room that can be split into two spaces. We will do the split and the choruses will be housed there. For right now, it is my base camp. We walked around, counting dressing rooms and locating rolling racks. Then we unloaded my very full car! We used one of the rolling racks and made trips back and forth. Then I started to separate out the costumes on to racks so I knew what I needed to do with each one, what needed fitting, what needed alterations, what was ready to go, and the like. I had a ton of shirts and pants I had purchased at various places for the men in the show. Those all got hung up and I put out the shoes I bought on my Saturday shopping spree. Then I started getting people down in my lair so I could do fittings! Charles is now done! Robert needs one pair of pants altered, I need to sew buttons for braces on Jermaine’s pants…. All of the things I need to do are written in my trusty notebook. The most important thing that needed doing was that I needed to fit Jason McKinney in his costumes. He is stepping into the role of Big Henry with a short notice. Jason is a large young man, but it was so easy to work with him. I have to locate another pair of tux pants (found!), a larger tux shirt (found!), larger tee shirts, but the white coat I have will have to do. Vintage white coats are a rare find. This one just fits. The problem is that they yellow with age. From the stage that is okay with the lights. Now I just need to find a … wait, I do not want to give anything away! To find out what else I need to find for Big Henry you will just have to come and see the production.

One member of the chorus came down stairs to look at things and saw all of the racks. "Did you do all of this on your own?" she asked me. "It is like loaves and fishes." I am amazed at the amount of stuff for this show. So many dresses and pants and shirts and suits.

I got the dressing room assignments done and emailed Corwin the list so he can tell the cast members where they will be living for the next few weeks. I cannot believe that our first dress is a week from yesterday! I put out the costumes that I could in the person's dressing room. My work space looks a little emptier!

Stephanie and I got lots of things done, and I have a long list of things left to do. I know how I am spending lunch today and tomorrow and the next day…

Have a super day folks!
David

Thrift store adventures

I love, and I do mean LOVE, shopping at thrift stores. I call them boutiques. When people admire a shirt or a cool sweater I tell them, “I got it at the boutique.” They know just what I mean. My friend Lynn is the Queen of boutique shopping. I can tell her I need a suit in a particular size or color and she will be right on it. For “Faust” several years ago I needed a baby doll. That next week I had three to audition. It was rather creepy, given that we had to wrap the baby in cloth and Marguerite puts it in a river to drown.

I started my Saturday adventures at the huge yard sale that the NCSU Theater is having. Thompson Theater is closing for two years for a complete overhaul. Everything that is worth saving is going into deep storage, and the rest has to be sold. I went to the first one a couple of weeks ago and got a dress and vintage blouse and some other stuff. This past Saturday’s mission was to locate shoes. Vintage shoes are the bane of any costume designer’s existence. They are almost impossible to find for men, and not much easier for women. I did find 6 pairs of women’s shoes that look the period for “Strange Fruit.” I can use them for those who need them. I hate asking people to provide their own shoes, but still, you do what you have to do. I hit about 4 or so thrift stores up near US 1 North. Retales (all of the proceeds go to help spay and neuter pets), the Salvation Army, and Goodwill Industries. I am a Goodwill maven. I probably know where all of them are in a several county radius of Raleigh.

I drug Steve along. What a patient friend. He held the list while I drove around. We ate a taco stand on North Market Square Drive. MMMMMM, inexpensive and good! I had the rolled tacos with guacamole and sour cream and was in heaven. You can tell a good taco stand by the people who patronize it. I wanted afters, but was a good boy.

I did locate shirts and men’s shoes at Retales. I hope I have enough. Ahhh, back in the day when I used to shop for shoes with Imelda, this was never a problem.

My Mother has had surgery on her left hand. This pretty much leaves her as my technical advisor. Last night I did get the red dress cut for Dessie/Rita. It will be fun making it!

I also spent two hours at Hancock’s Fabrics on Sunday. I got all of the fabric for Venus and Adonis. Geoff and I have talked about the costumes for the show. We are going for a simple look. Clean lines, but nice fabrics. I think I have that covered.

Today I get to move in to Memorial Hall. I love an adventure!
David

David Serxner--Costume Whisperer

I have a new mission in life. As of today I am…a Costume Whisperer. I have the unique gift to have garments tell me their stories. Betty Adorno at Raleigh Creative Costumes pointed this out to me today.

As you all know by now, RCC is closing. 32 years of my life will be ending at the end of June. I am looking for the silver lining in this cloud, and think I have found it. I am David Serxner, Costume Whisperer. For the past several few weeks I have been spending what little spare time have at RCC selecting and pricing vintage items for our vintage clothing tag sale. As I said in an earlier post, RCC really did become Raleigh’s attic for any number of years. I have found incredible vintage fashions in our costume rental stock and in what we call “Dead Storage.” Dead Storage is for the really nice items, couture items, furs—things that we cannot get rid of, but cannot really rent out either. Today alone I tagged several dresses from a 50’s designer and priced an item from a French contemporary of Christian Dior. I have a background in vintage clothes and textiles, so I can price items by looking at them, but for the real high-end items, like the Victor Costa or the Albert Nippon two-piece suit, I use the web to check prices. I have been coming into the shop at 5.30 most mornings and pulling clothes, going to my regular 10 hour a day job, then back to the shop and pricing the clothes, and then working on stuff for Long Leaf. Sleep is for the tired.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine lost a whole lot of weight. She is active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, so she has a lot of mediaeval garb. She gave me all of the stuff she had now reverse outgrown.” I loaned them to RCC, knowing that they would get rented out with not much problem! She came with me to the shop, so I could do some quick repairs on a couple of items that needed taking in for her! Whilst I was sewing away she walked around taking in the vast wonders of RCC. She came back and said, “I could never work here. All of the energy from the people who have worn all of these costumes would bother me.” It never really bothered me, but I did not know then that I was “David Serxner—Costume Whisperer.”

Some of the stories these clothes have told me.

I found a Jewish Grandmother from the Bronx’s bar mitzvah dress. She wore it to her grandson Irving’s bar mitzvah. She gave him a bond.

The hostess dress worn by a woman at an Italian restaurant. Lovely floaty thing from the 1970s. Blue tones and some silver, a little glittery. She had big hair with tendrils, and she smoked. She had a long cigarette holder. She was either the wife or sister of the owner of the restaurant. This had to be up North. I am thinking Philly.

One lady picked up a dress this afternoon at the preview with these HUGE floating sleeves. I looked at the dress and said, “She drank.” Betty said to the woman “He is a Costume Whisperer.”

There is the green mother of the groom dress. I know how the conversation went. “My Mother is wearing pink. Yours gets to wear green.” The couple is no longer married.
My absolute favorite is the large maroon dress. Clearly this dress is from a wedding. Clearly it was worn by someone’s cousin (but it was a cousin where you are not 100% sure HOW they are related). The conversation between the Mother of the Bride and the Bride To Be went like this:
MOB: You have to have Shirley in your wedding, she is related.
BTB: I do not like Shirley. How is she related? On Dad’s side?
MOB: She is related. We have to have her in wedding. Her family had us over for the 4th five years ago. Put her at the book.
Poor Shirley. It is not a flattering dress.

I really am looking for the silver lining in all of this. It is fun; coming up with stories for things, but it is heart breaking at the same time. We are selling our stock, giving local theater companies first dibs at things. Broughton High School came yesterday (and I made a contact) and I am buying for Long Leaf and for Durham Academy. Boleyn came in today and I sold her stuff. Tomorrow I will do more looking (I am finding more of my stuff) and we have someone who might be interested in buying the rental stock coming to take a look. I cried a little bit when I was talking to Boleyn this afternoon. I did see a few friends at the preview tonight, and they did get some stuff, so I do know that some items will go to good homes.

Happy Memorial Day folks. Remember, hug a vet.
David

More fittings, more driving!

With gas for my car at almost $3.25 a gallon I am really trying not to do too much driving around aimlessly. Yesterday, however, I think will go down in the books as a day of aimless driving. First I got confused on the day I was supposed to be teaching in Durham at Durham Academy. I was tootling down 40 when I thought to call the drama teacher and tell him that I was on my way. Thank goodness I was at the Morrisville exit when he told me that it was NEXT Tuesday that I needed to be at school. So I turned around and went back to work at the "real world" job. Then I left to go to Chapel Hill, since I was told that rehearsal was going to be at Southern Village. I arrived at Southern Village with no clue and not email directing me to a rehearsal space. I am not going to say anything about Southern Village. I looked around SV hoping to see a fellow LLO person, but no such luck. I hunt down my contact list and start to call people. Finally someone calls me back, after I have left a couple of grumpy messages on people's voice mail (Sorry!). Rehearsal is going to be at the studio in Durham. By that point it is almost 7.30, and I know that there is no way in heck I am going to make it across by 7.30, or even close to 8.00. I do not speed, I am not a speed demon. I travel the speed limit or maybe 2 miles over. I got there at 8.00, which means that the traffic gods were smiling upon me.

As an aside. I really like the area of Durham where Legacy Studio is housed. The reconditioned warehouses are really neat, all that brick. It sure beats some of the buildings out there. I am an ardent preservationist!

Back to Tuesday. The good news is that I got a ton of fittings done. Now all of the female chorus, save one is costumed. Nonnie is almost done, Alva and Dorothy are done--and I have left the men's chorus to fend for themselves. Well, I told them what to locate. Most men will have jeans and flat fronted pants and shirts in their wardrobes. At least I hope so... Shoes are proving to be the pain, as they almost always are for period productions. Character shoes look like character shoes, and vintage shoes are usually too small for 21st century feet. I hunt thrift stores looking for modern shoes that have that retro look. It is a pain. I hate shoe shopping, even for my shoes.

Tonight I will continue to work on the men's costumes. I am also going to pull items from Raleigh Creative Costume's stock to buy for Long Leaf's stock. I am going for Victorian and early 20th century for LLO. This weekend we are doing a showing of the vintage items I have been pricing for the specialty sale at RCC. It just breaks my heart, it really does.

I will spend this weekend, in addition to my usual trip downtown for Memorial Day activities, working on Venus and Adonis and the Bear. Remember to hug a vet not just on Monday, but as often as possible. My hugs go to my late Grandfather (WWI), my late God Parents (WWII, Korea), my Father (Korea, and 20+ years of desk service), and Jason (Iraq I & II, the Balkans, and others).
David

Photo session adventures

We had the first of our photo shoots last night and I took the opportunity to do some fittings for the principal singers. What a joy! I asked my friend Steve to ride shotgun with me, basically so that he could take notes when I needed them taken or help with something when I needed three hands. You get the picture…

My friend David Loyer took the pictures. Jim asked if I knew a photographer during the first sing through and I immediately thought of David. I like it when I recommend people I know who do a good job to other people.

I wanted candid pictures of the behind the scenes action during the photo shoot. David can do all of the magic to make things look good, but I wanted to show people the nuts and bolts of the process. David has all of the equipment that I will not even attempt to name—I know what a camera looks like and that is about it. While photo shoots are about the finished product, very few people know that they are basically hurry up and wait situations. The light, the this, the that: all for a finished product that takes two seconds of flash and emote! I am really simplifying things here.

So Steve’s job, while I was doing fittings, was to take pictures of what was going on while David was creating his magic. I took some pictures. I appear in none of them…

I also got some fittings done. The skirt for Nonnie (Erina) does not work. Fortunately I have another one in mind. I need to find pants for Robert, Ronald’s suit is perfect—it fits in that it does not fit (that does make sense). Denese located a uniform she can wear as Bess, the owner of the Salamander Café, the “colored” eating spot in town. Rita looks smashing in her uniform as Dessie. I do wish I had the red dress done so we could have taken pictures of that as well. I need to trick out the uniform so that it appears to be too tight but still fits Rita comfortably so she can sing and move in it. A couple of inside kick pleats will take care of that. I bought Charles’ shirt at the Goodwill on Garret Road with 20 minutes to spare to get to the photo shoot! I asked David to photoshop out the pocket. Pockets did not appear on men’s shirts in mass use until the 1950s. Since this is the 1920s I do not think I want to make Tracey Dean that much of a fashion pioneer. I am really pleased that the items I found in Virginia Beach at Echoes of Time worked for both Caryl and Nicole. I am also glad that I am getting the chance to use things from the period from my collection—makes having one all worth while.

During the hurry up and wait that is a photo shoot we discussed the Lillian Smith novel. Many of the cast has read it, and it has been interesting to get people’s reactions to the text. It was nice to talk to Rita about it. Like me, Rita did not grow up speaking English at home, so the first question I asked her was if she had as much trouble translating the dialect writing that Smith used for some of the African American characters into what we think of as 21st century English. I would like to have one day where we all get together and have a facilitated discussion of the text. I am really interested in hearing other people’s reactions to it.

This Sunday I am doing more fittings for the female chorus. I do it ala Filene’s basement. I have the clothes with the sizes and we just try things on until we find what fits. I need to remember to tell folks about not wearing perfume and the like while they are in costume. This is especially true with vintage items as I have to be careful not to take them to the cleaners too frequently since they are a little more fragile than newer items. Most all of the vintage items I have are in excellent condition. I do buy for study or pattern drafting purposes, but not too frequently. I am lucky that I have access to the textile collection at the NCSU Gallery of Art and Design (I am one of their textile consultants for vintage clothes and do some of their repair/conservation work). Their collection pretty much covers the whole 20th century, so I can study at will.

Back off to work. I had my end of the year appraisal yesterday. I scored a “very good” or 4. I am pretty well chuffed about that. Thank heavens for job security!

Have a super weekend all.

Measure twice, cut once

I made a terrible mistake on Thursday — I listened to another person when it comes to getting a certain measure of fabric. As a rule I listen to my Mother or to Doug Haas when it comes to getting fabric. We discuss the pattern, we discuss the nap, direction, pattern, etc… and determine how much we will need and then I go from there. Not on Thursday, no siree Bob. Thusly I did not get enough of the black fabric for the costume for the female lead in the “Bear.” We got the dress all ready to go, pattern pieces laid out: what goes on the fold, what gets lined, what pieces need to be lengthened and where, making sure the direction on the fabric is marked every 5 or so inches so there are no pieces placed wrong. We got the bodice laid out, cut the lining, draw the elongations, start to cut—and then Mother asks:

“How much of this material do we have?”

The cutting stops. I look up. I have nothing to say. I pull the pattern piece. I lay it on the fabric. I am very quiet.

“Um… not enough,” is my reply, “I think I did something wrong here.” This is on Sunday, when the fabric store is closed until Noon or 1:00—and I have to be in Durham for the first sing through for “Strange Fruit” so I can meet people and talk to the chorus at 2:00. I was supposed to get this fabric cut and delivered to Shirley in Durham at 1:00 so she can make the dress. What do I do? I curse myself for listening to the person at the fabric store instead of trusting my own instincts. It is my own fault for not doing that, I cannot blame the person at the fabric store for my error.

I called Shirley, wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, and tell her that I will have to bring her the fabric on Thursday, if that is OK with her. That means less time for her to make the dress, but Shirley is good, real good, and this will not phase her. But it rattled me.

On my way to Durham on Sunday I redid my route so I could stop at the Hancock’s Fabrics on Hillsboro Road. Hancock’s is closing stores in the “smaller markets” like Cary and Rocky Mount—so it is harder for me to locate a store that is close to me now in case of an emergency. I only shop at the other fabric store chain if I simply cannot find what I want at Hancock’s. The customer service at the other store is not good, they try to charge for swatches, and they will not give me a frequent shopper discount (I get 10% off non-sale items at Hancock’s). I just prefer not to go there. I got to Hancock’s with my swatch in hand from the not enough piece of fabric. I find a match! I am so happy because there is enough to cut the bodice out of this piece and the skirt out of the other.

I get it to my studio and we go out for Mother’s Day dinner. Last night we spread the new piece out.

It does not match. It is not even remotely close to matching. Well, it is the same fabric composition and the same process was used to make both fabrics. I curse myself—again. Mother looks at it and says “Get in the car, go to Hancock’s and hope they have something else.” I do, they did, and I got enough to make what we need. Mother is cutting it as I write so I can get it to Shirley on Thursday.

The good thing is that I can use the first and second fabrics purchased for other things next year when LLO does "Regina." So I will bundle it all up and take it to storage.

Lessons learned here:
1) Never listen to someone you do not know
2) Lay out all of the pieces first before you pin and cut
3) Measure twice, so you really only do cut once and make only one trip to the fabric store.


Have a super day all!
David