Painted boxes

Me as Jan in SHS's production of Grease, 2012

At our high school, we did what we could when it came to props, costumes, and set pieces. That meant reusing the same little boxes and repainting them over and over again. Oh, to be the little black and red box in the background of this photo. Sitting there, holding a "help wanted" sign for the fictional diner in Grease, a much lighter job than it had the year before.

SHS's production of Once on this Island, 2010 (I am in purple, as Erzulie)

Here in this photo, the box is pink. Or perhaps it's the green one in the corner, or the blue one by the paper tree. Or the black one hidden in the corner, unseen. At this moment, the boxes get a break from the four costumed "Peasant Gods" they are pedestals for. It's sad really, to be a box like these; used and reused, over and over, for years and years. All the while, no one even remembers what you originally looked like.