What Happens Backstage

I graduated from college with a degree in theatre and have noticed some similarities between theatrical productions and yarn/fiber festivals.  What you are at a fiber festival, much like when you watch a play or a movie, is really just the tip of the iceberg.


What you don't see when you go to a play are the hundreds of hours that go in to a 2 hour production.  You don't see the all of the time that the director spends shaping and tweaking performances, all of the time that the actors spend studying lines and perfecting their character, the time that the costumer spends in making sure that everyone's bum is covered in an appropriate costume for the period or the character, you don't see the time that the sound designer spends making sure that the phone rings with an appropriate sound for 1947 or that the dog barks at the correct time.  You don't see the time that the lighting designer spends making sure that you can see everyones face and the the mood is accurately lit-different lights for a farce than for a dramatic show for example.  You can't see the stage manager herding actors from one scene to the next making sure they are where they are supposed to be or all of the paperwork they have to do.  You don't see the time that the producer spends making sure that the staff for all these backstage functions is put together in a cohesive way.  The machinery that goes into a theatrical production is amazing.

And a lot like when you have a small crafting business like mine.  I am the everything to my business.  I design and create everything that I sell.  I clearly label and/or package with exactly what it is, I design the feel to my booth and how the items are displayed, I dress according to my brand-which is very much how I dress in real life.  When I go to a show all 500 items that are in the booth were created by me.  This is a pretty awesome feeling-the knowledge that when I am gone from this earth, people will still have things that I created in their lives.  They will be able to wear or use a piece of my creativity.  And you know?  That brings me happiness-hopefully the same feeling that folks that knit with the yarn that I dye or use any of the bags that I have sewn feels when they look at or touch something that I have made.

Just as people carry the memory of a play with them through their lives.