A Wickersham Brother

The Wickersham brothers torment Horton. In our community theatre production they were not the traditional dark brown/black we associate with monkeys but rather yellow and purple. As the designer wanted the actors to move easily—they had to swing on rings dropped from the ceiling and do other climbing activities—she created this costume.   She started with a yellow turtleneck and yellow tights. Then made the crop top and bloomers out of purple fur. You also could use sweats as I mention in The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide. However, I don’t think they would be as effective as the fake fur.  The head would be the hardest item to sew.

I loved the idea of the wrist and foot bands and the very simple makeup—just clown white around the mouth. The rest had to be created by the actor with movement and voice.

The simplicity of this costume would work well for any animal you need to dress.  It lets the actor come up with a great variety of movement and allows for super creativity.

Yertle the Turtle

One of the joys of retirement is being involved with our local community theatre and being cast in various musicals. I am still re-cooping from Seussical where I was Yertle the Turtle, the judge at the end of the show when Horton is put in trial for talking to a speck, loitering and sitting on an egg.  The director also decided that the turtle be included in other scenes—“McElligot’s Pool,” “Chasing the Whos,” “Circus McGurkus,” and “Solla Solew.”  I was very happy to be in just one scene, but we do what the director wants, right?

As I was a member of the chorus the makeup was very simple—cheekbones, nasal labial, eyebrows and eyes—making everyone somewhat alike. The costumes were simple as well, jumpsuits with added headgear—fish, hands, etc. Even though I was in the chorus, I wasn’t costumed like them but rather as a turtle, so I decided at the last minute that the one thing that made a turtle unique was his mouth.

I used an eyebrow pencil to make the lines around the mouth and tried to use a brush and clown white to do the highlight, but it was difficult and smeared. After two evenings of muddy lips I then came up with a brilliant idea—why not use the lightest under-eye concealer  (CG Invisible)? And VIOLA—success! It didn’t smear and stayed on throughout the run of the show, even after drinking water. This should work well for any of your students who have trouble with age makeup, if aging is absolutely necessary. (See Chapter 18 on hair and makeup in The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide) It might be more expensive than clown white, but the results will be well worth it. As I am an "older" individual, I didn’t need to do much with the nasal labial—no highlight required. Several days later I added the brown lips using the eyebrow pencil as a lip liner. (Lovely wig, isn’t it?)

Next time, we will talk about a great animal costume.

I have been flying high ever since Meriwether chose to publish my book, The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide. The book took me about twenty-five years from start to finish. I started working on the manuscript during a 100-day teacher’s strike in 1981.  I desperately needed to keep my mind off the anguish and trauma of the strike so I decided to go back to my thesis, pull out everything they had rejected and formulate what I really cared about. You know colleges have strict rules on how and what is put in the thesis.  I wanted to have a hands-on approach to directing high school theatre, not some cold, academic tome. 

I kept plugging away on it and then I discovered the computer.  I went wild!  Spent all summer with an Apple IIE, borrowed from school, with my department chairman as instructor and computer guru.  That fall the drama department bought their first Apple (Mac Plus, better known as The Mighty Mac) with a 20 meg. hard drive: “The largest hard drive I would ever need!"

For the next 11 years I spent my summers—when not doing summer theatre—working and revising. Along the way I had many wonderful readers who gave wonderful feedback.  After retirement I worked in earnest and by 2002 it was mostly complete.  I found an editor who kept it for four years when they decided that the company couldn’t publish it!

Then I started sending out letters. Meriwether liked it and the rest is history.  Now I am adding a blog to make my book complete.  This is a new adventure for me and I am excited to get started. I’d love to hear from any of you out there about theatre or any questions you have about your programs. Will have more coming soon.