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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission/Values
    • Bold New Works
    • Bold New Musical Voices
    • Licensing Bold New Works
    • A World of Stories
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Casting
    • Work with Us
    • Volunteer
    • Contact Us
  • Buy Tickets
    • 2022 Passport To The World of Music Series
    • Into the Woods
    • The Adventures of Mr. Toad
    • Girls of Madison Street >
      • She Speaks
    • The Christmas Angel
    • Holiday Cabarets 2021
    • Aesop's Fables
    • Having Our Say
    • Season Passes
  • CAMPS
  • WORKSHOPS/LESSONS
    • Learning Theater Ensemble
    • Learning Theater Studios
    • Musical Theater Training
    • Adult Spring Classes
    • Piano Lessons
    • Voice Lessons
  • Support
    • Make a Donation
    • Telethon
    • Princess and the Pea
    • Corporate Giving
    • News/Press
    • Pay Online
  • COVID 19 Theater Protocol
  • Broad and Washington Project
  • Our Letter in Support of Black Lives
  • Ticket Policies
  • Gift Certificates
  • Group Sales
  • Order Downloads, DVDs & CDs

How to Get to Wonderland

4/10/2019

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Picture
Falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland would not be possible without the creative prowess of our beloved Scenic and Costume Designer, Margie Jervis. With ninety-eight different costumes, Alice in Wonderland is quite the undertaking. Twenty-four distinct character costumes, nine mushrooms, thirteen flowers, twenty-one oysters, seven maids, one flying pig, one walrus, one carpenter, one king, one ship, one caterpillar, one Cheshire Cat, two crabs, eight cards, three hedgehogs, two footman, one fish, and one frog make up the seemingly endless cast of costumes that effortlessly transport us into Alice’s world.


​

​In general, how long does the creative process take?

Initially, it takes about a month of work. An assistant and I take about a week to inventory everything that we already have in the costume shop. We then try to supplement special items by utilizing items that we already have. We also borrow costumes.

How long does it take to assemble costumes from scratch?
So new costumes take another week or so to prepare the designs. They are then assembled by parent volunteers during cooperative work days. We generally have about six or so people who volunteer during these sessions. We then do our costume fittings and measurements for the kids during the rehearsal process. Any adjustments or alterations needed are also done throughout the rehearsal process.

What are some of your favorite costumes/props in the show?
Well, the one prop that I really enjoy is the trick baby that turns into a piglet. It’s kind of like a puppet.

Many of the costumes are very unique in their assembly. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the more unconventional pieces?
The caterpillar costume is actually a giant articulated costume that is composed of several hoops fastened together by these DayGlo strips of fabric. The actor steps into it and is secured by these suspender-like shoulder straps. His body is operated by two other actors to create his movements.
The mushroom caps in the caterpillar scene are umbrellas that we have designed to look like mushrooms. We found that it was easier for our actors to come on and off of the stage with costumes that are able to collapse.
The neck of the flamingo is actually a dishwasher hose from Home Depot. I find a lot of inspiration in the plumbing aisle of Home Depot.

With a cast of only twenty-four and a total of ninety-eight costumes, there must be a great deal of changing going on backstage.
Many of the costumes have a layered effect. The actors wear a base of all black and the pieces are incorporated on top of it. As part of their Learning Theater training, they learn how to not only change into these costumes by themselves, but they also learn how to help their fellow cast-mates with quick changes as well as how to properly take care of their costume once they are finished wearing it.

When designing a show, how do you find your inspiration?
For this production, I wanted to stay true to John Tenniel’s original illustrations in the Lewis Carroll book, pulling directly from the Victorian influence of the costumes with collars and lace. I decided to put Alice and her sister in black and white to show that they are existing in the world outside of Wonderland. Once Alice journeys to Wonderland, I chose to create a fantasy world with colors that are more present, giving the show a more dreamlike hallucination with vivid colors.

Margie Jervis has a long and multifaceted career in visual art, from fine art exhibited internationally, to theatrical design. She began her theater work as a Scenic Painter and Sculptor at both the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Opera. She was head of the Scenic Art Department for the Seattle Opera in the 1990's and Design Associate from 1996-2000. After moving back to the East Coast, she designed set, costumes and puppets for the Washington National Opera's Children's Opera Program, the Ashlawn Opera in Charlottesville, and costumes with Keira Hart for Uprooted Dance. She is now in her 9th season as Resident Designer and Visual Arts Educator for Creative Cauldron. In 2010, she received a Strauss Fellowship Award from Arts Council of Fairfax County, and again in 2017, in recognition for her work in theatrical design and puppetry.

Margie's Costumes:

Original Sketches:

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Recollections from Ten Seasons

9/20/2018

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​As we launch our 10th season of theater, music and educational arts programs, I am channeling some early memories.   With each season, Creative Cauldron has grown into a vibrant, diverse, and talented circle of artists supported by a dedicated Board of Directors, and a loyal family of patrons and donors.  I am so grateful for what we have achieved together and wanted to share some of the highlights and anecdotes from each of our past 10 seasons. I’ll do this over 10 blog posts in the coming weeks and I encourage you to share your favorite memories with us along the way.
 
2009-10 Season
After seven years as vagabonds, renting various community facilities and outdoor amphitheaters, we finally took occupancy in ArtSpace in June of 2009, a herculean accomplishment. We began with our popular Arts Adventure Camp summer program.  Then in September, we presented our first professional production Martin: The King of Pizza—a pourquoi tale about the origins of pizza.  Matt Conner wrote the clever and tuneful musical score and Helen Hayes Award-winning actor, Sam Ludwig, played Martin. We had no seating platforms, no lights on the grid, and our set was a castle wall made from the colored locking mats that we put on the floor for our summer camp (thanks to the ingenuity of our new artistic partner and scene designer, Margie Jervis).  The musical was inspired by the improvisational drama workshop that Matt and I were doing with a diverse community of students at Bailey’s elementary school.  In looking back at this first foray into producing original musicals, I think we created the essential framework that would carry us through the next 10 years of invention and creativity.  I think we should revisit this little gem sometime in the future.
 
Christmas Cabin of Carnaween, our second professional show premiered in December.  I adapted the script from an Irish folktale and enlisted two accomplished Irish musicians to underscore the tale with Irish music.   Margie created an astonishing set design that included brush that she collected from Greenspring Gardens, and a stone farm wall reminiscent of the Irish countryside.  We solicited our neighbor Sisler’s Stone and asked if we could “borrow” these stones from their stock.  Sisler’s delivered a palette (2,000 pounds of stone!!) to our doorstep and Margie and I, and a few volunteers brought them in to the theater one stone at a time.  Our new LED lights funded by a grant from Dominion Power were in the grid and the production, a poignant tale set in the time of the Great Potato Famine, delighted and moved our audiences. We revived this production for the next four years, but Margie and I wisely decided that a half palette of stones would do nicely for the set.  That’s still 1,000 pounds of stone!
 
That spring, we launched our first Learning Theater program with a production of Many Moons.  It was adapted from the children’s book by James Thurber.  My concept for the Learning Theater program was to give young students an opportunity to work with and be mentored by adult professionals in a professional production.   There were only 3 children involved in this first production that featured Stephen Gregory Smith as the King and Anna Brotman-Krass as his daughter. Our Learning Theater is now one of our most sought after programs and the current ensemble for our fall production of Peter Pan and Wendy has 31 students participating.  We certainly have come a long way!
 
One of the biggest highlights of that first season was our production of Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White.  This world premiere funded through grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arts Council of Fairfax County (now Arts Fairfax) explored the stories of African American Civil Rights pioneers of Falls Church.  Working with Nikki and Ed Henderson of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, our creative team spent a year researching and learning the amazing stories of resistance and resilience of E.B. and Mary Ellen Henderson, Joseph Tinner and so many others. Oran Sandel (who is sadly no longer with us) led the project, bringing his passion, and insight.  I had known Oran from my days at Arena Stage when he was the Artistic Director of Arena’s social outreach arm, Living Stage.  With the help of writers Jennifer Goldsmith and Lisa Hill-Corley, two recent graduates of the Creative Writing program at George Mason University.  Their final script was fresh, inventive and thought provoking, asking us to acknowledge some of the difficult history of Falls Church, but also inspiring us to celebrate the power of the human spirit.  When I watch the video of the performance I am still amazed at how we pulled off such an ambitious and important project that first season.
 
 
Laura Connors Hull
Creative Cauldron Founder and Producing Director
 
Were you with us that first year?  What are your favorite memories or stories?

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