Tech Day 4: Dulocian Costumes and Program Revision

We have finished fitting all of the Dulocians (citizens of Farquaad's kingdom of Duloc) with their costumes. This is a huge group of students of all different sizes and ages so it was challenging to find shirts/leggings/skirts/shorts that fit everyone! 

 We did not have enough yellow leggings for all the Dulocians, but luckily, Mrs. Ruscetta has ordered some more. The purple and silver dresses we ordered for the Dragonettes have also arrived! They are a little big on the girls but we have great sewers altering them. Because there are not enough skirts for the twenty or so female Dulocians, we put boy costumes on some of the girls! Here are two of the "boy" Dulocians in their outfits:

 Since these costumes have been used by other companies, many of the leggings have been stretched out. We had to figure out who could fit into the larger leggings we had and who absolutely needed one of the new, smaller pairs that are being shipped! Thankfully, each of the "girl" Dulocians has a sash around her waist that can hold up the skirt and leggings if they are too big, and each of the "boys" has a pair of blue suspenders to hold up his shorts. In the theater, nothing ever fits perfectly, so part of our job as costumers is to do the best with what we have and "make it work"!

 I also finished editing the program today. Because we have nearly 80 students in the show, it is easy to spell names wrong or mix up roles. Also, Chelsea, the choreographer, has changed/added some roles if she needed extra students in certain numbers, etc. That's why it was so important for me to ask all the students what their roles were and how they spelled their names. I have to get it right in the program and give these kids credit for their hard work!

 The mic plan has also been completed, although it is subject to change as we jump into dress rehearsals next week and see who really needs a mic and who does not have time to switch mics between scenes. When it comes to microphones, timing is everything. Not only do students who are sharing mics need to know their cues and how long they have to switch, but the sound managers (my cousin, Mat, and my sister, Rachel) need to anticipate each actor's entrance/exit so they know exactly when to turn the mics on/off! It's a tough job but we have great kids in charge of it!

Tech Day 3: Lines, Lyrics, and Laughs

Lines, lyrics, and choreography were the focus of this rehearsal. Ms. Miller and I still found time, however, to sneak in a couple of costume fittings. Here is our Fairy Godmother, Olivia, in her costume. We actually put two costumes together - a sparkly blue dress and a blue tulle skirt - to complete this look.

This is Maddie, the Mad Hatter, in her costume. We were lucky to have this outfit donated from another student who had worn it for Halloween!

Rehearsal went really well! Taking a break from costumes and sound allowed the kids to concentrate on their acting and choreography.

With these kids, you've got to expect some backstage shenanigans. Even though they have a long way to go until the show is ready for an audience, the kids still find time for fun!

We've also started to discuss the sound plan - who will have microphones, who will be sharing mics, and when they will need to switch off. With only eight wireless mics, the kids will definitely need to practice detaching their mics and clipping them on to another actor in a short amount of time.

My next task is to start working on the SHREK poster. I will contact the company that created the poster last year for The Wiz and negotiate a deal for this year. Posters are an awesome way to spread the word about the show and bring people in!

Tech Day 2: Cast List and Costumes

Here is our set! I can't believe how amazing it is! I love the platforms in front of the stage; they expand the area by several feet and allow at least four extra actors to be onstage at once.

 The costuming process continued today while we started fitting kids with their outfits! We focused on students with named characters rather than the ensemble groups because the guard/Dulocian costumes are not ready yet. Anna, one of the three little pigs, tried on her costume today. How adorable!

 The costume for Gingy will consist of an all-black outfit and then the actual "cookie" (he snuck into the picture below) strapped onto the front, so we give the illusion the audience is seeing a gingerbread man and not a middle school girl onstage.

NPS theatre brings together kids of all ages who may share nothing in common but a passion for performing. The program is made up of middle school, high school, and even elementary students, pictured below as they get ready to go onstage. By inviting students from all three schools to become part of the SHREK cast, NPS is fostering a love for theatre in children and increasing Narragansett's sense of community!

 Since there are three different Fionas in the show (young, teen, and adult) we needed to make three green dresses fit three girls. To make them look like the same Fiona at different ages, we decided to attach identical red brooches onto each dress in the same spot. That way, even though each green dress is a little different, the uniformity of the brooches will create the illusion that they are all Fiona!

 Here is one of our "Three Blind Mice" in her awesome outfit:

 My other task today, in addition to helping with fittings, was updating the cast list. Believe it or not, many roles have been added or changed since the beginning of rehearsals as students have quit or been given extra parts. As they tried on their costumes, I asked the students how to spell their names correctly (very important for the program) and confirmed each of their roles (also vital)...Some of these kids have three or four roles and will change costumes twice or even three times! Thankfully, we have another week of rehearsals after this to work on quick changes...There will be several of them!

Finally, I have to thank all the moms and Ms. Miller for their hard work on costuming today. It is a HUGE undertaking with 70+ actors and probably almost 100 different costumes, but these parents are so dedicated to the show! We are lucky to have such talented costume designers and seamstresses in our midst. The show could not go on without them!

Tech Day 1

Today SHREK moved from NPS to NHS! It was the first time some of the students had been in the NHS auditorium, and everybody was really excited to start rehearsing "like it's the real deal." The set looks AMAZING (I'll post pictures later) and the paint job is top-notch! Big thanks to all the volunteers who have brought Farquaad's/Fiona's castle/Shrek's swamp to life!

I mainly focused on costumes today. We have awesome "Costume Moms" who organized all the outfits into alphabetical order by the child's last name, so we should not lose/misplace any items! (They are so proactive that they've already taken an inventory of all the items that Hendricken has and supplemented them with Ann's costumes. Then they picked up all the outfits and put them on hangers for each child according to his/her character(s), put the names on folders over the hangers, and made notes of any accessories still left to be purchased/borrowed.)

Ms. Miller and I started trying costumes on some of the "Dragonettes." The dresses we had for them came in just about every color and none of them looked fit for a sassy Dragonette. There was no cohesion among them because the styles were so sporadic - this one's too short, this one's too long, this one has a funny bustle, this one has ruffles, etc.). After talking to Jimmy, we decided that instead of slapping together eight totally unique dresses in lots of different colors, we should purchase eight dresses in the same style and color. One of the parents found a sparkly dress online that comes in both purple and silver, and we're going to order four purple and four silver for the Dragonettes so they all have the same look!

In addition to costuming, I took a run to buy pretzel packs for our hungry actors. My duties as associate producer, I have learned, have as much to do with taking care of the kids as they do with organizing the show.

Later in the rehearsal, I started trying costume pieces on our "Big Bad Wolf," one of the fairy tale creatures that invades Shrek's swamp. We ditched our original silky brown dress from Ann for a much more wolf-y gray coat with fur on the trim. The challenge with costuming SHREK is making human children look like recognizable fictitious creatures. Subtle touches, like the fur trim on a coat, can turn a middle school student into a wolf in no time!

Moss Hart Review confirmed!

My letter to the New England Theatre Conference must have made it, because Ms. Miller has already been contacted by a reviewer from the Moss Hart Memorial Foundation! We have confirmed his attendance at one of the performances, so SHREK is officially in the running for Best Youth Production again. Very exciting!

Also, our online ticketing system at showtix4u.com is working out really well! We've already sold 104 tickets to the first performance, 73 to the second, and 68 to the third! At this rate, all three shows might be sold out.

Next week, we take SHREK to the high school for tech/dress rehearsals. I can't wait to the see the wonderful set that Jimmy and the "Dad Builders" have created. We're lucky to have such talented volunteers working with us to bring SHREK to life!

Makeup Meeting

Today was the first meeting of the Hair/Makeup crew! We have a wonderful parent volunteer in charge as well as several middle school students helping out. I attended the meeting and helped brainstorm general makeup designs for each of the ensemble groups as well as the leads: Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Farquaad, Pinocchio, etc. We also took an inventory of all the makeup we have left over from last year, and listed the products we need to purchase (i.e. sponges, cotton swabs, green paint, blush, makeup remover, and bobby pins). It was very productive and the kids are really excited about designing the hair and makeup for the show. Next week, the crew plans on testing out the looks on each other and finalizing the sketches for the various characters!

Moss Hart Application Submitted!

I just mailed the application for the 2014 Moss Hart Memorial Award! I filled out the application form, wrote a check for the application fee, and attached the "statement of support," explaining why SHREK deserves to win this prestigious title. Here is the statement I submitted to the New England Theatre Conference, which outlines what makes SHREK unique:

Online Ticketing and Moss Hart Applying

Today was extremely productive! Ms. Miller and I discussed how we were going to distribute pre-sale tickets to the SHREK students and parents, and thought we would use the same system from the breakfast fundraiser: print paper tickets, cut them, put in stacks, and fill an envelope for each student so that they can sell them to family members.

I had an idea - why not try to set up an online ticket purchasing system? It would not only save us hours of cutting and labeling, but also be easier to keep track of how many tickets we're selling and money we're collecting. We found a great website called "showtix4U.com," where we registered NPS as a new user, plugged in the dates, times, and prices of the performances, and set up a schedule for selling pre-order tickets (started today, January 13th) and then general admission tickets (starts January 27th). Now everyone can purchase their tickets online, hassle free! All they have to do is go to showtix4U.com, click "Buy Tickets," and "SHREK: The Musical" should appear on their screen! I hope this new system works out, because it could make the ticket-selling process 1000x less stressful. We will also be able to sell tickets at the door by printing sheets of tickets from the "showtix" website, which will in turn keep track of how many are printed so we know how many seats are still available.

After the last performance on February 9th, I will be able to print a summary report of the total number of tickets sold, and will also receive a check for our earnings (minus the small fee the website charges for credit card transactions). This way, we won't have money floating around everywhere and will have most of the it (besides money from tickets purchased at the door) in that single check.

In addition, we discussed the conventional assigned seating policy NPS Theatre has used in the past. I've talked to parents who dislike assigned seating because it's really hard to keep track of the seat numbers and which families want which seats. Ms. Miller and I decided together that "general seating" (first-come, first-served) would be a much easier way to go.

We also assembled a packet of information for each member of the cast, explaining how to order tickets online and how to request advertisements to be put in the program. These packets will be distributed to the students on Wednesday, so that we can get requests for advertisements back as soon as possible and start putting the program together.

Also, no report from Hendricken yet about which costumes were destroyed and which were saved, so we can't rent from RIYT until we know exactly how many outfits we need. Hopefully, I will get some news from the school later this week.

I spent some time in the cafeteria today observing rehearsal. The entire show is blocked now, so it's just a matter of PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Here, our choreographer, Chelsea, demonstrates a move to the dancers to tighten up some choreography:

Finally, I have started the application process for the Moss Hart Memorial Award, which is given to an exceptional "Children & Youth" production in New England every year (courtesy of the New England Theatre Conference - NETC). The program won this award last year for its production of The Wiz. I hope we can defend the title with SHREK!

Crew Leaders

The show is less than a month away! I am currently in the process of assembling crew leaders for the makeup/hair crew, backstage crew, costume crew, and lighting crew. I need parent volunteers to lead each of these groups, which is a big responsibility because they will be in charge of all the students who are also volunteering to work backstage, apply makeup, etc. Thankfully, I made a spreadsheet back in September of the names of parents who are willing to help us out, so I just chose from the list and e-mailed them regarding the positions. I am still waiting to hear back from the parent to whom I offered the Costume Crew leader position, but the others have all accepted the job! Makeup and hair is one of the biggest crews, and those volunteers are going to start meeting once a week starting Thursday to design the makeup/hair for the show and make sketches. As long as everyone does their job, we should have a very organized, efficient technical team this year!

Ogre Ears and Costume Fears

I recently placed an order for 300 "Ogre Ear" headbands that we will sell to students in the weeks prior to the performance and during intermission as another fundraiser! Ordering the headbands was my first experience dealing directly with a company and signing a contract. I needed to fax the signed contract with the shipping/billing address to the company in Illinois, which was also the first time I'd ever used a fax machine! It always looked so alien and intimidating to me, but it's really extremely simple to use as long as you have the right number. I can't wait for the ears to come in! Hopefully, the shipping will be on schedule and they'll arrive at the end of January!

An issue has recently come up concerning costumes. We were planning on renting costumes from Bishop Hendricken, who recently put on SHREK,  but there was a fire there last week and half of the costumes burned. Thankfully, Rhode Island Youth Theater, a company I have worked with for many years, has also done the show and has dozens of costumes available for rental. Ms. Miller has been in touch with Anne, the manager, and she has agreed to let us rent supplementary costumes from her. Sometime this week, Ms. Miller and I will drive to her house and pick out the costumes we need to make up for the ones that were burned. In the theater, you have to be able to roll with the punches, because anything can happen! The fire at Hendricken was definitely a huge inconvenience for us, but we'll make ends meet by finding costumes elsewhere. 

So Much Generosity!

Hello, 2014! I kicked off the New Year by writing thank-you notes to local families who have made generous donations to Shrek. Some of these families have children in the production, but others are simply supporters of the arts who wanted to contribute to the Narragansett Pier Middle School's theater program. I am overwhelmed by the donations we've received from people who believe in Shrek just as much as I do, and I can't wait to plunge into the home stretch of this last month of rehearsals!