Esther

The first week of March my cousins Becca and Elli were involved in the musical production of  "Esther".  Becca was the Director and Elli was one of the Assistant Directors.

Becca had asked me to make four maid costumes for the play, so when she called me and asked if I would be interested in coming down right before the play  to help out with last minute sewing, I was thrilled.

The musical was written and composed by a home school friend of theirs.  He did a fantastic job with the whole play.  I found it neat because not only was it a story from the Bible, but it also caused me to think about what happened to the different people in ways I had not considered before.  God's fingerprints are all over Esther's story in a truly wonderful way!

King Xerxes and his court on their one hundred and eighty-seventh night of partying.

(I like parties but not ones that last that long.)

Queen Vashti and her maids.

Mordecai, Judah and Esther.

In the harem.

Evil Haman making his presence known.

Haman's robe Elli and I made while I was there. It was fun doing the "trim" on it.

We decided that this was Haman's diamond back snake robe.....

.... and that goes along with his spider rode which is this one.

Assassins!

(The funnest assassins I have ever seen!)

One of the projects I worked on while I was there was making a throne.

Here is the throne before (during rehearsal).

And after (during a performance).

A tricky job Becca gave me was to take the puff out of King Xerxes' Pajama  sleeves.

Now ordinarily this would not be too hard. But since the top had to go back to it's owner undamaged, I was not able to rip it out and cut it down. So I did lots of tucking, pinning and sewing. The end result was that Kings Xerxes did not have his dignity soiled by being seen in puffed sleeves. 

The green and red outfits were the ones that I made.

Mordecai, Esther and the "Great" King Xerxes.

During the week they were able to keep me quite busy sewing, for which I was very happy.  Some of the smaller things I worked on were: sewing on beads for the maids, hemming, making sashes and headdresses, fixing ripped things, and tearing up sackcloth.

Queen Esther and her temperamental husband. 

I discovered that I enjoyed doing all the last minute sewing things more than I did making the maid outfits.

I think it was because the last minute details took more creativity, and they did not take so long. I was always sewing something different.

(Plus working in good company always helps.)

Haman and Zeresh with the dark associates! 

We needed a signet ring that did not look like just any other of the King's rings. The solution:  a big button and two differently sized key chain rings.  Since King Xerxes' and Haman's  hands are very different in size it was necessary. They could just switch key rings during scene changes.  You can see the "signet ring" in this picture.

The cast and crew were very gifted,
and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

One hour before the last performance.

The directing force behind the play.

Standing left to right: My cousins Elli and Becca. Kristi W.

Sitting at the piano is Robin T.

Thanks Kristi so much for letting me use some of your pictures!

Click here to see more pictures from Esther.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3630913&id=506778640&fbid=385776023640#!/album.php?aid=153987&id=506778640

Gretchen and Alaina came for the Thursday night performance.  I had great fun babysitting Alaina so Gretchen could see the play. She lived up to her reputation of angel baby ( Alaina, not Gretchen.) ;-) and we had a fun evening together! Although next time I must remember to bring a umbrella, since there was quite a spitting shower, I mean "Rain Shower".

I had a wonderful time! And since I love what I was doing, namely sewing, it never really seemed like work. Who could say no to:  staying up late, sewing all day, getting to see everybody rehearse, girl time, back rubs and being able to enjoy the inside jokes. Thanks so much Aunt Karilyn, Uncle Tom, Becca and Elli for making me a part of the household for the week.  Even though I was a stranger to most of the people there I enjoyed the good fellowship, and had a fun time talking to new people.  The play went well thanks to lots of work from many people, and the Lord's loving oversight.   "To God be the glory great things He hast done".

Haley

(I must say that when I first came home, even though it had only been one week, normal life looked a little tame through my theater dazzled eyes!) ;-)