Character Development

Hello darlings and welcome to another installment of "Living A Vintage Life".

So I've been thinking about who I want to be at the annual meeting of the Adventurers' Club at the end of this month. One of the highlights of the evening is the Balderdash Cup Awards where each participant is given a framework and has to make up a story. To me, making up a story is a much easier task if I am already portraying a specific character and I can use that character to inform the story. Also I find that I feel so much less insecure if I portray a charcter.

Yes, fans, I am insecure. If I'm in a room where I know no one and have no idea if I share interests with anyone in the room, I feel insecure. The last time this happened to me, it was at a friend's Hallowe'en party where she was inviting a bunch of her husband's work colleagues from Manhattan and little old me. Luckily it was a Murder Mystery party and I was a ringer who was supposed to plant clues and help move the story along. I was a gypsy fortune teller. I suppose I did well because the next day, people were shocked to know I didn't really have a Romanian accent. Ha!

So I need a character for this Adventurers' Club meeting. Bob will undoubtedly portray a British Big Game Hunter, someone whose speech is hardly intelligible except for the ocassional words "Injah" or "spendid fellow" or "used to hunt with his father" and the like.

My first thought was to do an American silent movie starlette with a squeaky Brooklyn accent, like Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" or Lina Lamont in "Singing in the Rain". This would require a 1930 long gown, lots of jewelry, and possibly a fur. I have everything but the gown and we've discussed the Vintage Vogue pattern in a previous post.

Then I thought I'll be one of the old English huntin'-shootin'-fishin' set like Aunt Dahlia or Honoria Glossop from "Jeeves and Wooster". They're the type who laugh loudly and smack you on the back too harshly when they're amused. Although I know both women would dress for dinner, I could show up in my hunting tweeds with a rifle over my arm. I'd love to make a 1930s hunting habit, but I really don't have time.

And then Bob had this idea that I should be the native wife of his big game hunter, wearing a sari and henna on my hands and feet. I do have a sari and a long black wig. I'd really have to practice the accent though...

But I think I've settled on a character similar to Lina Lamont. I think I'll call myself "Lily Lynette". I don't know why. Just rolls of the tongue.

Your thoughts, darlings?