Feeling the Glee with Number Three

With this one done, I have vanquished any concerns I have about making replacement wigs during the run of the show. I will have several made so if one breaks, a replacement is available immediately and the next day, I will repair the damaged one. Same with the paper dresses.

The interior of #3, that you cannot see, was a lot of work. In stage lighting, it will show. There are rolls of paper that will suggest how real bouffant styles like this were built up with curls.  If there is to be a #4, it may be built with cotton batten.

Woo Hoo, Wig Two

My first wig is visible here. This is #2. All designs may get used. I may not have to choose as there are two scenes. But I have at least one more wig to go. I seem to always like making three models as I did with the set. This is another design for Lady Vivicean Ferret; I am compelling myself to work in paper.

Starting out… an Elizabethan shape for a base
made, largely, out of tissue paper that is covered
in crepe paper streamer. 

The curls are made of finer tissue paper.
The rubber base is trimmed when finished. 

Weaving tissue paper and gluing (and getting
sticky fingers) makes tissue weaving hard. I
chose to weave a hair cone for this wig.

The finished wig. She is a ridiculous person.
Why not go crazy?

Healthier

GOD

I am addicted and have been for decades. Once I was a casual Coke drinker and then, at age 45, I had my second heart attack and a diagnosis of Prinzmetal Syndrome which is incurable but benefits from patients constantly taking caffein. I would often forget to take my pills and so it just became easier to constantly drink Coke, but I switched to Diet Coke to avoid the sugar. And,  of course, friends soon started sending me How Coke Will Kill You and How Aspartame Will Kill You articles.

Suddenly on September 10th, I decided to drastically alter my eating when I discovered acid reflux was causing me to lose my voice. How drastic? I have lost 18 pounds since then, but the slide has stopped.

Just as suddenly, on November 22nd, I decided to change my drinking habits—well I could say a bigger change happened quite a while ago when this life-long nondrinker bought a wine cooler and 18 bottles of Champagne, but on that day I decided to change my relationship with Diet Coke. Now, whenever I go to the fridge to refill my glass with DC, I first drink a large glass of cold water and I am extremely pleased with the surge in self-control that seems to have descended upon me.

Sunday Morning With Vivicean

This is a first draft and about three-and-a-half hours work.
To make the final wigs will be very time consuming.
And that is exactly what I want—something to do
that takes up hours of my time. I love retirement.

Adding the curls down the back.

Vivicean is a character in my play, Trudeau, the Felons and Me. Her name comes from an amalgamation of two words: vivisection and obscene. Vivisection, in case you don't know, is surgical experimentation on living animals which is an obscene act to my sensibilities. So Vivicean is a horrid character and therefore delicious to write.

This morning—beginning, as usual, at 4:00 am—was my morning to begin experimenting with building her wig. I bought a theatrical bald cap to put on a styrofoam head yesterday, so I could experiment a little with building it. (It shows in the photo but it will be trimmed on the final version.) And as with set designing, I have only my imagination to serve me in the absence of any training or experience.

This wig will go with her paper costume. The big decision ahead of me is whether or not to make both Vivicean's and Basil's costumes and wigs in white or coloured paper.

What's Next?

I wonder what has happened. As I contemplate my concern, I remember my ex saying to me once: “I’m bored. I’ve made a mistake choosing you. All you want to do at night is watch TV.”

But it wasn’t watching TV that bothered him; it was the fact that we weren’t going out every night to party with friends. I am not a partier. I only recall that incident as I wonder why watching TV has become impossible for me. If I turn it on, my behavior makes me wonder if I have an attention-deficit disorder. I turn it on; I hit pause; I do some dishes; I turn it back on; I hit pause; I check my email; I turn it on; I hit pause; etcetera, etcetera.

I have winnowed my cable to two essential channels: PBS and Knowledge.

So after pondering what has happened and I conclude the following: I have developed confidence in my creative writing so I want to write more. Now I find staring at an empty MS Word page more satisfying than watching TV. But what should I do next?

I have written about what I know. Artist Survival Skills was about all I have learned working professionally in the visual arts. I have written about my past. Knock Knock was a fabulous theatrical experience for me, a lucrative one for the charity for which it raised big bucks and a valued one by its audience. And now, as Uncle Gus’ Monkey, it is bringing new adventures to Warren and me. And Trudeau, the Felons and Me is about the most interesting seven years of my career.

So what should I do next? My brain says: Write something that passionately interests you—a comedy or a fantasy … something not about you, adoption, loss or identity. My ego says: Write something that allows you to design the poster, props, costumes and set again.

If I can think of something and do it, it is going to be the hardest thing yet. So far, everything has been easy, coming from my own experience. I have always felt the greatest writing is about ideas. There’s the nub of the challenge.

Awakenings

I have been awakened by building the three maquettes for the set for my play. Writing is 2-D, set designing is 3-D and working in three dimensions is profoundly fulfilling. It is like being a kid again. Building sets feels like play. And this morning I am off to get styrofoam heads to have on hand so that I can play with paper of differing colours and textures to create the paper wigs for two characters in the play.

And in the ensuing months, I will build a large model house —a miniature version of the real Presentation House. The model is a major prop in the play. And then, with Jane, and once we know the cast, we will start creating the paper costumes.

The awakening is to the thrill of working with my hands (to do something other than type). It is even more fun that writing, and when I have so many constructive things to do with my hands I don't need television or books or movies or anything else. My awakening has me wanting to keep making more things.

But … and there always seems to be a "but"… but I also love the extra "hit" I feel from making things to fit into a story I have written so I have awakened today with a desire to concoct yet another play that will allow me to make things. I wonder if I can do that?

Adoptees might not remember how to speak their first language, but the linguistic sounds from when they were very younger may still be embedded in the brain.

My friend, D-R, sent me an article entitled ‘Lost’ first languages leave permanent mark on the brain.  I am living proof of that discovery. You can read it here if you are interested. All they had to do is call me to know what they have discovered.

Some of the biggest "ah ha" moments in my play Knock Knock that is now my screenplay called Uncle Gus' Monkey are about my inexplicable affinity for French and passion for things French—the language that was my first language and the language in which I was immersed for the first six months of my life.

This article is a wonderful read for me. I am so grateful for the Internet and D-R's initiative to send it to me because this phantom language and passion for it has been a major influence in my life.  It has always amazed me that I can be, here in Vancouver, in a room full of Anglophones talking and if there is one person speaking French, I hear it as clear as a siren through all the aural clutter.

It is so incredibly fulfilling to read things like this:

“Lost” first languages leave a permanent mark on the brain, a report this week has found. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in the US, challenges the existing understanding that exposure to a language in the first year of a child’s life can be “erased” if he or she is moved to a different linguistic environment.

And this:

In addition to challenging existing understandings of the impact early languages have on the brain, Kate Watkins, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford, said it had interesting implications for those who may choose to “relearn” their first languages. 

“It would suggest that someone who had this very short exposure would have an advantage if they wanted to learn this language again. If your brain is wired up to detect these [sound] categories you are probably going to have an easier time learning the language.”

Duh. Again … all they had to do was call. I could have told them about going to France at age 24 with not a single minute of French language instruction and becoming fluent in 3 months and possessed of a better-than-average accent.

What a terrific read this was for me. I feel fabulous today.