Sepia Saturday 186: 20 July 2013

The theme for this week's Sepia Saturday is according to Alan: 

 ‘Boadecea or Mother England’ or possibly Britannia. You can choose; or go with armour, helmets, shields, fancy dress, pantomime, theatricals, warlike women or big sticks". 

Ooh plenty to choose from here.  I've been a bit stumped in previous weeks.

From an early age I have thoroughly enjoyed dressing up.

You might even to get to win a prize - as I did - on board the Oriana  coming home from England at the age of I think 3.

Any excuse for a dress up party and the one I remember most fondly was my Witches Party.  I think we were all aged about ten at the time.  Here we are in all our glory.  My parents used to go to such trouble over my birthday parties - decorations, forfeits, the whole shebang.  Unfortunately this photo is damaged but you get the idea.

Dress ups continued on in many guises particularly during my illustrious (not) career on stage.

Here I am kneeling in the part of Amy in Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas - a school production in partnership with Cranbrook.  Here is my line to Lord Fancourt, who I think is Charley's Aunt:

 "And he's so grateful; he says he owes everything to you and never could repay you, and oh, he is such a good, frank upright man - it was noble of you!"

Yes, yes, I know - gripping stuff.

I hadn't quite shed the acting bug when I got to Uni and exercised my lungs in the part of the egg-seller in Cavalleria Rusticana for the Circolo Italiano at Sydney Uni.  The production, I'll have you know, toured to Wollongong.  That's me on the far left looking down at my basket of eggs no doubt.  That one line "Il e morte!" really took it out of me I can tell you.  

As a family we liked to dress up for photos too when we lived or had holidays in Sydney.  There was a fabulous company at The Rocks that took period style photos.  Here's one of Mummy and me.  I can't remember when it was taken - I'm guessing early 80s.

This is the back of the photo.

Will these sort of photos confuse generations to come I wonder?

We've had fancy dress parties over the years.  A rather forgettable example is me of a flamingo at my 40th.  I will save us all the embarrassment of showing you that particular photo.  

But here is one of my BFF and my darling husband about to make our grand entrance at the ABC Xmas Party one year.

That's me behind that enormous bit of silver cardboard.  There were flashing lights on the tips of the stars corners (thanks to the efforts of fabulous brother-in-law Terry) which guided our erratic but cheerful path home to Taringa from Toowong in the early hours of the morning.  I'm thinking this was taken probably in the late 80s.  Of course the studios have gone now.  This was taken down in the production corridor where we made Childrens and Education and Light Entertainment shows.

So nothing as fabulous as good old Boadicea up the top of the post there but we had fun nevertheless.  

Here is a final photo in the collection.  Another mystery photo though I suspect it is the Forfar cousins again as per this blog post.  Do you think the children look similar?  There are absolutely no markings to give me any clues as to the photographic studio or where it was taken.  Sigh - another mystery.

They look like they're having fun don't they?  Have you dressed up lately?

Before you go, I'd be grateful if you could bear to read the blog post I wrote yesterday in case you know anything about PNG and can shed some light on some photos I uncovered in my grandfather's collection.  Thanks in anticipation.

For more Sepia Saturday fun go here.