When I'm not sending radiant brides down the aisle, I spend a lot of my time in dark cramped spaces in the bowls of theaters all over the west end. Recently you'd have found me residing in the National Theater as part of their wardrobe team.
And there couldn't be a better time to be working there, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the very first production by the National Theater Company in 1963 at the Old Vic Theater. On saturday they celebrated by bringing together the biggest and brightest from their 50 years on stage in a live show, and I was there!
Normally I get to tell you about all the fun I had working on exciting and individual dresses, but this time I wanted to share the other side of my work. I'm used to the hubbub and mayhem backstage and it's fair to say after so many years in the theater, though I still love my work, I consider myself a little jaded to the excitement of it all. But nothing could quite prepare me for the utterly surreal experience of watching the show from the holding area backstage with some of the greatest faces in acting. (Here's the name dropping portion of the evening), Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Christopher Eccleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and so many others, all sat about with a glass of wine, chatting away about the performances they were watching. And me, sat on the side lines, trying not to watch them. But perhaps more importantly some amazing friends I've made over my many months at the National Theater. We even got our little moment in the spot light when the backstage team were invited on stage for a bow, cheered on by all those amazing actors I'd been in awe of all evening. The show is still on BBC iplayer for another few days, see if you can catch a glimpse of blue hair in the curtain call.
But it was a special night to me for a whole other reason. One of the pieces chosen to perform was a exert from "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard. A play I have a special love for ever since I worked on it in 2009 in the west end. It was one of the happiest shows I have been a part of, I worked with a wonderful company and it was during that run that I worked on my very first wedding dresses. In the summer of 2009, when I found the unexpected joy of working with brides to be, I had the start of my dreams for night feather design. This week, I got to see a piece of "Arcadia" again, performed by some wonderful friends from the National Theater Company, a fantastic reminder of how much I love and cherish work, all aspects of it. All in all quite a spectacular night.
for bespoke dressmaking and alterations to suit every personality
