Fader Var / Our Father

(A Merry Merry Christmas to everyone! I promise, as soon as the holiday is over I'll do an in-depth post about I Remember Mama performances and such.)

performances...

...for I Remember Mama are going swimmingly! We had three performances last weekend, one last night, now three remain: tonight, and a double hitter tomorrow.

Full recap, pictures, etc. coming soon!

Left-to-right: Aunt Jenny, Aunt Trina (moi!), Aunt Sigrid

everyday, comes something beautiful...

Opening Night for I Remember Mama is tonight!

This week has been a whirlwind of tech and dress rehearsals. Sunday night was our first tech run-through and I was at the theater from 3 till midnight. Yes, nine hours. Craziness. Also, I had to style my wig myself . . . but I think it turned out great. When Tina (she plays "Mama"/has super-dark hair like me) and I put on our wigs for the first time and showed everybody we got the best responses. People's jaws dropped and they couldn't believe how convincingly we carry off blonde. Yay. On Monday the newspaper came. I wasn't interviewed but the photographer took a bunch of pictures of the aunts so perhaps I'll get my picture in the article(which comes out today). (*EDIT: Dad just came home with a copy of the newspaper. We three aunts are on the entire cover of the arts section . . . in full color and everything. It's basically just our faces. A really, really closeup of our faces. A little close for comfort in my opinion, but mum says it looks "beautiful.") We've been putting finishing touches on costumes . . . I'm in five scenes and I have five costume changes. Funness. Each outfit is complete with matching gloves and hats (really, really big hats). I love the clothes from this time period.

Backstage is crowded but a streak of energy and excitement always courses throughout. It smells of stage makeup, hairspray, and sometimes burnt hair from someone's curlers. There's makeup, wigs, bags, scripts and a hundred other things scattered on the counters in front of the mirrors, on tables, etc. Nightly routine: I put my hair up in a wig cap and then comes the makeup. Then the parts of my hair by my ears and neck that are still showing are sprayed with white hair-spray-dye stuff. Next I put my wig on. Lastly Jim ("Uncle Chris"/he's excellent at makeup and wigs) pins the wig on securely and covers the white parts with a yellow powdery base. Doing the latter thing actually makes it look as if the roots of my hair are blonde. So cool.

What I'm most nervous about is not laughing onstage. It's hard enough to keep a straight face in scenes with Uncle Chris, and when I see another cast member (*cough*SarahorTina*cough*) I just about lose it. But I suppose that keeps me on my toes. :)

So! I'm off to the theater! And I'd like to say a huge "BREAK A LEG" to my best friend Traci who is also opening for a play tonight, albeit on the other side of the country! Knock 'em dead, Tracers.