Another Openin', Another Show... 13 Days 'Til Mary Poppins Comes to Christ Lutheran!

So, quilt ceremonies, great music, and full-scale musical theatre productions in the sanctuary -- I promise I didn't pick my church ONLY for the arts and crafts.  There was something about grace and eternal salvation that factored into it as well.

Sets Going Up for Mary Poppins!

But HOW COOL is this set for Mary Poppins?!  It's huge!  A professional set designer created the set design and it was constructed and painted by talented church volunteers who have put in many, many hours over the past few months.  Today they are installing the set pieces that were built off-site in the extra-large chancel area of our new sanctuary, and I'm amazed to see the transformation from worship space to theatre.  The organ, both grand pianos, altar, lectern, and baptismal font have all been removed, and Christ Lutheran will be worshipping at No. 13 Cherry Tree Lane for the month of April.  Woo hoo!  The flight apparatus for Mary and Bert has already been installed, too.  If I was the pastor, I would take advantage of that and surprise the congregation with a dramatic flying sermon or two...  Probably best that I'm NOT the pastor...

However, if you're wondering what Mary Poppins could possibly have to do with the message or mission of the church, you'll want to check out the Mary Poppins Sermon Series that will be preached at Christ Lutheran over the next three weeks (I swear I am not making this up).  Worship services are streamed live and archived for online viewing any time on the church web site here.

Altar Moved Back In Front of Set for Sunday Worship

The show opens in two weeks, April 15th, and if you're in the Charlotte area, you can get your tickets either in person at Cornerstone Gifts or online here.  Proceeds from the show will benefit The Sandbox, a local nonprofit supporting families of children with terminal illnesses.  It's going to be a fantastic show in support of a great cause, and I hope to see you there!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to feed the birds...

Just A Spoonful of Sugar, A Chenille Upholstery Remnant, and Hot Glue: A Magic Carpet Bag for Mary Poppins

Magic Carpet Bag Prop for Mary Poppins

I've not been sewing as much lately because my whole family (except Bernie) is currently rehearsing for a production of Mary Poppins that opens on April 15th (get your tickets here!).  Lars is playing Robertson Ay, Anders is an ensemble member and a teddy bear who comes to life in the nursery, and I'm the Bird Woman.  I'm also the woman who opens her mouth and volunteers to make things like magic carpet bag props.

This is what I started out with, an old, musty doctor's bag in horrible condition that we picked up from a vintage/antiques shop for $30:

Vintage Doctor's Bag that has Seen Better Days

It stank, the leather and cardboard structure of the bag was distorted, ripped, and misshapen, the hardware was badly tarnished, and the edges of the bag frame were covered in a once-black cloth that was fraying and faded.  However, it's perfect for Mary's carpet bag because of the way this bag style opens:

Why This Nasty Old Bag Was Perfect

The top of the bag opens up to be a firm, rigid rectangle wide enough to pass other props through. 

In the show, Mary needs to pull an assortment of objects out of the bag that are obviously too big to actually fit inside the bag.  In order to accomplish this illusion, we need a trap door in the bottom of our bag so that props can be passed through by stage hands.  So the bottom of the bag was cut out on three sides, leaving one long side attached so that the bottom can be pulled up inside the bag and then put back down again. 

I hunted through my stash of fabric-remnants-too-precious-to-discard and found two small pieces of $250/yd Highland Court paisley upholstery chenille that was left over from a client's project years ago.  I wished it was a deeper red rather than a cinnamon, but I liked the luster of the fabric and the give of the weave.  By piecing the remnants together I was able to get a piece big enough to go all the way around my doctor's bag.  I serged the raw edge along the top because chenille ravels like crazy and I sewed the fabric into a tube that fit snugly at the base of the bag, with just a bit of excess fullness at the top.

Then I hot-glued the serged edge of the chenille fabric right up against the top edge of the bag along the front and back sides, leaving the ends free. 

Front & Back Edges Hot Glued Down, Ends and Bottom Edges Free

I ran a gathering thread to evenly distribute the excess fullness prior to gluing the ends. 

Gathering Excess Fullness Prior to Gluing

Once I'd gathered the fabric, adjusted the gathers evenly and knotted off the thread, it was easy to glue the top fabric edge in place at the ends of the bag.  Like so:

Top Fabric Edge Hot Glued in Place at Ends of Bag

I had left plenty of excess fabric hanging off the bottom of the bag, but I did not have enough of this fabric to do the bottom of the bag.  I hunted through my stash and found another luxurious, Mary-worthy scrap -- a Scalamandre silk ottoman ribbed fabric in crimson:

Scalamandre Silk Ottoman Rib for Bag Bottom, Highland Court Paisley Chenille for Bag Body

I cut my scrap of the silk ottoman fabric about an inch larger all around than the flap at the bottom of my bag, and I serged the raw edges to prevent fraying.  Then I positioned this piece of fabric on the outside of the flap, wrapped the edges of the fabric around to the inside of the bag, and secured them with binder clips (the kind from office supply stores).  That way I could remove the clips from one section at a time for hot gluing them down, without having to worry about the fabric slipping out of position.

Once that was done, I trimmed the lower edge of my upholstery chenille just long enough that I could fold it under and glue it in place around the edges of the flap.  The upholstery fabric actually folds to the inside of the bag around the three sides of the flap that are cut, and the bulk of the chenille helps to prevent any gapping between the bottom flap and the rest of the bag.  On the long side of the flap that is attached, the chenille is simply turned under and glued in place on the outside of the bag.  I thought about adding purse feet to the four corners of the bottom of the bag, but opted not to because I didn't want to draw any extra attention to the bottom of the bag.  After all, Mary will be holding the bag when she comes flying in for her grand entrance, and don't want the audience scrutinizing the bottom of her carpet bag!

Final steps on the inside of the bag included gluing a wooden stir stick (the kind you get at the paint store) to the long edge of the trap door flap and adding some tabs of industrial Velcro along that edge as well.  The wooden stir stick prevents the flap from falling open on the outside of the bag, and the Velcro ensures that when the flap is closed it STAYS closed.  I initially put the Velcro all the way along the wooden stick, but the Velcro was really hard to rip open and it was too loud when I pulled it apart.  I was afraid the Velcro sound would be picked up by Mary's microphone during the performance.  So I cut just a few tabs of Velcro and spaced them several inches apart instead.  This still holds the bottom of the bag closed, but requires much less effort and noise to open.

I had attempted to clean up the hardware with brass polish initially, but I discovered that it was only plated, not solid brass, and it was just a dull aluminum color once I cleaned away the tarnish and grime.  Mary is a stylish character who prides herself on her personal appearance and tidiness, so her luggage shouldn't look shabby and beat-up.  I used a black Sharpie marker to cover the fading and fraying of the fabric that covers the bag frame, and I used some metallic gold spray paint that I found in my garage to make the hardware look like shiny new brass from a distance.  I just sprayed the gold paint into an empty yogurt container and then painted the hardware with a tiny paint brush.

Bag Hardware Before

Bag Hardware After Painting

I think that came out pretty good, don't you?  I'm glad it's done and off my To-Do list!

If you're in the Charlotte area, I'd love for you to come see our version of Mary Poppins!  There are six performances April 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24, both evening and matinees.  Mary and Bert will be FLYING through the brand-new sanctuary of Christ Lutheran Church under the direction of Billy Ensley, and proceeds from the show will go to The Sandbox to support families of children with terminal illnesses.  It's going to be a great show for a great cause, fun for the whole family, and I hope to see you there.  Ticket prices are very affordable, and the performance/worship space was designed so that there are no "bad seats" in the house.  Get your tickets online here: http://www.itickets.com/events/357797.html

Feed the birds, y'all!

In the Battle of Family-Friendly Theatre, Annie Takes On Mary Poppins

Due to one of my husband's last-minute business trips, I had to scramble to exchange our opening night tickets to the touring performance of Disney's Mary Poppins, and the only performance for which somewhat comparable tickets were still available was for one of the final performances this past Friday night.  No one is going to be surprised to find out that I am a ticket snob, but especially since this was my first time taking the boys to a big, Broadway-style musical, I wanted to make it an extra-special experience for them.  This past weekend's performances were added to the original schedule for Charlotte, so I was able to get us seats in the second row of the Grand Tier circle.  However, I had also previously purchased tickets for Theatre Charlotte's performance of Annie for this Saturday night, so our family got an unintended double dose of back-to-back musical theatre this weekend, both classic family shows, but in two very different venues, and the difference between the Disney Mary Poppins budget and the community theatre's budget for their Annie production was like the difference between the defense budgets of the United States of America and Madagascar.

I have to tell you, I was disappointed by the Mary Poppins production.  With the vast resources of Disney at their disposal, along with a hefty box office take (my tickets cost $85 each, even for the kids) and a professional cast and crew, you would think that Mary Poppins would have been a far better show.  However, I felt commercially ambushed in that theatre, steamrolled with gimmicks and special effects that would have been more impressive had they contributed meaningfully to a production with genuine artistic merit.  The show's producers seemed unable to decide whether they were trying to rehash the hit 1964 Disney film, present something more faithful to P. L. Travers' original Mary Poppins books, or go Cirque de Soleil.  Major characters such as Burt, the Banks' household maid, and Mary Poppins herself were stale caricatures of the two-dimensional characters from the original Disney film, like photocopies of photocopies.  No one is going to do Julie Andrews better than Julie Adrews, or Dick Van Dyke better than Dick Van Dyke, so I would have preferred to see more original casting and interpretation in these roles.  Caroline Sheen's Mary Poppins came across a bit too harsh and self-absorbed, so that we really needed the "Holy Terror," Miss Andrews (she's the Evil Nanny who comes in and terrorizes the Banks family briefly when Mary goes MIA) as a contrast to show us what a great nanny Mary really is.  Choreographer Matthew Bourne's dance numbers are fabulous; just a bit confusing and out of place.  I'm as much in favor of well-muscled male ballet dancers in spandex as the next gal, but the statues that came to life in the park were more creepy than exciting, and Burt's dancing up the walls and ceiling was a gimicky, cheap thrill, not what I expect from a big-budget show.  If you missed Mary Poppins here in Charlotte, don't feel too bad -- you didn't miss anything you haven't seen a hundred times before.

Annie (Hannah Gundersheim) and Oliver Warbucks (Steve Bryan)

So on Saturday evening, we headed to a tiny little theatre in a converted house on Queens Road in Myers Park, where the all-volunteer cast and crew of Theatre Charlotte, our community theatre group, weaves magic out of next to nothing like Rumplestiltskin spins straw into gold. 

Ticket prices for Annie were $24 each, and that got us great seats in the second row.  The amateur performers (and by amateur I mean only that they were unpaid -- the cast was truly professional in every other sense) were accompanied by recorded instrumentals rather than by a live orchestra, and the sets and costumes were obviously a low or no-budget affair.  Yet the energy at Theatre Charlotte was electric, from the moment we entered the lobby until the last curtain call.  The child actors were fantastic, especially the little girl who plays Molly and Hannah Gundersheim as Annie.  Set Designer Chris Timmons and Costumer Jamie Varnadore did a fantastic job transporting us all to the Depression era.  I especially enjoyed the projected skyscrapers on the walls of the theatre, surrounding the audience and making us all feel that we were right in the thick of a bustling Manhattan thoroughfare for the "NYC" number. 

So, for all you Charlotteans out there, whether you have young children or not, I highly recommend that you make it a priority to see Annie before the show closes at the end of September, as well as any of the other upcoming Theatre Charlotte performances this season.  Even if you don't live in the Charlotte area, there's probably a community theatre in your neck of the woods, too.  Check them out!  It's a great way to support the arts at the grass roots level, and an affordable opportunity to enjoy live theatre. 

By the way, all you designers and drapery workrooms -- you know all those fabric scraps you've been hoarding that are too beautiful to throw away, but you really don't have any use for them?  Consider donating them to your local community theatre group!  If you have donations of gently worn vintage evening wear, suits, hats, gloves, sewing supplies, or fabrics that could be repurposed for costumes, contact Jamey Varnadore at (704) 840-5218, or send him an email to Jamey@varnadore.com.