I once produced a show at a corporate event whose theme was labeled "Orange Nation". Of course, the whole venue was decorated in a fabulous spitfire orange.
It was heaven for me. There were hundreds of tables with large obnoxious centerpieces adorned with large tangerine colored ostrich, rooster, pheasant, and turkey feathers everywhere and I could not stop staring at them. The costume designer in me was salivating like a predator looking over its kill justt before digging in.
Out of curiosity, I asked what was to be the fate of the thousands of feathers and nearly died when I heard they were going to throw them out. If you've never purchased feathers, I promise this was many thousands of dollars worth of sacred bird feathers and I would not let them become single-use waste. So I offered to stay after the event to clear the tables of their "garbage".
My gracious dancers stayed with me daydreaming about the new costumes we were going to make. It took a couple of hours but once we pulled the centerpieces apart and sorted our booty, we schlepped off feeling like royals. I was able to make enough headdresses and fans for 16 dancers, and still had some left over - Correction: I still have some leftover feathers.
The pieces were a hit and they saw many stages and tons of performances. They even made it into Becoming Burlesque, a Toronto Indie movie about a Muslim girl who falls in love with a cast of dancers who do yo ol' classic strip tease at tht Lula Lounge... 😉 (Check out the credits!)
Some of the original Love Letters Cabaret cast was used and in this scene, our gorgeous showgirl loses her mind and rocks a gun and some tears with her headdress. (Those are. my shoulders staring up at her.)
Long live Orange Nation.
The color of abundance.
💋
Pastel