Courtney Flores

Summer 2011

2011-08-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been about 6 months since my last post! It has been one crazy year and summer for me.
I haven't posted in several months due to my new position that will end in October. Currently I am working as Wardrobe Lead at California Shakespeare Theater(aka:Cal Shakes) in Orinda, CA. That's right folks, an outdoor theater. I originally interned at this theater in 2009 as a Costume Design intern, so it is great to be back amongst people I know in a working capacity, where this time I get paid for my skills.

My work schedule consists of working 6 nights a week with the traditional Monday, Dark Day. My social life is on hold till October, but I'm gaining a theater social life in return with all the amazing casts and crews that I've been working with for each show.

As of now, we have had a pretty great season. Our season consisted of TITUS ANDRONICUS, THE VERONA PROJECT, and now we are smack in the middle of George Bernanrd Shaw's, CANDIDA. We have a week off after CANDIDA finishes and then right back to our last show, TAMING OF THE SHREW.

I have to say that its been a great experience to see the different nuances and "vibes" of the personalities of each cast. I have to say, each cast is different.

I've also had a great hands on experience of working with the different nuances of costume needs for each show.

For TITUS ANDRONICUS, my main issue was blood, cleaning it up and washing bloody laundry. It was a big cast, so lots of maintenance on costumes.

THE VERONA PROJECT, was a easy show. Just two small loads of laundry every night, but we did have the cold factor, so thermals and body suits to keep everyone warm.

CANDIDA, has been lots of starch!!! Working with liquid starch is interesting and fun. Also dressing the actresses in some beautiful period style dresses with corsets has been fun as well. Don't forget the wigs too! It has been a high maintenance show with having everyone look perfect!!

Still waiting on what will be the main focus wardrobe wise with TAMING OF THE SHREW. We will definitely see!!

In other news, I'm quickly moving up in the world of technology with a new iPad to help with my design career, its also helped with wardrobe too!
I've founds some great apps such as Evernote, which is great for collecting research, Dropbox, for storing my documents and a great task list for my to do lists, called Complete HD. I also have a great Project Management app, called MyProjects which helps with all my shows.

Alas my BlackBerry Storm 2 went out on me, so I now have a new iPhone 4. All these MAC products are starting to make me want a MAC computer. We will see about that one.

So all in all, a very productive, exciting and fast paced summer, I can't believe it's almost over!

It's getting busy!!!

2011-03-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy past two months for me filled with new and exciting jobs!
Since OUROBOROS has ended, I was offered and took on the job as assistant to the Costume Designer for the Magic Theater's production of WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST that ran and closed last Sunday in San Francisco. It was a great job where I worked with amazing and talented people. The Magic is such a great theater!

Currently, I am working wardrobe crew for the production of RUINED at Berkeley Rep Theater, in Berkeley. It's an intense and powerful show, with a ton of costumes that me and my fellow wardrobe crew take care of. The cast is an amazing bunch of actors and the backstage crew is wonderful as well.

So much is going on and I'm gearing up for summer working on wardrobe crew for Cal Shakes in Orinda.

I'm already having to plan my work for 2012 if you can believe that. I have some proposals for some shows to design that are in the works.
I can say that 2011 is a great year so far career wise! Meeting so many wonderful, nice, kind, amazing, talented people and getting the chance to work at some amazing theaters. I am truly blessed this year!!!

Onward and upward!

OUROBOROS @ Renegade Theatre Experiment

2011-01-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

The Beginnings of Forum.

2011-01-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Before my two week break for the Holidays, I was able to have a week of free time to start building for our new show at Cal State East Bay. Currently we are building costumes for the production of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with music by Stephen Sondheim. The production is directed by Marc Jacobs, one of the faculty directing instructors in the Theatre Dept. If you would like to check out more information about "Forum", the show opens in March and click on "Forum" to direct you.

"Forum" as we like to call the show in shop, is having its costumes designed by a wonderful undergraduate student who loves Costume Design, Chalia La Tour.
I'm in charge of building one of the characters, Tintinablula. Of course I'm documenting my work because its fun and also a good way for me to see how I am improving with my build skills and also a great way to show people one of the many jobs that I do for a living.

So without further ado, here are some 1st draft patterns in muslin of the Tintinabula costume for "Forum."

We are now waiting to do a fitting on the actress playing TinTinabula and in the next week or so, I will be cutting out the patterns in fabric.

Things are looking up!

2011-01-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

Wonderful things happening right now!

Many friends and family have shown interest in helping me get to the Prague Quadrennial so now I now officially have my donation/fund raising website for the Prague Quadrennial. If you would like to help me travel to Prague for an on site installation I will be taking part of, feel free to contribute. So far I have raised $75.00, help me raise $6,000! Courtney's Prague Trip Donations.

I have also applied for a travel grant to help with my trip, hopefully this will come through. Stay Positive!

In other news, a production I was a part of in Fall of 2010 was named as one of the Best of Bay Area Theater in 2010!! Awesome.

Now back to work tomorrow for a new year!!!

Elvis has left the building.

2010-12-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

Whoa! I've been off the posting train for a minute, but time to get back on.

December has been a very busy month for me. I'm working on designing a show, I was building a new costume at my regular job and working on all my other jobs.

I finally finished the Elvis jumpsuit that was for the ghost of Christmas past for Scroogie. Here are some pics to look at the progress the costume and I made from start to finish.
Enjoy!

A great invitation.

2010-12-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

Awesome news I discovered on Monday. I have been invited to be a participant in the Prague Quadrennial 2011. http://www.pq.cz/en

What is the Prague Quadrennial? What does this mean to be a participant? I will explain.

The Prague Quadrennial

"The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is the largest scenography event in the world - presenting contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres - costume, stage, lighting, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera, drama, site specific, multi-media performances, and performance art, etc.

Every four years, since it’s establishing in 1967, the Prague Quadrennial has presented work from more then 70 countries, from five continents, in individual countries and regions' expositions in three competitive sections – the section of countries and regions, section of theatre architecture and student section.

This large exhibition is accompanied by a wide spectrum of live events – workshops, lectures, performances, discussions and presentations, and provides an in-depth exploration of contemporary theatre and performance design, creating space for meetings and exchange among thousands of performance and theatre professionals, students and spectators, who always attended the event."
-PQ website

My Participation

"Participants will be paired with another American student designer,
and will be given a short piece of text, 90 minutes, and will be given a stock of
art supplies. In that time, the two will discuss the text, and then collaboratively
the pair will create a piece of design art (a sketch, a collage, a sculpture, etc)
and that piece will immediately, upon it’s creation, become part of the exhibit
for the remainder of the PQ. In so doing, the overall exhibit will evolve and
change over the course of the days of the PQ, encouraging viewers to come back
to see the new additions." -Tom Burch

It's a really exciting opportunity and I can't wait to be a part of it!! I do have to find my own money and provide my own transportation to the exhibit in Prague. I am now in the process of locating travel grants, scholarships and any fund raising ventures that would allow me to pull money together.

This has made for an awesome start to the week!!! Hooray!!

Work and Inspiration.

2010-11-24T00:59:00.000-08:00

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?

It's like a Grand Opening...Again.

2010-11-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog, again.
My name is Courtney and I am a Costume Designer. I previously had a blog in this same site, however, I decided to revamp it and give it a go again. As I repeat again, welcome!

On this site I'm hoping to educate and possibly give some insight to the day to day workings of a working freelance Costume Designer. I have perused many websites and I find that there is not too many Costume Designers out there speaking on what they do, adding their insight to the world and basically, not putting their voice out there. I'm hoping to add to the little puddle of designers in the hopes of expanding the puddle to possibly a stream or maybe something bigger.

As I stated previously, my name is Courtney, I'm a Freelance Costume Designer, I mainly work in thatre, which is so very rewarding and hopefully in the near future I would like to work in film more. With that being said, what a reader will find on my blog is information and insight on projects I'm working on, words and pictures of what inspires me, other things that serve as inspiration or are related to the costume world. On any given day, you will find a variety of different information.
I'm hoping that you as a reader will come along for the ride, see what it is I do for a living and be inspired.

Hugs,

Courtney :)