Last night, at the conclusion of the final presentation of FAME The Musical, I was moved to hear Vanessa Blott, president of the Claresholm Society for the Arts, emotionally relay that it was her grandparents who had been behind the building the show's venue. How very special that Vanessa, who, years later, delivered an outstanding performance as Ms. Greta Bell (dance instructor in the musical) acted and sang in Claresholm's first live production finally realising her grandparents dream for the Community Hall. Plus, this was the first time that mother and 17 year old daughter, Camille Blott, who excelled as Serene Katz (student of acting) had performed together on stage!
Karen Linderman, patron of the arts and Production Manager for our FAME, is a tremendous supporter of me and my art. She asked if I would create two of my music-sheet-background roses as thank you gifts for the Director and Musical Director. Unbeknownst to Karen I made one for her too.
The vintage sheet music I've been collecting is precisely the right width to adhere to 6" x 6" x 1 5/8" deep cradled panels. The beautifully aged, cream colour pages lend themselves to warm coloured roses.
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| PRECIOUS PEACH for the Director |
Needing a cooler background for the burgundy rose, I was fortunate in finding scrapbooking paper with a music sheet motif in grey tones.
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| MIDNIGHT WINE for the Musical Director |
With acrylic paints I tint, splatter and embellish the adhered papers. The roses are painted in oil.
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| RAINBOW ROSE for the Production Manager |
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| The cast of Claresholm's FAME, all local residents, many students of our junior and senior high school, including the Linderman boys, Dan as Schlomo Metzenbaum (far left, front row) and Tom, part of the chorus, third from the right, front row |
A production like this requires an incredible amount of work from a tremendous number of people. The cast were phenomenal in their efforts. Sound and lighting folks outdid themselves. With Bill and I being away for much of December we weren't here to volunteer until the final crunch as ushers and raffle ticket sellers. These easy jobs were a huge gift because they enabled us to view all six performances - which just kept getting more electric with each show.
At the 11th hour, Bill contributed his expertise by editing and correcting/enhancing 500 plus photos taken by Karen's husband, Keith, and burning them to 35 CDs for the cast and crew.
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| At the Cast and Crew party - with painting recipients, Michelle DeDominicis, Karen Linderman and Emma Ashcroft |
The community response was most gratifying. Every performance was sold out in advance of the first show. My wish is that everyone has a sense of gratitude about just how much time and energy went into this production. My personal thanks to all involved and my apologies if I haven't mentioned you here, personally - it's simply that I don't know you - yet!
