Costumes on the Cheap, Library of the Performing Arts Costume Exhibit-Just a Few Days Left!

Only in the theater can a vintage fan become a tree, like the one that was the inspiration for a set piece in a production of Tom Sawyer that I saw at the exhibit Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for a Live Performance. at the New York Public Library.

My friend and I maneuvered through a forest of costumes from the gaudy to the jeweled (or both!), which included a glittery ice-blue, ruffled gown designed for Glinda in a production of Wicked, lizard costumes for the Edward Albee play Seascape, a donkey head for A Midsummer's Night Dream, two pink sheep from Candide, and the Lumiere candlestick and iconic yellow dress designed for Belle in Beauty and the Beast, which I actually saw on Broadway (though I blush admitting this) I was with my mom, I swear! My only complaint about the costume portion of the exhibit was that the way the signs were arranged forced my friend and me to bounce from side-to-side to match the information with the diffferent costumes.

Looking at the sketches on display I didn't realize how creative you could be while just thinking out your ideas. In writing it's pretty much scribbles and cross-outs (possibly in different-colored ink), some carrots, and maybe if you're really lucky some doodles in the margins-I specialize in flowers, or perhaps the coup de grace, a writing exercise that actually involves drawing (such as the assignment was asked to draw a picture of the neighborhood wher I grew up, but that's another story....) but with costume design, there were whole collages, fabric samples, magazine cut-outs, and beads. Catherine Zuber who designed the aforementioned (I love this word!) lizard costumes actually used pictures of real lizards as her inspiration. Much as I applaud these cut and paste methods (I generally prefer to write longhand on writing pads) I also found out that some designers scan their sketches into computers and can add color directly to their sketch. How 21st century of them...

Believe it or not, but there actually is more to designing costumes than sashes, hats, capes, and feathers. I learned that yellow is the hardest color to use onstage because it can be harsh against the skin tone and cause it to look green, that fabrics for dance, especially ballet, must be lightweight, and most costumes are actually minimalistic and made up of net and air.

The set models we saw were a whole other nod to creative detail, I think my favorite had to be the design for High Fidelity, complete with tiny record albums, though the set for Crimes of the Heart had a cake on the kitchen table and a little phone, and the shadowbox for Nocturne had a man in a bathtub with books and shoes, clothes, and a plate of food on the floor.

At the end of the costume platform, props (?) such as masks of Egyptian-like faces and large, weird bugs dominated the area and there were TVs playing clips of various theater productions that you could listen to with headphones.

One last bit of theater-geek amusement, on the information card for a costume from Macbeth, they described it as "the Scottish play." Love it!

Cheap Chick Info: Free! This exhibit only has a few days left to it, (through May 2nd, 2009) but I also highly recommend you check out their other exhibit, 40 Years of Firsts: Dance Theater of Harlem, which is on until May 9th, 2009. Exhibit hours: Tues, Wed, and Fri: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Mon, Thurs: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sat: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Location Info: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Subway: 1 to 66th Street, B, D, C,A to 59th Street/Columbus Circle

Saving Money on a Midtown Afternoon

Believe it or not, but lurking behind the neon lights and theater marquees, there are savings to be had as you weave your way through Times Square's tourists and street vendors.

HB Burger

My friend and I started our midtown afternoon at HB Burger, an offshoot of Heartland Brewery. The menu had a variety of burgers including a taco turkey burger with homemade salsa, a jalapeno jack cheese burger, and an antipasto burger with mozzarella red peppers. I stuck to the regular burger and my friend ordered the more unusual selection of the Favorite Chef's Veggie sandwich made with black beans, brown rice, quinoa, veggies, and tomato chutney. The burgers were good, but I think the sides such as the cheddar/bacon tater tots and the fried dill pickle spears and the homemade sodas were the real stand-outs here. I ordered the tots and have to say that I wasn't too impressed with the number of tater tots in my serving, though they were delicious. We both had the homemade pomegranate lime soda, which was good, but just a touch too sweet. Our server was nice, but not terribly attentive though we were among the few people in the restaurant. Be warned, at first glance the prices look extremely Cheap chick-friendly, but the sandwiches don't come with sides, you need to order them separately. Even when ordering a side and a homemade soda, the meal averages around $13 plus tax and tip, which is still a pretty good deal in midtown.

The New York Times building

We headed to the New York Times building amid offers of Obama-condoms "for all those hard times" from street hawkers. Before entering the Times building we made the pleasing discovery of artwork by Tom Otterness, the same artist whose sculptures decorate the 14th Street and 8th Avenue subway station.

Once inside the "Hall" on the lower level of the Times building there was a free art exhibit where we looked at black and white photographs of famous musicians such as James Brown, Bobby McFerrin, and Ray Charles as jazz music played in the background. The most eye-catching element of the display was a mirrored box in which a guitar, sax, cymbal, and clairinet and other instruments were suspended in mid-air.

Virgin Megastore

At the Virgin Megastore, I was hoping to pick up a bargain DVD (preferably the first season of Gilmore Girls,) since the store is closing, but when we got there it was obvious that the vultures had been picking at the store's corpse for awhile. I was tempted by the blu-ray Planet of the Apes set (still $70 after the discount) and the first season of Charles in Charge, but didn't end up making a purchase. I did love the book of baby sci-fi names and was surprised by the number of books about Gwen Stefani that were on sale. Weirdly there were a lot of football T-shirts advertising teams from around the country, but I couldn't figure out why someone would travel to New York to buy a football T-shirt for their local team, must have been the 60 percent off signs...My friend had better luck than me and ended up buying (among other things) a Master of My Domain shirt (if you don't get the reference please step away from the blog, I repeat step away from the blog...)

The New York Public Library

Our last midtown stop was the main branch of the New York Public Library, which offers a number of permanent and changing exhibits.

The first exhibit we checked out was Afghanistan or the Perils of Freedom, which displayed photographs taken by Stephen Dupont, a photojournalist, filmmaker, and war correspondent. The pictures covered a selection of photos taken duringt the 1990's to the present-day as well as photos from his "Axe me biggie," series, ("Axe me biggie," being a crude Anglo phoenetics for the Dari phrase of, "Mister take my picture.") in which he used a polaroid camera to take photographs of local people on March3, 2006. The photos, which were all in black and white, were a compelling mix of contrasts, the middle-aged man in a business suit, men in robes and turbans, boys playing soccer, a woman with a veil billowing out behind her like a rippling wave, and soldiers with their guns. This exhibit is not for the faint-of-heart though, disturbing images of drug users, a young girl wounded in a rocket attack, and a baby suffering from burns will surely tug at your heartstrings and as my friend pointed out, make the news reports and stories more real than any facts or figures about Afghanistan shared on the nightly news.

We also visited the portrait room on the third floor where we saw historic figures such as John Jacob Astor, Samuel Morse, Washington Irving, George Washington, and Truman Capote imortalized in paint.

The Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve exhibit was the lightest library offering we looked at, with jazzy Gershwin and other tunes playing in the background. I learned that the Art Deco style developed in France though the actual term was coined in the U.S. during the 1960's. The movement was shaped by the Surrealist and cubist art movements as well as events like the opening of King Tut's tomb (in 1922) and even the building of Manhattan skyscrapers. The library exhibit incorporated fabric patterns, book covers, and posters with vibrant colors particularly bright blues and pinks. My favorites were a book binding with a swirled gold pattern, a print in a book of a woman in 1920's period dress looking at a bird, patterns created with bugs and butterflies bearing wild colors and designs, and a decorative green period vase.

The cost of this afternoon? The $13 or so dollars spent on lunch!

Cheap Chick Info: HB Burger (burgers run around $7-$8, sides about $3, and the homemade sodas around $3. Virgin Megastore: Pay for what you buy, most items 50 to 60 percent off. A few $10 DVDs are available. Remember store closes on March 29, 2009. New York Times building exhibit: Free! New York Public Library Exhibit: Free! The Afghanistan photo exhibit runs throughl March 29, 2009.

Location and Subway Info:
HB Burger
Location Info: 127 W. 43rd Street bet. Broadway and 6th Avenue
Subway: F,V,B,D to 42nd Street, 7 to Fifth Avenue, N,R,Q,W,1,2,3,A,C,E,S,7 to 42nd Street/Times Square

New York Times building
Location Info: 620 Eighth Avenue, between West 40th and 41st Streets
Subway: N,R,Q,W,1,2,3,A,C,E,S,7 to 42nd Street/Times Square

Virigin Megastore:
Location Info: 1540 Broadway between 45th and 46th Street
Subway: N,R,Q,W,1,2,3,A,C,E,S,7 to 42nd Street/Times Square

New York Public Library, Main Branch
Location: Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
Subway: F,V,B,D to 42nd Street, 7 to Fifth Avenue, 4,5,6,7,S to Grand Central