Chicago in the Summer!

Today I spent 5 hours glue-ing torn out pages from books until I eventually accumulated strips amounting to 130 feet. These strips will be joined together tomorrow and muslin will be glued atop of them. And then I will baste aligning pairs of stitches through the muslin and gather them to make ruffles. These individual paper ruffles will then be arranged into tiers on a muslin skirt (which I will already have constructed) and then voila I will have a dress made out of yellowing pages of a book found in a thrift store.

And it all makes perfect sense to me.

I find it so funny that I cannot understand a single word in Physics class no matter how hard I try yet the matter of making clothes out of old books is as natural as reading.

This is my first real job in the Chicago theater scene. And sometimes when I feel lost, I just think: I made it out here, I'm making a connection to this place, I'm getting out there, I came here to do theater and I'm doing the best I can to break into it here and I'm succeeding most of the time. It hasn't been easy, and I've definitely been blessed but I've also worked so hard. The hours at the sewing machine, the hours in the theater, the hours spent in tech - they're paying off.

I'm not interning on this job (though I will be at another company next week), I am in fact assisting a professional costume designer, and the show is in fact very legit. I am not getting paid but no matter I never got paid in Singapore anyway. Also, I am working for someone I absolutely love working for. I am excited, I almost feel like this is the first step towards truly becoming part of the Chicago theater community and really just ... staying here.

at this moment I feel like I never want to leave this place, that I don't want to go back, that I just want to call Chicago home and stay in America forever, but at the same time I know there are so many complications and so many problems with this idea.

Chicago is just so wonderful in the summer. The lakes, the neighborhoods, the sunshine and the cool breezes. And there is so much theater, everywhere, all the time.

I feel like I'm getting closer to knowing what I want to do.

+ posted by M @ 11:03 AM