Today I briefly went to a craft fair in Winters (didn't buy anything, saw lots of pairs of marvelous dangly earrings, but I don't wear them any more because of masks), then drove home, got my car washed, went home and cross stitched, then went to the theater at 1.

They are not getting too many people going to this, especially when regulars other than me this week could not go (one person pointedly noted that they'd gone every other week and had relatives visiting). Which is to say, I painted the stage black, helped Jean with getting robes out of the costume shop, tried on clothes a bit, did some of the ironing (luckily she wasn't too picky on this), and then finally painted the bed with wood stain with Virginia when she finally came in. The bed looks great, but that stuff has given me all kinds of new freckles that may take awhile to come off. John did some stuff with the London flats, and then we were done by 3:45. I guess I won't be doing any scenic art on the flats--Kimmie is doing, uh, something or other? I was out by 4.

Scaryoke party went well. I got dressed about an hour before and had a few issues: I literally tacked down the neckline so it didn't pop up (should have thought to do that before, really) and the wig took me several tries to figure out what direction it was supposed to go to and to get the curls not hugely puffing in my face/in the back. Also, once I put my phone in the purse the right side of the skirt kept slipping down...I had clothes under there, mind you, but still kinda annoying. Maybe I should just pin them together before I go out again?

Costumes:

* Amy and Stacy: both flappers, very pretty and glittery, took their picture together.
* Jared: "Game Over Mario," which is to say Mario outfit but skull/zombie makeup on his face. Some people made cracks that he got so addicted to having makeup on for the Beast that he wanted to continue it. That came in second.
* Alisa and Jillian: from "Oklahoma?" Alisa had on a farmer/square-dance-ish kind of dress from her freshman year in high school(!), Jillian was a scarecrow.
* Katrina: an elf.
* Shorthaired Sarah: witch
* There's these two very, very tall siblings in the kids' program (17 and 15), he came as Anakin (has strong resemblance) and his sister was a "dark angel" (black outfit, wings, huge heels, tiara). Last year they were a team costume, this year they were asked if they were one and she said, "No, we broke up over the summer," which got a lot of perverse laughs. I hate to say it because siblings and they're not even twins or anything, but they do look couple-ish together?
* Sage and Marin were both zombies, but Sage did some kind of eye makeup to make one eye be popping out of the socket--super gross but effective. I asked if there was a secret hole in that to be able to see and the answer was no, the eye is out of commission for the day. (I note this won the teen competition, deservedly so.) Soji was a cartoon character I didn't recognize but had a strong resemblance to 80's David Bowie and OMG THE SHOES I CAN'T EVEN WITH THE SHOES.
* Tim was "a gym teacher," Anna was Anne Boleyn from Six, which I think should have won something since she hand made that.
* Kyle was Jack Skellington, Sophia was...I think in an animal onesie? I didn't see her for very long.
* Arianna: ALSO Mirabel from Encanto (simpler outfit, her hair definitely looked better though), she squealed when she saw me and we got our picture taken together. That was so cute. I love that she was so into it, unlike last year when the other butterfly was not thrilled about it. I'm happy to twinsies these things.
* Tessa arrived at the very end, having arrived from Rocky Horror in Fairfield and wearing a 'whore" tag. We did "Time Warp" as a final group number then, obviously. (Fun fact: apparently the group that usually does it in Sacramento was prevented from it this year because someone bought up all the rights for 100 miles...except in Fairfield? Are they doing it illegally?)
* Others there I didn't know came as "an old man" (he clearly was very good at playing the dad in Hairspray in karaoke, even singing Edna's part and dancing), another Anakin, two "80's werewolves," one girl in a German outfit who introduced herself in German, Iris Apfel (Steve was all "who's that," I said Google it), who came in third in the contest. Amazing outfit there.
* Un-costumed: Steve, Jan, Felicia (?), Lucas, Mary.

Yes, I won the contest :) Judges were Steve, Katrina (who recognized that this is what I had been working on all through Urinetown/B&tB) and Stacy, also a yarnie, appreciating all the work. Steve was all, "THAT is what you were working on all those months?!?" Hee hee, yup. I got some gift cards, some Halloween decorations I later put out on my door, some movies, some snacks. And a guy from Woodland gave me a two-free-tickets pass, which was nice.

I was sitting with Amy and he knew her so he and his SO(?) were talking to her and he said there are two ghosts at the Opera House, the firefighter in the play ("nice guy!") and a performer lady named...Nance O'Neill, I think? He said she mostly hangs out in the balcony or green room and someone saw her and then recognized her from a picture later. He was all "you should have ghosts in your theater," and Steve and Jan were all, "Oh, we DO."

Notable moments from karaoke:
* Group number of "Cell Block Tango" that we did. I called dibs on "He ran into my knife TEN TIMES." I note that the Russian bit is not included in the karaoke.
* The German girl did "It's A Privilege To Pee" and Sarah, Amy and I all sang backup from the audience and Sarah called out the Old Man Strong lyrics. That's musical theater for ya!
* Marin did "Here I Go Again," which is somehow all the more effective in zombie outfit?
* Dannette and Arthur did "I've Had The Time Of My Life," with some dancing thrown in.

I did "Once Upon A Dream" and "As Long As He Needs Me" per singing lessons, "Little Girls," "Nothing" (from Chorus Line) and "Fancy" and had a great time acting those out. And hopping into group numbers.

Things finally petered out around 10:30-11, but I hung out at the theater until after midnight chatting with people. Mary tried to talk me into auditioning for the frau in Cabaret (she's done it) but I said I won't get cast as any main parts here, so... yeah. (I'm not even bothering to look up the character, I think that's the only non-sexy one in there, but I'm sure we've got plenty of people for that ahead of me in line.) Hot goss included "how come Runaway Stage had to end?" (losing the venue, sounds like), how Fairfield is run by someone who picks out whatever part she wants ahead of time (Jan was all, we'd never do that), and "how come Woodland doesn't say when their callbacks are ahead of time and then take weeks to make their decisions and then don't start rehearsals for like a month after that?" I note that they have their auditions around the same time as we do and Jan said that Eddie and Danny were smart enough when auditioning for Producers and Hunchback at the same time (Hunchback starting rehearsals after Producers ended) to officially list this stuff as conflicts. I mentioned wanting to audition for Young Frankenstein just for the hell of it and Jan was trying to figure out what show that conflicted with, i.e. Pirates.

Jan also said that she found it annoying that a theater she and Stacy auditioned at for Pirates said they were too old and they'd only cast girls under thirty. Jan was all, "they cast any age men, so these 50 year old guys are snuggling 20something girls...I won't do that." She said the ladies are "wards" technically in the script so they don't have to be "daughters." Mary asked if she could be a pirate and Jan said no because of the snuggling thing and well, boobs is obvious, but ladies can also play policemen in that show and that's fun. On a related note, I asked what about trying to get enough dudes for Newsies and she was all, "That's Kyle's problem!" They apparently find Kyle very easy to work with as a director and they aren't worried about him.

Other interesting fact: Jan has done ensemble in Sweeney Todd twice and said it was boring. I really wanted to say "like Evita?" but kept my mouth shut!

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