WORKING WITH PENNY MARSHALL

I just saw Penny Marshall on The Today Show, and I have ordered her book. Can’t wait to read it!

I had the interesting experience (and yes, I would say, the pleasure) of working with her in 1992 when I was hired to costume design the TV series A League of Their Own. The movie had been a huge hit, and the TV series was the hot ticket - everyone in Holllywood wanted to be involved.

A man I had previously worked with on several other series was producing it and set up a time for me to come in and meet with Penny. She was sitting behind her desk in her huge office at Sony Studios when I entered, and was eating from a large bowl of spaghetti! She apologized, saying she had not had a moment to have lunch, and to please sit down and show her my portfolio. It was a bit disconcerting, and I was nervious. She was so droll! In my nervousness I said that I was experience in the “thirties” costumes that would be needed, and without missing a beat and without looking up she said “forties”. I had nearly blown it! World War 2 story - of course 1940’s costumes!

I started work early before the cast was set, as she wanted me to have enough 40’s clothing to outfit all the actors doing screen tests. Every actress in town wanted to be cast and therefore were so sweet and appreciative of my efforts to make them look the part. Only later when we were well under way filming did the seven “Peaches” girls start to get competitive and fight for rank!

Penny was always droll, both in production meetings and while filmling, and she had her favorites. She was never big with compliments or lots of touchy feely stuff, though I think I would have heard about it if she hadn’t liked what I was doing. She expected top level work from everyone, but didn’t see any need to draw attention to what she thgouht was the norm.  Her brother,  Garry Marshall, on the other hand, was the exact opposite - outgoing, mellow, kind, full of smiles and compliments all around. I reminded him that he had nearly cast me as Gwendolyn PIgeon in the TV series The Odd Couple  some years back (while I was still an actress) and he was kind enough to say I was a wonderful and he wishes I had got the part! He may not even have remembered me, but I didn’t care!

We only filmed 6 episodes, and Penny directed a couple of them. Tom Hanks came in to direct one episode too, though at first I didn’t recognize him, as he had just finished filming Philadelphia, and was still thin and growing his hair back from that Oscar winning performance.

Only two episodes aired, in mid summer. The show got bad ratings, and was plucked off the air. I however, was incredibly honored to still get nominated for my first Emmy  for Best Costume Design for a Series.

Latest news on my costume design!

Well well, I can't believe it's been April since I last blogged! That's because I have been very busy with a number of really interesting projects.

Some time in February I was contacted concerning doing costumes for an independent film about Gregory Popovich's Pet Theater. I had seen Gregory Popovich's charming afternoon show with his trained rescue dogs and cats at Planet Hollywood, knew he was a 6th generation Moscow Circus artist, and also knew of the film's producers from previous films. I was intrigued. I read the script and was hooked. It's not my usual type of project, but how can you resist colorful characters and animals! I was also able to contact Antonio Fargas, whom I had worked with on the film "Stealing Las Vegas" and persuade him to play a leading role in the film.

Filming was delayed a couple of times, but finally got underway in May and has been going well ever since. We do not shoot every day, as in a regular feature shoot, because Gregory still performs his show almost every afternoon, and the Thompson Brothers (co-producers and directors) also have other professional commitments, so all in all it has been fun and not too high pressure. It's a lovely story, and I hope the final product does very well with children (of all ages!).

Then in May, two additional things happened. My husband Dominic Calandra, an actor in "Tony and Tina's Wedding", had ten days off as his show moved from Planet Hollywood to Bally's, so we grabbed that window of opportunity to take a quick trip to Sicily, a place we had talked about visiting for some time. I had very little time to put plans in place, but I love being a virtual travel agent, and found some amazing places to stay on the Internet.

The second thing that happened was that I got a call to costume design a modern day version of Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" for Opera Las Vegas. It was to open two weeks after my return from Italy! I nearly turned it down, but then I couldn't resist the chance the design an opera, something I had never done before. I quickly downloaded a filmed production of the opera from the Metropolitan Opera's website and researched the 5 principle singers, who have all performed at the Met. The director and conductor were also from the Met.

I admit at first I was a little intimidated by the idea of costuming major opera stars, especially on a small budget, but they turned out to be totally approachable and good fun. When I arrived at the first rehearsal, I was surprised (I don't know why!) to see them all in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. Then they opened their mouths and out poured Mozart's music! It was funny to me, but I soon got used to it.

This is probably enough for this post. I will tell you about designing the opera another day.