Walking in uncomfortable shoes

Many of us don’t like doing things we’re not good at.

Work-life is about marching purposefully towards the heights of expertise in your field, right?

Steps to get there? Build competence, and confidence and gain the relevant certification.

Switch on the necessary EQ to navigate the politics and get project resources. Deliver on time - results, reports, recommendations.

In your free time, kick back, relax and maybe watch a show you like.

Actually, don’t relax. I challenge you to get creative doing something you’re not good at, for a change.

I love musicals. Well, I love the musicals that I love and have seen Hamilton three times. The story, the music, the acting, the dancing, the costumes. It’s magical! The costumes…so how do you get to be the costume designer in a musical? It looks like it would be an interesting gig to me.

I’m a realistic creative dreamer though. Before aiming for Broadway or the West End, I thought I would look closer to home. Two years ago, after some investigations on the interwebs, I found out about The Penguin Club, a local Cambridge group of volunteers who help with show production across several venues. After following up on some pointers and referrals, I met a wonderful and generous lady called Liz who was the costume manager for the production of Festival Player’s Kinky Boots.

Liz welcomed me to her home studio and after a conversation and cup of tea, I was enrolled as her intern. I was delighted to get the opportunity to do any costume jobs. With my limited knowledge, we decided that I would accompany Liz to rehearsals to take the cast's body measurements and plan out costume requirements and modifications. I don’t know how it is done in Theatreland but local production budgets require thrifting, borrowing, repurposing and homemade blinging. The latter, I reassured Liz, I could do with no supervision.

Apart from the hands-on making, I like everyone else, had to learn every detail of the script. For the costume department, this is to make sure the actors could work in the costumes and changeovers could be done in the correct order and on time.?

At home, I patiently spent hours zhuzhing up the costumes. Hand stitching and glue-gunning ribbon, tassels, fabric patches and rhinestones. And, in true showbusiness with a small “s” style, some of my costume contributions were appreciated by the Talent but some were rejected and Liz diplomatically handled this.?

For the show’s opening night, I joined the audience and had just that extra bit of appreciation folks have when they see the work that goes on behind the scenes. I was also really looking at the details that others would probably miss or not care about and obviously willing everyone to do well. For the rest of my time, I joined in to help as a Dresser.

It was uncomfortable being a novice jumping into a live project full of talented people. It was liberating not having expectations to do more than be helpful. It was so much fun being immersed in the story, the music and the behind-the-scenes production. It was inspiring to see lots of people pursue their creativity outside work through theatre on and off stage.?

Oh, I got a credit for my brief foray into costuming and I think that’s cool. ??

OK, go get uncomfortable!