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In which I play dress up all weekend long
Oct. 22nd, 2007 02:55 pmWhat a lovely weekend. Friday was panicked sewing and dancing and the less said about that really the better. But Saturday was the Animal Rescue League of Boston/Gorey House Foundation Moonlight Ball. M and I and several other lovelies wore Gorey-inspired Victorian-esque outfits made by Kambriel and provided atmosphere, and occasional helpfulness where needed. Anyone who has ever been to the Cyclorama on Tremont Street would not have believed how beautiful it looked. The walls were lined with tall white panels on which Gorey window frames were projected. The entrance featured a glowing fountain, curving benches and a giant scrim sort of deal with a Gorey type facade on it. Gorey artwork was everywhere. Chandeliers hung from the ironworks that blanket the ceiling; each table featured a candelabra and a centerpiece of roses, mushrooms and hunks of fake ice, which looked far nicer than it sounds. Comfy armchairs and sofas (curious sofas, perhaps?) abounded. We were able to eat once everybody was seated and the drinks were flowing. Usually I am very out of my element when surrounded by rich people, very conscious of being a coal miner's granddaughter, but in my gown I felt like a fabulous alien creature or time traveler. The fundraiser looked hugely successful, especially since I believe the catering and bar were donated. There were several dogs present; if you thought the human tickets were expensive at $175, the canine tickets were $5,000 per dog! But if you are the sort of person who would be making that kind of donation to charity anyway, this would be a very fun way to do it. There were several moving speeches and stories about dogs and cats, and a lovely movie about the work of the ARL which included a fine sable ferret, prompting cheers from our table. Since I am not the sort of person who can give that kind of donation to a charity no matter how much I wish I could, it felt very good to be part of the event in some small way. My spirits still feel lifted today thinking about it. Thanks very much to Kambriel for giving me that opportunity!
Then Sunday, finally came the Bela Lugosi Birthday Bash. I've been thinking about that show for so long, it felt odd to have it actually happening. I have to admit I was feeling a bit odd about doing full on gothic in the Athenian Corner, but as the readings that made up the first half of the show went on, I relaxed. Some of the readers/writers were quite entertaining and I particularly liked one poem that was a post-mortem entry in Lucy Westenra's diary. Then it was time to perform! I arrived on stage and went into my opening pose of an inanimate dolly and waited... and waited... and waited... for my music to start. I finally had to break my pose before I fell over. This was just the beginning of sound problems that plagued the show all evening due to a very non-cooperative boombox (one poor woman couldn't dance at all since the boombox simply would not read her CD). Finally my music played. I felt like it went all right for the first time performing it. I had a lot of fun stealing people's souls and stomping on them with my noisy anklet stomps. I actually use a bunch of khaleegi steps because I can get such a great noise from the anklets with them. I wonder if there is anybody else in the entire world who has done khaleegi to Siouxsie and the Banshees. We should start a very exclusive club. Anyway, it went well enough, and the audience was very receptive to what I was doing. Some of the writers, not surprisingly, went to ManRay when they were younger, pretty much Siouxsie and the Banshees generation themselves, so they knew exactly where I was coming from and enjoyed it with their own sense of nostalgia. I closed the show with Voltaire's The Vampire Club, fine except for small costume malfunction of a couple of horse hair tassels jumping ship. I guess I did not test the belt to any energetic music. But it's nothing that a little glue applied to some knots won't fix. I was pretty well paid considering the type of gig it was, so all in all it was a good evening for me. If Saturday night was all about a group coming together to raise money for a wonderful cause, Sunday night was all about a group exploring their common areas of creativity and making events happen, even when money is tight and the technology won't cooperate.
So I had much fun all weekend dressing up and wearing loads of dramatic makeup. I don't really miss the days of applying black makeup with a trowel on a daily basis, but it was decidedly fun to live it again for a weekend. Being older, I have better quality makeup now so I'm sure it looked much nicer now than it did back then ;-)
Then Sunday, finally came the Bela Lugosi Birthday Bash. I've been thinking about that show for so long, it felt odd to have it actually happening. I have to admit I was feeling a bit odd about doing full on gothic in the Athenian Corner, but as the readings that made up the first half of the show went on, I relaxed. Some of the readers/writers were quite entertaining and I particularly liked one poem that was a post-mortem entry in Lucy Westenra's diary. Then it was time to perform! I arrived on stage and went into my opening pose of an inanimate dolly and waited... and waited... and waited... for my music to start. I finally had to break my pose before I fell over. This was just the beginning of sound problems that plagued the show all evening due to a very non-cooperative boombox (one poor woman couldn't dance at all since the boombox simply would not read her CD). Finally my music played. I felt like it went all right for the first time performing it. I had a lot of fun stealing people's souls and stomping on them with my noisy anklet stomps. I actually use a bunch of khaleegi steps because I can get such a great noise from the anklets with them. I wonder if there is anybody else in the entire world who has done khaleegi to Siouxsie and the Banshees. We should start a very exclusive club. Anyway, it went well enough, and the audience was very receptive to what I was doing. Some of the writers, not surprisingly, went to ManRay when they were younger, pretty much Siouxsie and the Banshees generation themselves, so they knew exactly where I was coming from and enjoyed it with their own sense of nostalgia. I closed the show with Voltaire's The Vampire Club, fine except for small costume malfunction of a couple of horse hair tassels jumping ship. I guess I did not test the belt to any energetic music. But it's nothing that a little glue applied to some knots won't fix. I was pretty well paid considering the type of gig it was, so all in all it was a good evening for me. If Saturday night was all about a group coming together to raise money for a wonderful cause, Sunday night was all about a group exploring their common areas of creativity and making events happen, even when money is tight and the technology won't cooperate.
So I had much fun all weekend dressing up and wearing loads of dramatic makeup. I don't really miss the days of applying black makeup with a trowel on a daily basis, but it was decidedly fun to live it again for a weekend. Being older, I have better quality makeup now so I'm sure it looked much nicer now than it did back then ;-)
