Summer 2013

What a summer it has been for me!

I left my job at Centre a few weeks early at the beginning of May to return the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Theatre West Virginia offered me the position of Costume Consultant and Costume Designer for 3 of their shows this summer. I was very excited to return, and bring some of my students with me. 

I was in West Virginia for two weeks helping them get started with their season. When I left, my friend Leslie (a Godsend if ever there was one) returned to Kentucky with me to help pack up my apartment and say goodbye. (The girl took a week off of work to pack up boxes of someone else's stuff in an un-air-conditioned apartment. I'll never stop thanking her for that!). 

Then I came back home to North Carolina. I was so excited to have a summer in North Carolina. Even though I would be working in West Virginia, most of my summer was to be spent at home. But life sure is what happens when you are making plans... I spent about a week and a half at home (trying to unpack all of my furniture and things from Kentucky and designing The Wizard of Oz for TWV) and then I went back to West Virginia for the opening of their season. It became clear that Oz was going to be a massive under taking and I was going to need to be in West Virginia longer than the 3 weeks I was suppose to be. I went back home for a week, well maybe 5 days, and then returned to West Virginia to get the party to Oz started. 

The Wizard of Oz is a massive show to produce and manage in all aspects: cast, scenery, props, lights, pyro and costumes, no matter where you are.  No one had an easy time working on this show this summer. There were nights of no sleep, there were nights of tears and there were nights of frustration and anger. And yet somehow we did a show for 1200 people on opening night, and the audience was none the wiser of all the blood sweat and tears that had gone into the show, literally the hour before we opened. As a designer, I am not supposed to be backstage during performances. The wardrobe supervisor and dressers are supposed to take care of costume backstage without the interference of the designer. Well, during our second night of dress rehearsals, both of our dressers hurt themselves to the point where they couldn't run the show and I had to step in as a dresser for opening night. To say I wasn't pleased is an understatement, but the show must go on and you gotta do what you gotta do. 

As emotionally and physically draining as The Wizard of Oz was, I was a little sad to leave. They were going to start working on the next show without me, and I was a sad not to be a part of it. And no matter how hard I try to kill myself at TWV, I really love that theatre and the people there. Plus I had to say goodbye to my students - my time at Centre was really coming to an end when that happened. But as sad as I was to leave, nothing anyone could say or do was going to keep me there an hour longer than I needed to be. The next morning I packed my bags, bright and early, and drove back to North Carolina to go on the beach vacation I had been looking forward to for 2 years. Nothing was going to keep me away...

Until an hour before we get to the beach house I got an offer to intern on a new Broadway Musical in NYC the very next week...

Life. Gotta love it. 

Next Post: Getting to NYC when a plane crashes, you forget your cellphone and starting a new job when you have no idea where you are or what you are doing. And everything else that happens when you decide to jump off a cliff and follow your dreams. :)

Post Script:

From May 4 to August 23, I lived out of a suitcase and I never stayed in one place longer than 3 weeks. That makes for quite an adventurous summer. I never really noticed that I can't sit still. I've signed a lease for NYC that's longer than a year and it freaks me out a little. Living in one place longer than a year!? Weird. 

My Ole Kentucky Home

As I'm sure everyone has gathered from Facebook, I no longer live in Kentucky. Nope, I've moved on to another state - but that's a another post for another time.

Even though this post comes a few months late, I wanted to write something to acknowledge the time I spent in Kentucky. I'm very grateful for the time I spent there because I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I love to cook and bake. I learned that I hate living alone. I learned that I am actually good at managing a shop and teaching students. I learned that I am a city girl at heart. It wasn't really a secret that I wasn't very happy in Kentucky. No, Kentucky wasn't the place to me. But even so, I can't say anything bad about Kentucky. In fact, now that I've been away for a few months, I'm a bit surprised by how much I miss it. Well, not so much it, as much as the people.

The people of Kentucky are bay far some of the nicest people I have ever met. My students were really great and I loved getting to know them. Now that they are back in classes again, I want to talk to them to hear about their summers and talk about their new classes. I really enjoyed hanging out with them and I liked being someone that many of them felt they could come and talk to. I hope that puns and back-offs live on in the Costume Shop because they were some of my most favorite memories (especially the puns that annoyed Matthew).

Speaking of the boss man, I probably miss him the most. I can say with confidence that I will never have another boss that is as supportive and understanding as Matthew. By working with him every day I learned so much about theatre, design and art. I genuinely think he is the smartest man working in theatre and I am eternally grateful for the opportunities he gave me. It was a comfort to know I had someone looking out for me as a peer and as a friend. I'll never really be able to fully express my gratitude to him. Basically, he's just a really awesome guy. Also, I really miss the white pizza ;).

Even though I miss it a lot these days, I know in my heart I made the best decision for me to leave Kentucky. But no matter how far I go, I will think of my old Kentucky home with fondness.