Maria Del Rey, Jan.28th and 29th, at the Granada Theater in Santa Barbara

Hi again!
The last two days I worked with the beautiful and gracious singer Maria Del Rey, on the launch of her 2011 Childgood tour.
Maria Del Rey's The Bridge: El Puente
It was an unforgettable bilingual,multicultural celebration of Latin American music, art, dance & stories live onstage and on the big screen!
Starring Latin Grammy® Award nominee Maria Del Rey and joined by
Santa Barbara area children.
Her mission in life is to bring cultural celebration and social-emotional skills development to millions of children.
We were also filming footage for her possible upcoming television special.

I learned two important things from this wonderful experience.
#1; Never use an airbrush for foundation or hairspray around a singer, it affects their voice and performance. Luckily, Maria informed me of that before I sprayed anything in her direction.
; )

#2; It's good to have a flashlight when you're doing quick changes backstage.

I did take pictures, but I must apologize for the quality, I could not use flash during the performance and my photos on my camera were all very blurry. My iPhone did better, but they are still not the best and quite dark.

First of all the Granada Theater in Santa Barbara is a beautiful old theater of the grand,elaborate style. The walls and ceilings are intricately carved and gilded with gold.

Maria, an amazing woman with the voice of an angel is also the producer of the the tour and filming and handled her many jobs with the ultimate grace.

She wore several costumes for her numbers, from different parts of Latin America and depicting various cultural legends.

As I said, the backstage changing area was quite dark, and Lauda, the wardrobe woman and an old hand at doing quick changes backstage, had a small flashlight.

She not only helped guide Maria off the bright stage into the dark changing area with it, but could hold it in her mouth to keep her hands free to help fasten the costumes. I immediately bought one that night, and my second day was much easier.

Maria at the sound check, working out the details, while filming went on:

The end of day 1, the make-up room is set and ready for day 2.

She brought some children onstage with her during the performances, creating a truly interactive experience for them.
It was a great experience!
I love my job!