"Dressing"

For nine of the last ten days I have been functioning as "dresser" - providing assistance in getting the actors in and out of their costumes as quickly and expeditiously as possible. This, too, is an entirely new experience - and a bit to my surprise, I find that I enjoy it and am good at it.

Doing a good job "dressing" involves anticipating needs, assessing quickly how much and what kind of assistance is needed, keeping a clear record of necessary alterations and repair, working with the "quick change" team to ensure costumes are where they should be, doing as much trouble-shooting on the spot as possible (I've never used so many safety pins in such a short time in my life!). I find I use my teaching background - understanding problems and questions as well as personalities; my sewing and costuming background - fixing things, knowing what needs to be fixed elsewhere; my social skills - working as a team, providing a ready smile and a competent hand. I like the fact that it's "a project," an activity with a definite beginning and a foreseeable end.

"Dressing" does involve long hours. Ten days ago, on a Monday, we started technical rehearsals - these included costumes so were also dress rehearsals of a sort. Dressers should be in the change area before the actors, checking on the state of things, picking up and organizing as needed. Then they remain on hand until the rehearsal is finished, until the very last actor has changed. For the Mystery Plays that has meant from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., with a full day (12:00 noon until 11:00 p.m.) on Saturday. I'm not a night owl by nature, but it seems I have made the switch to long evenings fairly well.

The tech rehearsals took longer than anticipated, and so last night we had our first and only actual "dress rehearsal", i.e. a rehearsal in which the whole production is gone through without stopping, as if it were a performance. Well - no surprise - the performance took almost 90 minutes longer than it should have, ending at just before midnight. Obviously something will have to give. The performers will be putting this on 41 more times before the end of the run, and there is no way they can last through that extra time. And it will be a rare audience who will happily sit through a 4.5 hour performance.

Opening night is tonight! Stay tuned...