Layton's Blog!

The first project

ckuch8ms — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:11:37 +0000

Here’s my first project which I finally figured out how to put online. blah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOoOiyx8HBo

The Final Project

ckuch8ms — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:38:19 +0000

Cross your fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXBHeSfsrs

Playing Catch-Up

ckuch8ms — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:07:00 +0000

I take it back. There is talent on Broadway, it was just hiding at the Lincoln Center. South Pacific was amazing! I had forgotten how much I love that musical. I started tearing up in the first scene when Emil started singing “Some Enchanted Evening.” South Pacific followed by an interview over a quiet drink with Martha Smith, who was so wonderful and so enthusiastic and had such an amazing spirit, was a good ending to a hard and stressful day. Wow. Longest sentence ever.

I ended up going to Barbara Matera Ltd. by myself, which was only scary when I was taking the little elevator up to their floor. I felt bad because they were expecting a larger group and seemed a little surprised when it turned out just to be me, but they were very nice and very willing to show me around their shop. I spoke to the owner of the shop and to a draper and they were very helpful in explaining their roles in the shop in addition to the whole process from bidding for costumes to making them.

The next stop of the day was Izquierdo’s. People other than myself showed up for this tour, which made me very happy. Their shop was amazing; it was just full top to bottom with projects of every kind. Though our tour guide was an actress in addition to working at the studio, and so directed a lot of the conversations towards the topic of acting–at least that’s how it came across to me.

Carelli’s was the final stop of the day before the evening show. I met with Meg Weedon who is a Mary Washington graduate and who is currently working there. It was a good interview, I think, but I started getting a migraine in the middle of it, which is so strange because I don’t normally get migraines. I went back to the hotel afterwards and slept until I had to go to the theatre.

So that was all on Thursday. I don’t know how it ended up that all my contacts wanted to meet that day. I was exhausted afterwards, needless to say.

Ugh.

ckuch8ms — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:41:56 +0000

That was the loneliest trip to New York I’ve ever taken.

Glad to be back in the ‘burg.

Middle of the Week Blues

ckuch8ms — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:29:04 +0000

Well, it appears not much talent is needed to be in The Phantom of the Opera these days. At least, in the last production I saw of it eight years ago the cast members could actually sing. How can Howard McGillin have remained in the title role so long without the ability to sing? I just don’t understand it. Why do I feel like there is so little talent on Broadway these days?

Ugh, it’s been a blah couple of days. I had wanted to go to Central Park yesterday to see the Wildlife Center, the Bethesda Fountain, Library Walk, Balto, and the Belvedere Castle (or maybe just a few of those things). But it looked like it was going to rain, and rain it did, so I changed game plans. I went to the Natural History Museum instead, surprisingly only my second museum trip since I’ve been in New York–I went to the Folk Art Museum on Sunday. After that I just went back to the hotel to work on creative writing homework.

Little Old Ladies are MEAN

ckuch8ms — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:06:04 +0000

They seem to think that just because they are little old ladies they can get away with pushing and shoving without needing to acknowledge or apologize for it, or for the fact that they almost knocked me into an exhibit. I almost pushed them back, but I couldn’t because they were little old ladies. They must realize this… Conniving.

This was all at the Exoticism exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was a smaller exhibit than I expected but it was still worth going to see. I got to see how Western fashion has been influenced by other cultures and they had dresses in the exhibit that dated back to the eighteenth century. They had a robe à la française from 1755 that had some similar aspects to the dress that I have to make for She Stoops to Conquer, but it was made with what Molly Sorkin, the assistant curator of costume, called a bizarre silk. It had a traditional Western floral pattern, but it also had a leopard print on the pattern. Which I found incredibly amusing. I think Emma’s dress should be made with a leopard print. No?

ckuch8ms — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:25:24 +0000

So I had a very literary day today. I started off the morning going to Strand Books, one of my favorite places in New York because it’s “18 miles of books.” Bought a couple of things for myself and a present for Diane. I stayed in Union Square for a while and went to a couple of other bookstores before heading back Uptown. I stopped in at the Drama Book Shop and I was standing at the Costume/Fashion and I think Robert (the one who’s always crying) from this season’s Project Runway was standing next to me. At least it looked like him. I then moved on to the New York Public Library. I said hello to Patience and Fortitude, patted Patience on the rump, and I went to the Rose Main Reading Room to write up a rough draft of my blog post. But when I sat down I realized when I switched purses this morning, I hadn’t packed anything to write with. So I came back to the hotel and here I am, blogging on the fly. Right now I have a break before I go to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology for a guided tour of the Exoticism exhibit. And then Gypsy tonight!

18th Century Overload!

ckuch8ms — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:56:17 +0000

Currently stacked under my bed is my weight in books. I’ve started research for my senior project and I now have more than I know what to do with. But at least now I know what my dress looks like, I got my assignment yesterday. I won’t go into any of the specifics of it right now, I’ll only say… that I’m nervous. I don’t want to worry you, Emma, it’s a beautiful design and I’m going to work my hardest to make it a beautiful dress. I’m just worried about my ability. I mean, I know I’m a good stitcher and I’m understanding what I’ve learned so far in my patterning class, but I’ve never made anything this big. Just pre-senior project jitters, I hope. Now I just have to figure out how to transport my research to New York without it being the only thing in my suitcase.

Saturday at the Studio Theatre

ckuch8ms — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:28:03 +0000

So last Saturday, I went up to DC with Diane and a couple of others to attend the internship/career fair at the Studio Theatre. It went really well. True, I only handed out one resume, but I got to speak one-on-one with Joe Salasovich, the costume shop manager of the Arena Theatre; Marsha LeBoeuf, costume director of the Washington National Opera; Deborah Shippee and Sally Kessler, costume director and draper for the Shakespeare Theatre and Guy Lee Bailer, costume shop manager of the Signature Theatre. I was in Ideas in Performance heaven. Everyone in the DC area I had wanted to speak to for this class and there they were, all sitting down at the same table. And did I have any questions prepared to ask them? Of course not. Well, other than questions about intern and apprenticeships. But that’s okay. Joe Salasovich gave us a tour of the Arena Theatre costume shop because its temporary location during their theatre renovation is just a couple of blocks down from the Studio Theatre. He showed us the costumes that are being built for their upcoming production of Death of a Salesman, which we as a class are going to go see in April and he also mentioned the possibility of us being able to attend an invited dress rehearsal. The other costume directors were also very inviting, offering to give us tours of their own costume shops anytime we were in the DC area again. I need to write them thank you notes before I go to New York.

There’s no snow. The ground is dry. And I’m alone again.

ckuch8ms — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:10:58 +0000

I have a tendency of really losing myself in thought walking back to my room after class on Wednesdays. Mostly because I find I’m the only one heading back to a dorm room instead of an apartment. But it never ceases to amaze me how quiet it can get after the courtyard door swings shut behind me, killing the partial conversations of my classmates still in the stairwell. And suddenly there’s only me, the dark windows of Klein Theatre and the brick path leading me back to Ball. I sometimes even dread reaching the Nest area because I know there’s always people whose own paths I have to come into the vicinity of. I like the silence, I like the solitude even more.

There was a lunar eclipse tonight and I stood out in Ball Circle for a handful of minutes, just watching it because I seemed to be the only one who noticed. But then students started trickling out with their cameras, loudly proclaiming to their equally noisy comrades that they didn’t know what they were seeing, but seeming interested by it nonetheless. Diane said it made her feel small, when she joined me outside, and I playfully reproached her for her cliché. All I could think about as I watched the moon disappear was how much I had once wanted to be an astrologer.

I think that’s what truly petrifies me when I think about my future; not just the thought of sewing for the rest of my life, but the thought of doing ANY ONE THING for the rest of my life. I have too many interests that I keep fearing I will never be able to develop because I feel I’m expected to find something I enjoy and then settle. It was good enough for my parents, why isn’t it good enough for me? Because I’m claustrophobic? Because the very thought of being trapped or out of control of myself will send me into a panic attack?

I want to live each day as it comes. I want to study the stars, I want to dig for dinosaurs, I want to swim with killer whales, I want to search for buried treasure, I want to see the seven wonders, I want to climb ruins, I want to create worlds with my words, I want to dance my way through life, I want to eat good food, be in good company and yes, I want to make art.

I want it to be distinctly my life, fudged by or compared to no one else’s.