costume time!

Nope, not for Halloween, Russian school Christmas play! Yes I know it's October, (and yes there are Halloween costumes in the works, but the girls are letting me off easy this year and are recycling and rearranging old costumes - who am I to argue?) and the Christmas play is not until end of January... but! there are lots of costumes, lots of kids, lots of people involved, so in order to keep the rest of my sanity and the rest of hair on my head from turning gray in a hurry, we're starting in October.

The play is a classic Russian fairytale - Tzarevna Lyagushka/Princess Frog. No it's not the prince that turns into a frog in this one, quite the opposite, and the kiss doesn't reverse the curse either. The link above takes you to the 1954 cartoon version of the story that I grew up with, there were many reincarnations of the story. Speaking of many stories, it's pretty funny that the other Russian school in the area has chosen the same fairytale for their play too. I can't wait to see it and to see how different or same our plays are!

I thought I would share a few of my costume sketches here ( in secret hopes that you might all decide that you want to help me make them! heh...). These are some of may favorite characters because of the drama they provide.

At the top of the post are costumes for Skomorohi/Jokers, they will be the comic relief for the story. Then we have Zmei Gorinich the Dragon and Koschei Besmertinii. These will scare the wits out of the little children. One of my favorite personages of most Russian fairytales - Izbushka na Kurih Nozhkah that the Baba Yaga lives in. And here is the heroine of the story herself - the princess frog in her two transformations. I had so much fun researching and drawing these characters! Now to the construction phase! Who wants to help???