Wardrobe Malfucktion III

Okay, this should have been posted sooner, but in the craziness of the last few days of shows, there was just no time.

The last weeks in Paris were littered with an absurd amount of costume woes. But the third to last show would have to be tbe worst one of all. Unless, of course, you're in to Punk Rock.

I have only about a five minute gap between my first appearance on stage and my number. I go off stage, change my costume, put on my wheel shoes and do a very quick warm-up. Then, its go time. There's no time for dawdling and most of my actions are timed to the music being played on stage. It's that tight.

So you can imagine the panic when L went to zip up my costume and the head of the zipper popped off, landed on the floor and bounced away. As I have mentioned, I have five minutes to get ready for my act. What I may not have mentioned is that unlike certain other cast members, I don't have a double of my costume. No, for some strange reason the costumer designer made doubles for some people, mostly musicians, only the men, and left the acrobats (you know, the ones who roll around and suchlike) with only one costume.

So here I am, half dressed with my shirt wide open and no way/time to do anything about it. The woman in charge of costume care is backstage at this point, but isn't actually a seamstress so even if there was time to fix it, there's really nothing she could have done.

The only possible solution was... giant safety pins!

I had five inch-and-a-half safety pins holding my shirt mostly closed. I say mostly as there wasn't enough time to do a good job of it so the top was pinned unevenly and was partially open. I felt terribly self conscious my whole number, was worried the damn things would open an stab me, and on top of that, I had friends in the audience that night. Not a good way to end the run.

As you can imagine, I was pretty angry afterward. Moreover, the costume designer was in town to "do maintenance" (she was really there for the Christmas party). To further fuel the flames of rage, I ran into her before she left Paris and got to hear how the costume breaking was L and I's fault. We must have pulled it too hard. The zipper can't be pulled up quickly otherwise it gets caught, so I have a hard time believing that. Apparently it was also unsewn in a number of places. Clearly a result of the sharp spikes that grown out of my side...

She then went on to say how she had so much to do in Paris, but was too tired and didn't even get half of it done. She should be bringing some costumes back with her to work on, but, boff, she was just too tired...

When I mentioned all this to the technical director, he seemed utterly shocked. Shocked I say! I just hope it shocks him into giving the costume designer a swift kick in the ass. She's being paid, and having her transportation paid for, by the circus and and yet the artists remain in disintegrating costumes.

The costume was fixed for the next night's show. I don't imagine anything will have changed when we start again in January, but hopefully there will be doubles, the doubles would have should have had months and months ago, when we come back from the break before the spring portion of the tour.

Keep your fingers crossed!