Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye costume ideas

My editor at Pioneer Drama Service tells me that Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye has gone off the charts recently. The play has booked 51 productions since last May and he continues to see several new orders almost every day.

With so many schools and youth theatres producing the play, I thought it might be helpful to show some pictures from those productions. It's always fun to see the creativity of the designs, and it might inspire some of you as you work on your own designs.

For this post, I'm going to show you costumes for the dynamic duo themselves--Rumpelstiltskin and Ugly Duckling--around whom the play revolves. You can see there are lots of variations, especially for Rumpelstiltskin.

Some go for the classic gumshoe look, giving him a dark suit and fedora. Some go more gnome-like with a beard and fairy tale garb. Still others prefer a hybrid look, combining a beard with a trench coat. And one school went in a completely different direction, decking him out like Sherlock Holmes with a frock coat and deerstalker hat.

It's all good. The only limit is your imagination. And maybe your budget.

Meatballs in Taiwan

Check out this poster for the Taiwanese premiere of Million Dollar Meatball, coming February 25-26 to a middle school in Taichung. I love how they made it look just like a movie poster, right down to the iconic font used for the credits at the bottom.

But my favorite part has to be the goofy expressions of the actors. They give the production a real sense of fun.

And in case you were wondering how to write Million Dollar Meatballs in Mandarin, it's like this:

百萬美元肉丸子.

Break legs, everyone!