Pin pointed some good moments tonight.
We all did.
…Working our asses off, never looked so esthetically pleasing.
…Nor as funny on apparent total accident.
(It is no accident, these people are funny. And so is the show.)
Tonight, trying some new wardrobe changes in act two had me doing my hair no less than three times for the evening. My scalp was a bobby pin nightmare by the end, but it was totally worth it, and I’ve now been locked-and-loaded in all my visual incarnations.
Gwendolen is a very specific creature of very specific style and accessory.
…Which makes owning and flitting about in it, (as if one did so all the time), a total necessity. And I’m riding that wave tighter every night.
As is usually the case, the rest of the “her” I was looking for, showed up with the costumes, hair, and intimate props. These are always my final touchtones to the characters I play, which means I am fussy about them, and endlessly futz with them, because they must ultimately become so virtually a part of me, that there is absolutely no question as to the form and function of each and why they are a part of the tool kit the character uses.
…Meanwhile finding “the final look” is often a work in progress. Fine tuning, rearranging, and adding small details are what seperate the men from the boys in this field…each step of which, influences the actor and their work. And because this is the late Victorian era, there is a hell of a lot of “detail” to be tuned into.
Much like Oscar’s verbiage, it is not a matter-of-less is more, or more-is-more, but rather: ostintatious-is-the-ordinary.
More of everything, including fringe, lace, jewelry, prints, pillows, tea, and accessories, Art Directed in such a way as to appear completely normal in form.
…And once that is added, the actors adjust, work, and incorporate accordingly.
Due to the total difference in hats and new alterations in costume tonight (for instance), this means I’ll be doing two completely different coifs each performance.
Because Oscar is a wise man…and no doubt realized what it takes for a woman of the period to change and prep and do such things…I have around 30 minutes (including an intermission) in order to achieve it all.
Plenty of time.
…If still a monster task.
…And the result is (even if I do say so myself) supremely smart, therefor totally worth it.
It is all totally worth it.
…When you hit those moments, the sweet spots, where everything just seems to fall into place, and everything becomes just a little more supremely delicious in texture, and line, and look, and delivery; when you are truly playing with another person on stage, with all the rules assembled, but the open possiblity of surprise sizzling in the air between you: that is what it’s all about.
Finding that with people you didn’t even know three months ago, still blows my mind with wonder.
And the friendships that come with that requirement of total unflinching trust, is what builds the real joy in what we do.
At least it does for me.
Applause ain’t even half of it.
~D
