More pictures found for Cinderella!

As I was sharing pictures and videos with the director and some other parents, we realized we had more pictures to document our incredible foray into Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella! The first dozen or so are from my camera, all the way back in December and January, as we were shopping for fabric and just starting to put together costumes. 

This was our first peasant costume...of course, it was Sissi's because she lives with me, lol, and so we used an old skirt I had, found a peasant type blouse at a second hand shop, and then cut up an old men's button-up shirt to make her corset. I sent pictures to our costume group and everyone liked the idea so we patterned the rest of the girls' villager costumes on this concept.

Then, we went shopping at the bazaar for fabric and ribbon to make more skirts and to put into the corsets so we could lace them up. The girls were asked to provide their own solid top and then an old mens' shirt that we could cut up to make them a corset. We wanted lots of vivid color to create a Fairy Tale Village feel.

The director, Morgan, went back to the US over Christmas and came back with lots and lots of elegant prom, homecoming, and choir dresses that we then took time to fit to each of the girls. Here we have our stepmother (in the center) and two step-sisters. They were an awesome bunch of ladies to work with. This was of course before we started hemming and taking things in and letting them out to get just the right fit.

And, as our sewing group of ladies finished up skirts, we fit them to the girls each week at rehearsal.

Our Prince Topher, in his almost full costume. At this point, we didn't have his shoulder boards completed and he's only wearing one boot, but you get the idea.

Sebastian in his costume, but without his shoes...and I think before we took the tucks into his jacket so it fit him a bit better.

Working on fitting ball gowns to each girl.

We loved the lace up the back on several of the gowns.

A few of the gowns had thin straps and so we made shawls to cover the girls' shoulder so they would be more comfortable.

Lord Pinkleton. This guy is hilarious!

My pile of projects that I brought home to work on. Most of my Saturdays in January and February were spent sewing.

Got to make some fun tulle flowers to add some embellishment to some of the girls' dresses.

Another shawl for another lovely lady and her gown.

Step-sisters in their villager outfits.

Ballgown embellishments.

Artwork that Sissi made for the drama production.

A few more concept pieces that Sissi worked on over the winter.

And, now, the rest are pictures that my friend Adriana shared with us from her camera! We'll have them all here, in one place, so we can remember all of our lovely times together.

Vickie in her peasant costume.

We never got to a full dress rehearsal, but we got close!

The Prince dancing with the other girls at the ball.

Ball scene.

Sebastian talking to Prince Topher. It might be a bit blurry, but shows so many of the characters in costume.

Practicing the dance scenes.

More dancing.

Crazy Marie and Ella.

Villagers dancing together. Never did get the guys in their full peasant costumes.

The Prince is Giving a Ball!

Village scene.

More time in the village.

Our very own Ella!

What Should Have Been....Cinderella

 When we arrived for rehearsal on the 5th of March, we heard that large gatherings were no longer able to happen...indefinitely. We got the students dressed in the costumes that were finished, as was the plan, because we were just a week out from dress rehearsals. Little did we know the next week school would be cancelled and 9 weeks of quarantine would begin.

Enjoy these pictures and the few videos I took, not knowing it would be the last time we would gather. If I had known then, there would be so many more.

The program cover and advertising poster for our Cinderella production.

The girls in their peasant costumes.

Battle scene with the giant.

Prince Topher versus the giant.

Peasant girls on the side of the room.

Gwangi was part of the Tech Crew, working with the lights.

Krypto in his ball scene vest with our friend, who was working Backstage Crew.

Stepmother, stepsisters, and Ella.

Getting ready to head to the ball.

Ella with the old woman, Crazy Marie.

Ella with Crazy Marie, turned into the Fairy Godmother.

Girls, ready for the ball scene.

Waiting for their scene.

Fairy Godmother and Ella.

Transformation has occured.

Dancing at the ball.

More couples at the ball.

Guys, on the edge, waiting for the ball scene.

Girls, on the sidelines, waiting to come on.

The ball scene.

Krypto with his dancing partner. She is also the amazing artist who has done the art work on all three of Krypto's book covers.

Stepsisters' Lament.

Then, today, we went to Hope to drop off scripts and some costume items. We were also able to look around at some of the items and recall our memories...

Sissi standing by one of the trees.

Costumes on the racks.

Sets leaning up against the wall.

The carriage, sitting in the hallway.

And, we brought home t-shirts for our crew. The kids are holding mine, with all the names of the students listed on the back.

A close up of the front.

And now, enjoy the videos...definitely not professional, a bit blurry at times, but they were quick takes while I was standing on the sidelines checking out the costumes for last minute alterations, on what was our last gathering before quarantine began for COVID-19.

"How I got started writing," by Krypto

Writing is hard.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love writing and there are few things in life that I enjoy more than telling a good story. By the same token, however, it is also a monumental task to write an entire novel. How then do you accomplish something like this? The answer is, like with everything else, one step at a time.

My writing began in earnest back in 2017 when I started a writing program called O.Y.A.N. (One Year Adventure Novel). The first half of the program is planning and outlining and the second half writing the actual book. When I first saw the program, I thought, “there’s no way I can write an entire book in half year!” I was wrong.

In fact, once I got into the pattern of writing for half an hour to an hour every day, I realized that the trick to writing isn’t mad bursts of inspiration that last days followed by periods of no work. The trick is to simply do a little every day, build good writing habits, and never stop working. Although you may look at every individual day of work and think you didn’t accomplish much, those individual days stack up sooner than you think.

This became especially apparent to me when, in November of 2018, I accepted the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge, a free online challenge that asks you to write 50,000 words in one month. Insane, right? I didn’t think I could do it at the time, but just by plugging ahead every day, working for an hour or so, I was able to write every needed word before the deadline of November 31. Barely. My writing career has greatly expanded since then; I’ve written and am currently editing a trilogy, I’ve joined the Young Writer’s Workshop, an online program of young writers like myself, and I’ve already started planning several series for the future. Through all of this, however, I haven’t forgotten my one primary task; to just keep writing and enjoy my writing, a little bit every day.

If someone were to ask me what they need in order to be a writer, I would reply that they need passion and dedication for what they want to write. If you don’t feel passionate and creative about what you want to write, then you won’t have any reason to write. Every great writer I can think of cared about what they wrote and loved it so much that they were willing to write about that thing as a full-time job. On the other hand, if you don’t have the dedication to push forward and keep writing, even when you don’t feel like it, then your writing will never improve. Believe me, I have hard days too, but if I only wrote when I felt like it, then I would never finish crafting all of my ideas into novels. In the end, my advice to anyone out there looking to start writing seriously would be summed up in one simple sentence; find something you care about, and never, ever quit. Happy writing!