<p>I am so excited - for the second year in a row, my baby girl won FIRST PLACE in the whole state of TEXAS for her costume design in the UIL Theater Design competition!!!</p>
<p>I AM SO PROUD!!!</p>
<p>That is so awesome! How exciting! Congrats to your daughter and high five to you! :0)</p>
<p>Thank you! We are so thrilled because the competition was really stiff this year - the cool part is, to me anyway, the judge was the most impressed with her justification - which is her concept and how well she thought it out - her renderings were lovely, but it was her thought process and how appropriate and well done it was, that won this for her - and that is just an excellent skill. I did not think she would win first place TWICE. I’m beside myself.</p>
<p>Can you share what she created or is that like sharing MT audition songs? ;0)</p>
<p>CONGRATULATIONS!! That is very exciting – not only that she had a clear and effective concept for her designs, but also that she was able to communicate that vision to the panel of judges in a way that was consistent with the execution they saw on stage. Those communication skills will be as valuable to her as her obvious design talent. Again, congratulations!</p>
<p>Oh, certainly they can be shared, if they ever get around to updating the UIL website they ought to have them pictured as they have the winners from the past several years on there. But they don’t have last years up (which she won) or obviously, this year’s yet.</p>
<p>I would be happy to show them off but we aren’t allowed to post links, I think. They are on my facebook page. If you pm me I’ll send the link.</p>
<p>Last year the design prompt was “Antigone” but they had to set it somewhere other than the ancient Greek. She put it in late 19th century India and the whole honor killing thing worked beautifully - the Greek Chorus was in beautiful Middle Eastern dance garb, and it was all those bright embroidered colors except for Antigone was in black and dark red. She had all her design choices and colors and characters so well justified. It was so original - many of the kids chose an Anime or steampunk theme and she was the only person to do anything like what she did. Also her fabric swatches were really varied and amazing. (little trick: she found thrift store items to get them from and didn’t limit herself to the sorry selection at Hancock’s.)</p>
<p>This year it was “Alice in Wonderland” which had to be set in a different time period and could NOT resemble the Disney, the Johnny Depp version, or the original illustrations. She put it in early 20th century Mexico and that worked out great. The White Queen was a folklorico dancer, the Red Queen was La Katrina, the white rabbit was a vacquero, Alice was a little girl in the traditional embroidered Mexican peasant dress, and the Mad Hatter was a gaucho with several sombreros stacked up on his head. Gauchos are from Argentina, not Mexico, but that worked for his character as he is a bit different from the rest of them in the play, and not only that - gauchos are famous for drinking lots of yerba mate TEA of all things. lol. </p>
<p>A lot of thought, research and cultural appreciation and sensitivity went into her justifications and apparently the judges (Texas college professors) like them.</p>
<p>This is especially sweet because that theater teacher of hers, tried to talk her into doing something else (which I thought was really sophomoric anyway, and besides, NOT my daughter’s own idea, which, NO) and my daughter refused, insisted upon following her own instincts and doing HER OWN CONCEPT. Hee hee hee, that is the sweetest part of all.</p>
<p>Momcares ~they don’t get sewn; very few Texas high school theater programs are developed enough or have the resources that the students could learn the sewing skills and have time to make all five of the required costumes. They have to come up with their design and concept, pick out fabric swatches, render them well enough to communicate their idea, and then write a strong justification for their design choices.</p>
<p>Learning to physically manifest her concepts into an actual costume is something her lucky college professor will get to teach her how to do. 
I don’t think she’ll have much problem with it. She can already sew. That’s something she got from being a fourth generation seamstress at home, not at school, as they have pretty much canned domestic science or what we used to call “home ec” in our district and from what I hear, almost everywhere, which I personally think is a shame.</p>
<p>She loves performing so I would be supportive of her focusing on that for now, while she’s young and it doesn’t matter how poor she is lol. Then to go back for her MFA in costume after a few years. That is what I think would be a really good path for her. Of course who knows what she will end up doing, but I could see her really having a ball with that, and the experience of performing for a few years would do nothing but good for her costuming skills.</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter on her big achievement! She must be very talented! It is really cool that your state has these sorts of awards and it is intriguing to read about it all. What’s really neat beyond this wonderful recognition is that she has this other theater skill that she is talented at and it will come in handy as another option for work in the future besides performing. It is good to have other skills in this field. Your D is on her way!</p>
<p>Thank you. I am so happy about it. She does not play the piano skillfully or write music like your daughter, soozie, so I am glad she has this other skill which, should she happen to not end up the next Sutton Foster, (lol) can hopefully allow her to remain in the business, if that’s where she still loves to be.</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter! Coming from a person who can’t sew on a button , I am in awe of costume designers!</p>
<p>Oh, snapdragonfly, that’s such wonderful news! Bravo to your D! Isn’t it a great feeling when our kids’ accomplishments are acknowledged?! You must be very proud of her. Talent in costuming is such a terrific skill to have. I’m sure the future holds wonderful things for her. :)</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your daughter!!!</p>
<p>That is so exciting! How wonderful!</p>
<p>Congrats to your D snap! Hope they get the UIL website updated so we can take a peek.</p>
<p>snapdragonfly - Big congrats to your D on her wonderful achievement!</p>
<p>Wow!!! What an amazing accomplishment!!! Congratulations to your daughter and you too! She must be very gifted and talented. I’m sure there are big things to come for her!</p>
<p>@snapdragonfly – I just had time to catch up on this thread, and after reading your D’s concepts for both years I really want to see BOTH productions as she envisioned them! Has she ever tried her hand at directing?</p>
<p>No, she hasn’t directed yet, momcares. Her college program will involve (as most of them we looked at did) exposing her to all the facets of theater at least once, though it will focus on her MT emphasis.</p>
<p>Actually I think she’d be a good director, as far as her people skills they are really good; the theater tech director at her high school praised her to me and said that when she stage managed, that she was “assertive without being *****y” which he said was a good quality. haha.</p>
<p>So we will see what happens! It’s very exciting! Of course all performers love that interaction that happens on stage with an audience but there are lots of very good performers who find they have a love and aptitude for other aspects of theater, also. That can’t be a bad thing!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t hold my breath on the UIL updating those photos - I am assuming they will at some point because why would they stop at 2009? But if you want to see photos of her work, pm me and I’ll send you the link to my facebook album which has them. I would post it here but I think we are not supposed to do that.</p>
<p>They are pretty cool designs if I may say so. Thanks for all your kind words, ya’ll - I’m so proud of her!</p>
<p>Congratulations on Al’s winning :)</p>
<p>Just got to see the photos of the designs - totally awesome!!</p>