Crazy Love

I wrote a month or two ago about letting go and letting God.  It's easier said than done. But a book that was given to me by a friend for Christmas is challenging me to do just that. It is called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  In the book, Chan explores the believer-Christ relationship in a way that most people today really don't, but definitely should.  He looks not at what we have to do as far as keeping God from being angry at us and being punished for it, but at the simple task of loving God as He loves us: unconditionally, longingly, and passionately.  If we love Christ like that, we WANT to do what He has planned for us. We don't feel obligated to do it because we'll be punished and feel guilty if we don't. We long to do things for Him, and we long to be with Him.  We are willing to give everything we have to Christ and follow Him on whatever path He leads us.  If we truly love God that much, we don't want to stray from him.  We strive to stay as close as possible.  We strive to please Him because we love Him.

Don't you want that kind of love? I do.

Benefit for To Write Love on Her Arms

The process of actually getting a benefit performance together takes a lot longer than I expected, but it is definitely going to be worth it.  I'm trying to get the word out about the performance in as many ways as I can, so here's the info:

What: Intimate Apparel Preview and Benefit for TWLOHA
Where: The Hosch Theatre at the John S. Burd Center for the Performing Arts at Brenau University
When: Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 7:30 pm

This non-profit organization is definitely one of my favorites, because it provides a message of hope to those who have lost it, and it shows people that there is love out there.

In addition to supporting a charity, you will also be seeing one of the most beautiful scripts I've read in a while.  Here is a synopsis from the Gainesville Theatre Alliance website:

"Intimate Apparel is a deeply moving portrait of Esther, an African-American seamstress who creates exquisite lingerie for women of both the boudoir and the brothel in 1905 Manhattan.  As years pass and young friends marry and leave the boarding house and Esther consoles her loneliness and deftly stitches beautiful things for other women’s intimate moments, a stream of love letters begin to arrive from a handsome Barbadian laborer working on the Panama Canal.  This winner of five Best Play awards is filled with desire, passion and betrayal."

Ticket proceeds go to GTA, but concessions and other donations will go to TWLOHA.  Ticket information to come soon.

Christmas, Thesis, and Job Applications

So...about that whole posting once a week thing...I promise I'll do better :)

Finally Christmas break! We got out of school last week, and I managed to get through the semester with a 3.75, and a 3.77 overall GPA.  One semester to go...

And with that semester comes the thesis project.  Designing/building six corsets for the beautiful play Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.  Set at the turn of the century, it centers around Esther, an African-American seamstress looking for love and meaning in her life.  I'm already building the rehearsal corsets for the beginning of the semester, and this weekend has been devoted to getting renderings done.  (Pictures to be posted soon.)  Fred, my mentor and the lead designer on this show, and I went fabric shopping this week and found some absolutely lovely fabrics to use for the corsets.  I've also gotten my application in to To Write Love on Her Arms to make our preview of the show a benefit performance.  This gives theatre a chance to not only touch the lives of those who see it, but also others who need our help.

As far a applications...I need to still write cover letters.  This is one of my biggest road blocks, because I always doubt myself when I do something I've never done before.  I suppose it's time to just bite the bullet and get to applying.  Looking at two touring jobs and two regional theatre jobs.  I'm kind of leaning towards one of the regional theatre jobs (Wardrobe Supervisor!), but I've also always wanted to tour...another let go and let God moment...which I'm constantly working on.  Daily prayers are getting easier since I signed up for Daily Bible Verse emails.  They are the first thing in my inbox every morning, and since I always check my email when I wake up, it makes God the first thing I think about.  Not too shabby of an idea, if I do say so myself.  :)

Tech Week and Other Happenings

Yep. It's that time...the dreaded tech week.  The time where every teacher decides that something must be due in his or her class, and where everyone is at the theatre until late, trying to make everything run smoothly before opening night.  Unfortunately, this is also the time where we can all feel really negative.  When one thing goes wrong, then everything feels wrong.  Luckily for me, I don't have to be at rehearsal until first dress.  Advantages of being a costumer :)  But one thing I'm going to try to remember this week is to be understanding of others.  It's really difficult to do when everyone is playing the "Well, if you think YOUR life is bad..." game.  One of the best ways to get through it is to simply smile and press on.  Complain to your bff later, when you're not in the theatre.

As far as other happenings, I talked to someone last week who is going to put me in contact with a few people working on tours currently.  I'm praying that something will come of one of the contacts.  While I do have a job for the summer, and I could probably continue working at my current part-time job until I found something else, I would love to go ahead and get working in the industry.  It's so nerve-wracking, just sitting and waiting to hear from people about what you're going to do with your life! I know that I'll eventually get through it, but in the meantime, I'm just constantly thinking about where things are going.

Halloween!

It's that time of year again: Halloween!  Now, while some people claim this is the holiday of the devil, I find that very hard to believe.  What is so wrong in letting kids dress up and play pretend while they go to houses collecting candy?  I must say that, as a costumer, this is definitely one of my favorite holidays (right behind Christmas). 

I especially love Halloween because of the fact that kids can be whatever they want to be for one night.  Our society is slowly taking creativity out of the classrooms and simply forcing children to recite facts and focus on the "important" subjects of math and science.  While I agree that these are very important topics to discuss and learn, I also have to put my two cents in for literature and the arts.  After all, what kind of theatre major would I be if I didn't?

In a world that is constantly cutting budgets from the art and music programs in elementary schools, and from band and theatre programs in high schools, how are children supposed to explore those fields that give us a richness to life? Society puts so much importance on academics and (in the south, at least) sports, that it becomes very difficult for students to use their imaginations.  And I can't help but notice that every year, Halloween seems to become less and less important as well.  At this rate, kids are not going to understand why we played dress-up when we were their age, or pretended to fend off the evil warriors from attacking the castle, or why it was so much fun to go trick-or-treating on Halloween and come back with an entire pillowcase full of candy.

Alright, I'm done with my rant.  If you have any children or younger siblings, show them what Halloween is all about: being able to be whatever you want to be for one night...that and having a tummy-ache the next day from all those Red Hots you ate the night before :)

Let Go and Let God

It's as simple as the title says.  Sometimes we have to let go of our work, and let God use it in a way that is more powerful than we can comprehend.  I realized tonight that I've been trying to rely on myself way too much, and until I turn over myself to God completely (yes, including my career), I will never be joyful. Not happy, joyful. That's been really hard to admit to myself, but now that I have, I'm ready to go where God leads me.

A Little More on the Why of My Life

No, not why I'm alive, but why I've made these life choices that have led me to where I am now.  So let's start with the decision that was the easiest and most crucial: my faith.

A lot of people have really super inspirational stories about how they were doing hard drugs or they had gone through an abusive relationship when they found Christ.  My story isn't nearly that intense or interesting.  But I still consider myself very lucky.  I decided to put my faith in Him the summer after 3rd grade, one day at VBS (Vacation Bible School).  I had gone to church religiously (pun completely intended) for as long as I could remember.  I can't tell you exactly what was said that day, but I knew deep in my soul that I needed God, and I didn't want to go through this life without him.  I gave my heart to Him that day, and while I cannot say that I always read my Bible or pray like I should (or even go to church as regularly as I should) I know that He has been with me every step of the way.  Even through the times where I forgot about Him. I recently went through one of those phases where I took Him for granted, and I felt a difference in my decisions and my mood and every aspect of my life.  But now I am trying even harder to follow Christ's path for my life and do the best I can.  I know that my faith does not make me perfect in any sense of the word.  On the contrary, it gives me the humility and the perspective of how truly blessed I am to have a Savior that cares so much about my life and my well-being.

Phew! That was the tough one.  Now to the other decision: theatre.

I know, I know. You're thinking, "A Christian? In THEATRE? Shouldn't she be working in a church or going on mission trips or something like that??"  I know, it isn't the obvious choice to most people.  In fact, my parents have questioned my career choice.  First they expected me to use it in a church drama ministry.  "Our church could use something like that!" they would say.  But it didn't feel right.  So then it was, "Well you could be a drama teacher!" Again...not exactly my cup of tea.  I love working with kids and all...just not for eight hours a day.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.  My first experience with theatre was actually a church production in which I got one of the leads.  Talk about thrilling! I did several church plays here and there through elementary school.  Then I got to seventh grade, where I auditioned for the advanced drama program at my school.  And I got in!  Ms. Marlin, my teacher, was one of the most passionate and interesting people I had ever met.  She inspired me to further pursue my love of this art.  In my early years I had aspirations of attending Julliard or NYU or DePaul...the big schools.  And then I learned about my current program (which I will not mention here for privacy reasons).  Their productions were phenomenal, and the people just seemed so passionate about their art.  I knew this was where I wanted to go, and I did.  I originally intended to go for Directing.  And then I met Fred, our Costuming professor.  I enrolled in his Costume Crafts class spring semester freshman year...and then his Costume Design class the next fall...and I was hooked.  That spring I took the Advanced Design class, as well as designed a senior thesis project and was head of the wardrobe crew for a mainstage show.  I knew that I would be doing this for the rest of my life.

So back to why I'm not in a church setting or teaching high school.  I believe that God has a different purpose for everyone.  Some are meant to be missionaries or ministers or teachers...and some are meant to be in the world as a friend for those who don't necessarily love the idea of religion or spirituality.  They say the best way is to lead by example.  And I feel that the best way to reach people is to be there for them.  But if no one is there for those in need...if they are all too busy sitting in a church office or trying to push pamphlets into people's hands that will probably just end up in the trashcan, unread, then who will actually be there for those who need just a friend?

Okay, that post ended up being a lot longer than I thought.  Trust me, not all of my posts will be like this.  But I hope you enjoyed getting to know me better and knowing why I'm here :)

So...What is this about?

So, you're probably wondering why I decided to start a blog.  Well...everyone else is doing it? Haha, just kidding. Actually, I was just sitting in my room and I had this overwhelming feeling that I should start a blog. Not a boredom type thing. More like...inspiration. And I don't get inspiration often, so I went with it.

Now you're most likely asking, "Who the heck is this girl, and what right does she have to write about these alleged endeavours in theatre?" Well, for the purposes of blogging, I am going to go by Trizzy Lizzard (two nicknames given to me by friends...Trizzy will do just fine, though).  And my "right" to write about theatre lies in the fact that I will soon graduate with a degree in Costume Design/Technology.  And I will be searching for jobs in the real world soon. Scary stuff.  I will soon begin my thesis project, and then I graduate, and then I need to make a living while still doing what I am passionate about.  So...REALLY scary stuff.

At this point, you're scratching your head, going, "So...WHY should I read this blog?  How is this different from any other blog out there by some college theatre major???" Well, that's a very good question. And here's my answer: I'm not going to be complaining about how terrible my life is as a starving artist or using this as a means to get a job (though if it happens, awesome).  I'm using this blog as a way of documenting my journey in the theatre world not just to make a living, but also as a spiritual journey.  I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe that He has given me an unbridled passion for theatre and costuming, and I believe He didn't do that just for kicks and giggles.  I'm in this profession for a reason, and I want to find what that is.  It may not be obvious today, or tomorrow, or even twenty years from now, but I know He has me here to fulfill a specific purpose.  I love people, and I feel that theatre is a place where all people can connect.  So, what better place to show God's love than where everyone can connect?

I'm not going to preach or get on a soapbox in this blog.  But I will share my passion for God, for theatre, and for people.  And I hope you join me on what is bound to be a bumpy and thrilling endeavour.