Progress Report! (Patreon)

Good morning, dear Patrons –   It's the start of another gorgeous week, and I'm marching ever-onwards towards the filming of this new circus act.

The tone of this week's instalments is more about filling you in on things, and less about suspenseful, in-the-moment recounting of my current creative trials and tribulations:

Tomorrow you'll be reading getting a sneak peek of some photos from my Montréal costume fitting (the garment is under construction still, but it's really cool to see!), Wednesday you're hearing all about my wig woes, Thursday you're getting to listen to some of the music for the act (!!!) from the amazing Greg Harrison, and Friday we're going to get a bit more philosophical about the nature of this act, and the working title I'm giving it.

But for today, here is a summary of what has been accomplished in the last week or so while you were reading all those updates about costuming and music, and what remains to be done:

• The fitting for the Montreal costume is completed. It's a stunning, giant confection of hoop skirt steel boning and yards and yards and yards of tulle. It's heavy. It's dramatic. It's perfect. I'm lowkey thinking I'm going to need to rehearse in a larger studio for the final runs of dress rehearsal sheerly based on the size of this starting costume (sharing those photos with you in  tomorrow's instalment).
  
• Marika, the latex costumer, has made great headway on those wardrobe elements!
  We've done multiple fittings for the bodysuit, she's designed some stunning harem pants (her husband happens to have the same hip measurement as me, so I got some very entertaining photos of him modelling said harem pants as Marika pinned and draped fabric while I was in Montreal on Friday). Marika says I should have practice garments to start working in by Wednesday.
  
• The MUSIC IS DONE!!!!!
  It's beautiful. I love it. I also fell into a bit of rabbit hole researching the source material (Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakoff) earlier on in this process and didn't get around to sharing some of the gender bendy analogs to this original work in the moment. You can look forward to a small shared sample of composer Greg Harrison's work and a short discussion of the original work as it relates to this current circus creation!
  
• The choreography has been set.
  Roberto Campanella has guided this wildly rocking ship through the storm and into safe harbour.  This is the longest circus act I've ever choreographed. It comes in at around 8 minutes in length. I need all that time to get out of all the layers of costumes, but MAN! It's tiring!
  
• Proper dance shoes make a difference.
  Turns out that $30 salsa heels off of Amazon are friendly on the pocketbook but terrible for your confidence, insofar as they offer zero stability and had me wobbling around rehearsals like a drunk baby deer for many days. I cried to Jen Crane last week that I was simply tragically uncoordinated and wasn't going to be able to trick people into thinking I'm an effortlessly graceful creature; Jen responded by taking me to a physical dance store in Montréal after my fitting with Michael Slack and having me try on a professional ballroom heel from Capezio. Night and day, folks. Night and day. I'll be rehearsing in my new (significantly more stable, unlike my mental state) beautiful shoes this week.
  Thank you, Jen!!!!!
  

What's coming up:

• Rehearsing rehearsing rehearsing: I have to run this act as many times as my body will safely let me do so. There's polishing to be done. Roberto has kept an eagle-eye on the tidiness of transitional moments and movements, but there's a lot in the execution of my actual tricks sequences that is wanting, in my opinion. That's what this week is for.
  
• ROAD TRIP! At some point on Friday I will be driving halfway to Montréal to meet Michael Slack, who will be driving to meet me, and pack the GIANT COSTUME you all get to take a peek at tomorrow, into my car, to haul back to Toronto.
  
• Final touches: I'll likely be joining Marika multiple days this week (after or before rehearsals) to pour over vector designs of art deco and art nouveau detailing – our selections will be printed out on her giant latex-laser-cutter and painstakingly glued onto the base latex garments to decorate the ever-living heck out of the costume.
  
• Location scout: I'll be dragging Tig Fong (who will be shooting the video/demo of the act –– same human who shot VACUUM!) to my friend Miranda's new photo studio, Birdhaus, in downtown Toronto to see if it might work as a shooting location.
  
• Production meetings: Lighting discussions will need to start between Roberto, Tig, and myself; equipment rentals will need to be marked down if more lights need to be rented for the day, or dolly track, or whatever Tig thinks is necessary (within very limited financial reason) to make this act look as good on camera as it does in real life

I was initially hoping to shoot this act on the 30th or 31st of August, but I think that with the way the costumes are all coming down the pipeline, I need to give myself a couple extra rehearsal days IN the physical garments to get used to (a) the sheer size of the first costume [you'll see.....] and (b) the finickiness of performing in magnet-covered latex clothing.

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[to be continued...]