OUROBOROS @ Renegade Theatre Experiment

Now that tech week is over, another costume design baby has left the womb! My costume work on OUROBOROS is complete.

From January 15 till February 5th, every Thursday through Sunday, the play OURBOROS by Tom Jacobson and directed by Virginia Drake is playing at the Historic Hoover Theatre in San Jose, California.

Tickets are available here. OUROBOROS Tickets.

Feel free to come and watch the show! Opening Night was a full house!

"Two American couples vacationing in Italy. Not that unusual. One couple is married and the other are friends. Again, not that unusual. One couple travels forward in time, while the other travels backward in time. Still, not that...wait, what? From the mind of renowned LA playwright, Tom Jacobson, comes the amazing palindrome play, OUROBOROS.

The forces of nature get all twisted around when Margaret and Tor meet Philip and Catherine. One couple is beginning their journey and the other in ending their's, all because of a cosmic connection and a ring, or rather rings. Is there one ring or two? Honestly, it all gets so confusing! One night the play will end as a comedy (The Nun's Story) and the next night it ends as a tragedy (The Minister's Story). Come experience this true experiment in storytelling! Love, lust, loyalty, betrayal, and faith are all wrapped up together to make the Regional Premiere of OUROBOROS by Tom Jacobson. " -Renegade Theatre Experiment

Work and Inspiration.

It's been about a week since I last posted. I've been meaning to make my mark here on my page, but work slows me down.
Just so you get the sense of what I do, I'm currently doing a lot at the moment.

1) I just closed a show I designed costumes for on Sunday night. The show was HABIBI by Sharif Abu-Hamdeh, a new work that premiered at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.

2) I'm designing costumes for a production that opens in January. The show is, OUROBOROS, by Tom Jacobson and its with Renegade Theatre Experiment in San Jose.

3) During this whole year of 2010, I have been slowly but surely completing my thesis for my Masters of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre, with an emphasis in Costume Design. It's taking me longer than anticipated, but its coming along.

4) I am in the process of starting to sew Liturgical dance costumes for a church in Oakland.

5) Last but not least, my day job of working at a costume shop for a local Bay Area University. At the current moment, I am constructing a 60's Elvis jumpsuit, which will be the ghost of the past in a children's production of A Christmas Carol, named, SCROOGIE.

All in all, I'm very busy. That's all a part of being a freelance designer. Learning time management and learning your limitations.


A new lesson I am learning, is how to be inspired amidst all this busy work. At times, I lose momentum or inspiration. I look for ways to spark up the lost momentum and get back on the train.
So far I have a few things that help me, that I will share:

1) An online journaling website.
I have used a journal off and on through the years and I started back up. The basis of the site is off the idea of Julia Cameron's, The Artist's Way, which is a great book if you are suffering an artistic block. She advises some tips to help break the block, which all work. One main exercise, is journaling 3 pages a day or 750 words.
Trust me it works. I start having vivid dreams and it gives me ideas.

2) Reading. It gets my mind off of what I'm doing for a bit and into something new. Its proven that if you take breaks when you are problem solving or figuring what your next move is, stepping away from the task and doing another task not related to the original helps. The action of "getting your mind off of the idea" and onto something else, has your brain functioning in other ways behind the scenes, to help you figure out a problem later on.
Right now I'm reading, The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley.
A wonderful book that everyone must read and I have a hard time putting down.

Those are a couple of my ideas for sparking inspiration. What are your exercises for sparking inspiration? Care to share?