WOW has time ever been flying by through June and July! So many different projects have come into my life. Stilt performances, painting, puppetry, and costumes galore. I had a review meeting with the Costume Department at IATSE Local 891 to become a permittee member with them, and very soon I'll be getting my feet wet in the big pond of film work in Vancouver. Especially since I'm about to own my own car, which is a necessity for pretty much anything in film and theatre here in Rain City. I've held off as long as I could from taking this plunge, but the time has come. I find it annoying and classist when everyone simply assumes that I own one, but I forgive them because the culture of this city is completely car-oriented, no matter how wonderful the bike lanes are. I'm giving this place a real shot, so watch out Vancouver. My other news is that I accepted a gig as the costume designer for the United Players of Vancouver's first show of the season opening September 2 at the Jericho Arts Centre: The Beaux Stratagem, written by George Farquhar in 1707, translated by Thornton Wilder in 1939/Ken Ludwig in 2004. Director Kathleen Duborg has set our production in the mid-Victorian period, so with a cast of 14 I am up to my ears in period costumes. In dusty old stock rooms I have spent most of the past 2 weeks rummaging through racks, boxes, and bins. It's a community theatre with a long history and a very nice group of people making it go, and it's a nice project to introduce myself to the Vancouver theatre community. It's been 7 years since I designed & assembled a conventional theatre production, indoors and everything! CLICK HERE FOR TICKET INFORMATION September 2 -25 Thu - Sun at 8pm (except September 11 & 25, matinée only) $12 Preview: September 1 at 8pm Talkback: September 8 Matinées: June 12 & 26 at 2pm (no evening performance) September 2 -25 Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1126471444126759/ Recent Work: Salsa Miranda With Lindsey LongLegs - June 11, 2016 for NZR Productions Gulliver the Giant Puppet Mortal Coil Performance Society with Che Campbell, Frank Rader, and Barb Clayden I was thrilled to join the puppeteer crew for this guy for Aboriginal Day at the Musqueam Reserve, as seen in the video posted below. Mortal Coil is creating Gulliver as a central part of a full-length show for 2017. After a good introduction as a puppeteer I became a maker, and worked on the sculptural development with the wonderful team of builders Che, Frank, and Barb. And then I was a puppeteer in the Canada Day parade on Granville Island, an unplanned & fantastic experience. Then we went back to improving the shape and movements of this big guy. At this point he is waiting for his next public appearance and I'm utterly thrilled to be part of his puppeteer crew: it takes 5 of us to operate him, including set up and tear down. Much fun! "Once" Turbans I had the good fortune to meet someone who works in costume in IATSE who passed my card on to an assistant designer at Once Upon A Time, the fantastical TV series entering its 6th season. They contracted me to make 2 matching turbans in the space of 4 days. Done and done. Hope to see them in action some day, and I'd absolutely Love to join that team, the costume designer is wonderful. Holt Renfrew Interior Display Walls & Granville St Window - Painterly Ombre for Kenzo, June 2016 Commercial Scenic Painting for Scenic Oasis Film Inc. I spent a memorable 2 overnights making a room orange with Tuffback, finishing work around 3am. Switching time schedules so much with all this freelance work is tough but I kind of enjoy it. I did some other painting work for Scenic Oasis on location at Boundary Bay Airport that involved painting giant fake concrete blocks to look like the real blocks that were there, for a high-profile commercial that is probably airing in the U.S. My new car is going to bring new opportunities in scenic painting, me'thinks!
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Intro So I've decided to create a blog. The purpose here is to share my work in process as it happened, as well as to share photos and stories from the amazing projects and adventures I have had in the past few years. Perhaps those with similar interests and professions to mine will read this, or perhaps those who are simply curious, "What is it that Amira actually does? How does it work? What is it like?" I moved from Toronto to Vancouver in January/February of this year 2016, leaving a large community of friends and colleagues back in Ontario after almost 13 years of living there. Canada is geographically large but socially not so much, at least not in the theatre, circus, and arts scene, and I want to stay connected with Toronto as time goes on; I'm sure I'll be back there sometime. Also having made new friends internationally in the past few years, I hope to stay connected to people all over the world by making my stories publicly available here. My life as a freelance artist has led me to incredible and extraordinary places and situations, doing things I would never have predicted I would get to do... but may have dreamed of. I'd like to share more stories of those adventures with you. However, that said, a good blog holds interest for more than its author's family and friends. It should have useful information and points of interest to people with shared interests. For those reasons I intend to post pictures, videos and writings from my specific set of interests: theatre, design, circus, puppetry, painting, custom decor, installation art, public art, community-building, travel, and ecological/environmental concerns. I look forward to your comments and I hope new connections are made here. Please let me know what you think. :) Recent Work Since arriving in "Rain City" mid-February 2016, I've got some excellent projects in the works... to date: The Wallpaper Fashion Show, with Engagement Unlimited While cold-calling for myself as a new stilt performer in town (see www.stiltcore.com), I called up a special events company and sent an email with my info, mentioning that I make my own costumes. Apparently I had great timing because they had an opening for a costume designer/builder to create a fashion show using & featuring wallpaper for their client, a paint & wallpaper company from India who are bringing their people to Vancouver for a week of fun and team-building type stuff. They wanted me to create 7 feature dresses and 5 "accent" garments out of wallpaper, and manage backstage at the show. As I write it is T-22 hours from showtime and overall, it is in good shape. I'm excited to present this. I haven't had the chance to really hunker down and build a body of work for a while. Here are some shots of work in progress, from designs to photos from fittings. Holt Renfrew - Custom Decor I met with the Visual Department Co-ordinator at the Holt Renfrew store downtown Vancouver soon after I arrived in town. I painted a wall in one of their Dunsmuir St. windows, and created a paper flower wall installation. I think this will be an ongoing on-call service relationship that I'm pleased to continue after 8 years freelancing for the Bloor St. Toronto location. Scenic Painting at Scenic Oasis
Although it's been a while since I did any scenic painting for theatre, and never before for film, I looked for work painting in Vancouver with great results. I found a great, big scenic shop that mainly builds sets for commercials, in Burnaby. The foreman of Scenic Oasis Film Inc. has a good crew of nice guys who work hard to put out high-quality sets and props on short notice for commercials, so far as I can tell. I'm thrilled to be using those skills and learning more. IATSE Local 891 has recently granted me permittee status so I see a fair amount of scenic painting in my future. Since starting there in mid-March I've done a wide range of paint projects, including painting vacuform paving stones and bricks, a fake polished concrete floor, foam rocks, aging wood boards, and a foam 10' square mini-mountain, plus painting a set in studio, tuff-backing a room on location, painting a canvas to look like rock, and using Polybase to do a concrete effect and then aging that..... so many techniques and skills, so much fun! I'm looking forward to future shop days spent mixing colors and creating effects, playing with the shop dog and eating BBQ from the double-barrel custom smoker the guys built. MMMmmmmm. |
AuthorAmira Emma Routledge, Archives
October 2020
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