costume dilemma

You guys... I'm so ready to throw myself into choosing a costume, piecing it together... but I just cannot decide!

Star Wars?  Super heroes?  Disney?  Doctor Who? They're done every year.

Sherlock?  Always an option.  A friend and I had talked about doing a Femlock cosplay (fandom translator: she and I were going as male Sherlock characters).  But I will be doing a costume for the premiere party (just waiting on a date, Moffat!) - so I'm not sure that's "it."

Alice in wonderland?  Done it.

Lord of the Rings?  Did it last year.

Grumpy Cat?  Seriously tempting

A different Lizzie Bennet Diaries character would be "totes supes adorbs" ...but I have done it twice already this year.

Perfecting my Suzie Bishop look (from Moonrise Kingdom) would be a blast for sure... but I kinda want to tackle something new.

Would it be considered cheating to dress up like Zooey Deschanel?  [I was afraid people might stop commenting both when I went red and especially after I chopped my hair off... there has been no letting up, which is fine with me]

So then I look at books I've read or re-read this year.

Half of the are from the Enderverse.  Not really any impressive or indicative costumes from the enderverse.

Gatsby?  Everyone's going to do Gatsby this year.  [I'm afraid I've turned into a hipster cosplayer... sorry]

Hazel Grace?  Augustus Waters?  I think Augustus would actually be more fun... but with TFioS film coming out next year... 

Name of the Wind character?  Could be super fun, but very few people would recognize it.

TV shows?  

One of my coworkers seriously suggested I dress up as Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad.  That would be... intriguing.

I guess there are a bunch of Once Upon a Time costumes... comme ci comme ça.

I might be perusing classic Hollywood next.  Hmmm...

Pretty much... I need a man in my life so we can go as a couple :)

Got suggestions for me?  Leave a comment ;)

Peter and Alice: A Review

So my Oxfordian friend, Simon, who was the first to tell me about the play Peter and Alice finally posted his review.  Do check it out; here's an excerpt to tempt you:

Peter and Alice goes a bit mad - in the best possible way; in a way that is perfectly in keeping with Wonderland and Neverland. The bookshop set is pulled up to the ceiling, and behind is a land with Tenniel and picaresque illustrations intermingled. J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, Alice, and Peter (the fictional characters in these last two cases) all join the stage, and the dialogue whips back and forth among them all. Childhood memories mix with retrospective reservations, which interweave with the excited shouts of the childish characters, or the justifications of the authors. It should be confusing, but the excellent writing and acting mean that it is not. So many tones come together - there are moments of nostalgia, and seeing Judi Dench take on the gait and manner of a young girl is quite breathtaking to see; there are moments of recrimination; of guilt; of confusion; of regret....  [Yet] The midpath between nostalgic indulgence and Nihilistic noir has been expertly judged - and perfectly acted by a brilliant cast, led, of course, by Dench and Whishaw.

 
I've sent out inquiries about a chance to see it... so, stay tuned ;)

Wednesday Creatives: Neverland, Wonderland, and the British Stage

There are some plays I hear about that make me want to hop on the next plane to London.

Today I found out about one of those:

Peter and Alice

As you might be able to surmise,  the play is about the two individuals who inspired the most iconic British children's stories: Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.  It is a fictional account of what might have transpired at the true-life 1932 meeting between an 80 year old Alice Liddell Hargreaves and a 35 Peter Llewellyn Davies.

Intrigued yet? Well I haven't told you the best part!

The best part?

Peter = Ben Wishaw

Alice = Judi Dench

"Get outta town?" - I know, I want to!

Yes, not exactly Q and M, but reunited just the same.

These are two of my favorite British Thespians!

Logan's play explores the loss of innocence and darker outcomes of sharing a name and identity with a fictional character.  We know from the actual lives of Peter and Alice that while the latter proudly basked in being the inspiration of beloved Alice, the former disdained it, often feeling haunted by the invisible presence of his eponymous character until he committed suicide.

The production physically reproduces the characters - as well as creators Carroll and Barrie - to create imagined conversations and confrontations.

Overall, I think this would be a fascinating look at literature, inspiration, innocence, facade, and identity.

A friend of mine from Oxford is going to see it this weekend (I'll share his review), and I'm trying to practice the 10th commandment, subpoint 3.35, which clearly states, "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's proximity or accessibility to the West End."

Help me, Lord.

**Update: his review!**

In the meantime, I'll just be scouting out Digital Theatre, etc. searching for any chance to see it for myself :)

Thought this was cute! #disneylove

Guess what??

I've never grown out of playing dress up.

"No really, Samara. We couldn't tell. Sherlockian cubicle parties weren't like a tip off or anything."

Yah, but seriously. Thanks to be homeschooled through 2nd grade, I got to spend a majority of my formative years dressed for a part with a wild imagination to match.

I've been made aware, recently, that not a lot has changed in that department.

So yah, I love dress up. And being such a fangirl, I love dressing up as favorite characters! Which apparently is called cosplay. [When did "dress up" get replaced with "cosplay"? Oh wait...just looked it up. "The term cosplay is a portmanteau of the English words costume and play. The term was coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi of the Japanese studio Studio Hard while attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon." Thank you, Wikipedia! Well, portmanteaus are cool...because Lewis Carol made up portmanteau, which is itself a portmanteau. But that leads back to me cosplaying ;]

So...yes. I get off on cosplaying. As demonstrated on my blog. Several times.

[Alice]

[White Rabbit]

[Hobbit]

[Sherlock]

I also (as demonstrated on my blog several times) L O V E the LBD, which relies heavily on costume theatre, which is quite similar to cosplay. And since its given characters specific costumes, it makes cosplaying those characters especially fun. I had actually been hoping to cosplay a particular character at some point.

All that to say, guess what happened today???

I had a newsies cap bequeathed to me!! Ok. Not exactly bequeathed... It was up for grabs & I took it.

And once I owned the hat, I just had to look into finding a red bow tie. One thing led to another and...well, the bow tie is on its way :D

And - even more exciting - I'm hoping to have a reason or two to cosplay soon. Details to come.

[It really is :]

So, I'm doing an Alice in Wonderland-themed photo essay for my modernism class. Today was the first part of my photo-shoot with my sister. Here's a sneak peek:

[photo credit]

Can't wait to show you more =)

Just found this. See last post =)

One day, I may accomplish incredible things. I may have influence. I may achieve lofty goals.

But I hope to never lose the part of me who is "Alice."

*   *   *   *   *

"When I used to read fairy-tales, thought Alice, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!"

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

"The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. 'Who are you?'"

"...so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things were really impossible."