The Joys of Being Wanted...
Y'know, every time I think I've got things figured out at work, something comes out of left field and really throws me for a loop. Sometimes, it's good stuff...
We are doing, for the tenth consecutive year, the Zombie Mambo for Frightmares. It is the only show left over from when they started Frightmares entertainment...all the others have been retired, or at least put on the shelf for a little while. This is the show the park can't live without, despite our repeated efforts to get them to replace it.
In 2001, on the fifth anniversary of the show (and our first real attempt to put it on the shelf, only to be told that we WERE going to do that show), the directors decided the show needed a facelift...so I got to design a whole bunch of new zombie costumes, along with renovating a couple of the old ones. They were fun...the concept of the zombie costumes has, from day one, been that the living dead, in coming to life, kind of wandered through their respective graveyards and gathered up whatever caught their eye for clothing. This led, initially, to an incredible assortment of the most uncommon conglomerations of clothing items I think I've ever seen. When we re-designed them, the guys' stuff stayed very similar, but the girls got a major overhaul...and they went from being just a funky outfit to having some kind of theme, or feel, to them (the year we did that, the director had all the performers write up eulogies for their characters, including a name, where they lived, what they did for work, and how they died.) It was a lot of fun, and I was really excited for the chance to do it.
Well, here we are, five years later, and we've all but given up on retiring the Zombies...we don't pitch the show for our Frightmares lineup anymore, but we know that it will be part of the lineup by the end of the meeting. And it's still very popular--we know we'll have a big crowd gather around to watch it. Through the years, we've tried different tricks to make it new, or give it more life...changing some of the songs, adding a lot of extra props and tricks to the show, putting it on one of the stages instead of out on the midway...but, somehow, we always seem to come back to where we started.
Well, this year, our director decided the show is due for another facelift...a MAJOR one. The tenth anniversary of the show will see us going back to the original music and a lot of the original choreography (or, at least, that's the impression I've been given--I know the music detail is accurate); but the makeup and costumes will have a VERY different look to them.
I find myself in a position of being the only costume designer the director has offered a second job to (I made some costumes for a different Frightmares show last fall). Now, I was very pleased with what I did last fall, but I was never really sure just how well it sat with Ken. Apparently, he was really pleased, too...because we're also doing that same show again, and using those costumes--and because he came to me with the zombie costume job.
I'm really excited...this has been a very different project so far. In the past, doing a zombie costume was literally a matter of going into the costume closet, finding some items that had a fun look and were not likely to ever see use on our stage again (when you've been making costumes out of dupioni silk, the idea of going back to cheap lame (the material, not an adjective) costumes just makes you cringe), and piecing them together in such a way that we created some kind of costume (generally with kind of a non-specific period feel or some kind of exotic 'flavor'...) Ken doesn't like those costumes...he doesn't feel like there's any sort of unifying theme to them. And, to be frank, he's right...they look kind of period, but they don't look like the same period, or region, or anything of the sort.
This has been a project involving research, finding appropriate details for various costumes (what hat looks right with that jacket, yet is still 'dance-able'?), sketches, figuring out a color palette, shopping for swatches, modifying patterns...all stuff that I never figured, once upon a time, I'd have to worry about in my job.
I love it...I told Ken last fall that the hardest thing for me to deal with in working here is getting to the point where I feel like there are no longer new challenges. That's one of the reasons why Frightmares is my reward for dealing with the rest of the season...because so much of the rest of the season is just routine...wash for this show is this day, that show goes in next, the other show gets done tomorrow...Yes, I can patch that hole, No, I can't rebuild those shoes but I've got some others in storage that we can use instead...
So I REALLY love the fact that he's putting some tall hurdles in my path. And I'm VERY excited to see these costumes start coming together...the reactions to them, thus far, have been very good (although at this point, I'm still on the 'sketches and swatches' phase of the project...but I've been working on patterns and hope to start building next week when we go off full-time); the excitement other people have been expressing helps build my own excitement to get it done.
Just gotta figure out what I'm going to do with the old costumes...;) But that's a problem for the off-season...
Y'know, every time I think I've got things figured out at work, something comes out of left field and really throws me for a loop. Sometimes, it's good stuff...
We are doing, for the tenth consecutive year, the Zombie Mambo for Frightmares. It is the only show left over from when they started Frightmares entertainment...all the others have been retired, or at least put on the shelf for a little while. This is the show the park can't live without, despite our repeated efforts to get them to replace it.
In 2001, on the fifth anniversary of the show (and our first real attempt to put it on the shelf, only to be told that we WERE going to do that show), the directors decided the show needed a facelift...so I got to design a whole bunch of new zombie costumes, along with renovating a couple of the old ones. They were fun...the concept of the zombie costumes has, from day one, been that the living dead, in coming to life, kind of wandered through their respective graveyards and gathered up whatever caught their eye for clothing. This led, initially, to an incredible assortment of the most uncommon conglomerations of clothing items I think I've ever seen. When we re-designed them, the guys' stuff stayed very similar, but the girls got a major overhaul...and they went from being just a funky outfit to having some kind of theme, or feel, to them (the year we did that, the director had all the performers write up eulogies for their characters, including a name, where they lived, what they did for work, and how they died.) It was a lot of fun, and I was really excited for the chance to do it.
Well, here we are, five years later, and we've all but given up on retiring the Zombies...we don't pitch the show for our Frightmares lineup anymore, but we know that it will be part of the lineup by the end of the meeting. And it's still very popular--we know we'll have a big crowd gather around to watch it. Through the years, we've tried different tricks to make it new, or give it more life...changing some of the songs, adding a lot of extra props and tricks to the show, putting it on one of the stages instead of out on the midway...but, somehow, we always seem to come back to where we started.
Well, this year, our director decided the show is due for another facelift...a MAJOR one. The tenth anniversary of the show will see us going back to the original music and a lot of the original choreography (or, at least, that's the impression I've been given--I know the music detail is accurate); but the makeup and costumes will have a VERY different look to them.
I find myself in a position of being the only costume designer the director has offered a second job to (I made some costumes for a different Frightmares show last fall). Now, I was very pleased with what I did last fall, but I was never really sure just how well it sat with Ken. Apparently, he was really pleased, too...because we're also doing that same show again, and using those costumes--and because he came to me with the zombie costume job.
I'm really excited...this has been a very different project so far. In the past, doing a zombie costume was literally a matter of going into the costume closet, finding some items that had a fun look and were not likely to ever see use on our stage again (when you've been making costumes out of dupioni silk, the idea of going back to cheap lame (the material, not an adjective) costumes just makes you cringe), and piecing them together in such a way that we created some kind of costume (generally with kind of a non-specific period feel or some kind of exotic 'flavor'...) Ken doesn't like those costumes...he doesn't feel like there's any sort of unifying theme to them. And, to be frank, he's right...they look kind of period, but they don't look like the same period, or region, or anything of the sort.
This has been a project involving research, finding appropriate details for various costumes (what hat looks right with that jacket, yet is still 'dance-able'?), sketches, figuring out a color palette, shopping for swatches, modifying patterns...all stuff that I never figured, once upon a time, I'd have to worry about in my job.
I love it...I told Ken last fall that the hardest thing for me to deal with in working here is getting to the point where I feel like there are no longer new challenges. That's one of the reasons why Frightmares is my reward for dealing with the rest of the season...because so much of the rest of the season is just routine...wash for this show is this day, that show goes in next, the other show gets done tomorrow...Yes, I can patch that hole, No, I can't rebuild those shoes but I've got some others in storage that we can use instead...
So I REALLY love the fact that he's putting some tall hurdles in my path. And I'm VERY excited to see these costumes start coming together...the reactions to them, thus far, have been very good (although at this point, I'm still on the 'sketches and swatches' phase of the project...but I've been working on patterns and hope to start building next week when we go off full-time); the excitement other people have been expressing helps build my own excitement to get it done.
Just gotta figure out what I'm going to do with the old costumes...;) But that's a problem for the off-season...
posted by Curtis at 12:34 AM
2 Comments:
I've never seen a Frightmares show. Are they stage shows or something that happens on the midway? How many are there? Seems like a ton of work for you. I hope they appreciate how hard your job is.
We actually have shows on stages (the Wailin' Witches and the Hypnotysm) and on the midway (Zombie Mambo), as well as a roaming group that does both (Hackenslash Chainsaw Team). They aren't very long (I think the Witches show is about 20 minutes--the hypnotist show is the longest, but that's someone we contract with to come in and do the show, we just provide a stage and tech support).
Frightmares is actually my favorite time of year on the park. Yeah, it's a lot of work, and it keeps me busy...but the ambiance on the park is different, somehow, and I just enjoy it more (besides, it's the one time of year I can wear jeans and not have any concern about anyone giving me crap for it...I'm not about to do makeup on twenty-some-odd people in my nice dress pants!)
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