Dear Constant Reader,
Happy Friday! I was just out for a walk and the trees are covered with blossoms. Spring is such a brief and lovely thing in New England! This week’s tip is:
There is no set order in which to remove your costume pieces.
Sure, sometimes you have to remove one garment to get to another, like shoes before stockings, or it will be easier for you to manipulate a fastening if you’re not wearing your gloves at that point. However, there is absolutely no reason to follow the “canonical” striptease of gloves>gown>bra if you don’t want to. It changes the audience’s expectations.
When I created my Lizzie Borden act, over a decade ago, I used to take the blood-stained apron off as the very first thing, then the skirt, then the blouse. Very pedestrian. Very much like getting undressed for bed. Now I take off the blouse and the skirt under the apron. It’s a bit more challenging, but there’s more tease. And the audience can have a little surprise when the apron finally comes off.
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