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Project: Crochet for theatre
Dec. 17th, 2008 02:08 pmThough the university is on winter hiatus, PlayMakers Repertory is still going strong, producing our next two shows which will run in repertory in January: Lisa Kron's Well, and Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie.
Repertory programming in regional theatre is always an added challenge, since you're juggling two or more shows at once in your production shops. Mismanagement can really trip you up, but if you can hit a good organized stride with it, it's a lot of fun!
One of the projects i'm doing for Well is somewhat unusual, in that it's rare to produce interlooped costume pieces for stage (i.e., knitted or crocheted garments). Theatre productions are often on fast, tight production schedules which don't allow for technicians to devote the amount of time necessary to this area of handmade construction--often, knit and crochet garments are purchased and altered, or constructed from knit/crochet yardage. If something is completely custom-made on this order, it's often done with a knitting machine, or someone in the shop prevails upon their grandmother to volunteer to knit it. Or, if you have a large budget production, you might job it out, like the knitwear worn by the Three Pigs in the recently-opened Shrek: the Musical (viewable in this NY Times slide show)
( Read more... )
If you're into interlooping--knitting, crochet, felted knitting/crochet, and even nalebinding, you might want to check out Ravelry.com, an online clearinghouse of pattern reviews, yarn resources, discussion fora, and bunches of tools for tracking your output/projects/yarn stash, etc. I'm on there under the name labricoleuse, so friend me if you like! Unlike this journal (which, for professional reasons, has no friends-list [1]), i do link to people over there.
ETA 1/31/09: Don't miss part two of this crochet-for-the-stage adventure, posted here!
[1] Why doesn't it have a friends-list? Because i write this blog as a work-sanctioned activity, as part of the PR for the theatre and the university. Sometimes i am posting on-the-clock as part of my workday. I am not, however, reading an aggregate like a flist on the clock so there's no reason to maintain one.
Repertory programming in regional theatre is always an added challenge, since you're juggling two or more shows at once in your production shops. Mismanagement can really trip you up, but if you can hit a good organized stride with it, it's a lot of fun!
One of the projects i'm doing for Well is somewhat unusual, in that it's rare to produce interlooped costume pieces for stage (i.e., knitted or crocheted garments). Theatre productions are often on fast, tight production schedules which don't allow for technicians to devote the amount of time necessary to this area of handmade construction--often, knit and crochet garments are purchased and altered, or constructed from knit/crochet yardage. If something is completely custom-made on this order, it's often done with a knitting machine, or someone in the shop prevails upon their grandmother to volunteer to knit it. Or, if you have a large budget production, you might job it out, like the knitwear worn by the Three Pigs in the recently-opened Shrek: the Musical (viewable in this NY Times slide show)
( Read more... )
If you're into interlooping--knitting, crochet, felted knitting/crochet, and even nalebinding, you might want to check out Ravelry.com, an online clearinghouse of pattern reviews, yarn resources, discussion fora, and bunches of tools for tracking your output/projects/yarn stash, etc. I'm on there under the name labricoleuse, so friend me if you like! Unlike this journal (which, for professional reasons, has no friends-list [1]), i do link to people over there.
ETA 1/31/09: Don't miss part two of this crochet-for-the-stage adventure, posted here!
[1] Why doesn't it have a friends-list? Because i write this blog as a work-sanctioned activity, as part of the PR for the theatre and the university. Sometimes i am posting on-the-clock as part of my workday. I am not, however, reading an aggregate like a flist on the clock so there's no reason to maintain one.
