Does This Fat Suit Make Me Look Fat?

So the big news on the costume front is that I have to wear a padding for the role of Grandma! It makes me about 3 feet wide and is actually really cute. I don't have to wear the padding as the Neighbor or as the Lobster. All the costumes are sweet and I actually feel most comfortable in the Grandma padding since it makes me look like an enormous cartoon character and the other costumes I just feel enormous naturally...especially after all the holiday eating I've done the past few weeks:)

The photo is a sneak peak of the Neighbor costume. I've treated the photo with a charcoal drawing effect because I think it's cool looking and because I don't want you to see the actual costume until it's been altered for me. There is a lot of extra fabric in the middle because I'm pretty short waisted and whoever wore it before was longer waisted. As the Neighbor, I wear a blue dress that buttons up the front and has a circle skirt, sort of Donna Reed-ish. The buttons are accented by a row of over sized white rick-rack. The Neighbor apparently is something of a glamour bunny though, because she wears a rather large red bow on her ears.

The Grandma costume is a huge flowered blue dress. It's both big in the sense that it has to fit over the fat suit, and in the fact that the flowers on the dress are ginormous. The collar is lots of white lace with a modesty flap so that Grandma doesn't reveal any cleavage. Grandma is a true lady. She also wears a cameo pin which adds to the Grandma-ness of the effect. The look is topped off with patent red shoes that are sort of Mary Jane like and gold rimmed round glasses.

The Lobster costume is very elaborate. It has a tail that sticks out from the body and lots of arms with claws that show when I raise my arms. I have two very large claws that go over my hands. I only wish I could actually operate the claws! Because the lobster is a "cowboy lobster"...don't ask...it has to do with the storyline...I wear a black cowboy hat that has the lobster eyes and antennae on top. The whole lobster costume is really cute, but extremely hard to get in and out of. I nearly dislocated by shoulder trying to get it off by myself. I'll probably have to get help with it unless it gets easier with practice.

I also found out that several of us combine to play the role of a scary blue tarantula. Apparently it's made of a huge mask and arms that are made out of blue pool noodles. The only part of me you're supposed to see are my hand and my foot as I operate one or two of the arms of the tarantula. But...because you can't be sure that every theatre or school that we play at will have the type of stage that allows us to not be seen as we operate the beast, we have to wear head to toe costumes just in case any kids catch a glimpse of us. The Blue Tarantula costume consists of black leggings, a black jacket with arms covered in blue layered ruffles that remind me of a mariachi band outfit, black gloves with rhinestones, blue ballet-like slippers that have blue sequins, and finally to top it all off, a black hood head piece that vaguely resembles a scuba hood. I look like a member of an underwater mariachi band.

We start rehearsals on Monday beginning with a 9:30am Actors' Equity meeting where we will work out all the equity details for our cast. Music rehearsals start at 10:30 and we go until 6:30. I'm looking forward to meeting the people I haven't met yet, and get started on learning the show. I need to get my ipod charged up so I can use it to record the music stuff. And now...I rest up. It's going to be a busy week!