Watching an actor walk offstage and immediately reappear in a completely different outfit is one of the most captivating moments in theater. Quick costume changes add a layer of intrigue to any theater production. That’s especially true in a show in which 35 actors change costumes dozens of times over the span of a couple of hours. That’s what happens in “The Little Mermaid.” Lisa Clark, the theater director at Bishop Verot High School, described the magnitude of the challenge.
“The ensemble, I don't think they wear the same costume twice,” Clark pointed out. “They start as sailors and then they become sea creatures and then they become chefs and then they become lily pads or seagulls. And then the final number, they're wearing ball gowns and all kinds of stuff. So they're constantly changing costumes and makeup, too.”
Clark took us backstage at Verot’s Anderson Theater during a recent “Little Mermaid” dress rehearsal to pull back the curtain on the techniques actors use to make quick costume changes look effortless.
The first is layering.
“Sometimes you're wearing two and three outfits under the outfit that you already have on,” explained Robin Dawn Ryan, who’s assisting Clark in “Little Mermaid.” “So, you go and you rip off one layer and you come back out. You go back and you rip off the next layer.”
Verot costume designer Heidi Rustic said that Katt Torres, who plays Ariel, really makes effective use of layering for a number of the costume changes she’s required to make - both onstage and in the wings.
“So, when she has quick changes coming up, she’ll have one gown underneath another so that when the lights go down and we go to a blackout, she can have a little bit of assistance and take off that top layer,” Rustic revealed.
In equity theaters, costumes are often built with special features to facilitate quick changes. Community and high school theaters rarely have that luxury.
“I would love to say that I think of their quick changes when I pick the costumes out but that's just not necessarily true,” Clark admitted. “Sometimes we're working with vintage gowns from our shop because it's just what looks best in the scene.”
But even vintage gowns or off-the-rack costumes can be retrofit help actors speedily get into and out of them.
“Sometimes we'll make alterations,” Clark said. “Like we've put snaps on something that had buttons so that it can just go instead. Almost everything has zippers, though, which makes everything a lot easier.”
Rustic even used magnets to fasten the back of one of Ariel’s dresses so that it could be removed onstage with a single movement to reveal the gown Torres is wearing underneath.
Leads, like Torres or Braden Heckman, who plays Prince Eric, have helpers — known in theater as “dressers” — to help them in and out of their costumes. While supporting actors and members of the ensemble help each other, each actor is ultimately responsible for their own costume changes.
“They start learning how it gets to be choreography backstage for them,” said Ryan. “The shirt hangs here because that's the next shirt I put on. Make sure my shoes are here because that's what happens in the scene.”
And learning the choreography of costume change takes practice, practice, and more practice.
“That's why we get in costumes so early because those transitions just take a while to rehearse,” said Clark. “It’s rehearsing the costume changes just as much as what happens on stage.”
But it’s live theater. Despite rehearsals, things can go awry.
Staying calm, breathing, being in the moment are key.
Rustic said those are yet more techniques that Katt Torres has perfected.
“Katt’s really the magic,” Rustic said. “She manages to do things beautifully with such grace going from one costume to the next.”
And when everything goes right, the audience is completely unaware of the choreography of costume change.
“The Little Mermaid” is at Bishop Verot High School March 19 to 22.
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Costumes impact if and when a theater can produce a show
Producing artistic directors and theater boards consider many factors when choosing the shows they will produce each season. Costuming is always near the top of the list, especially in a production that involves multiple costumes for dozens of actors such as “The Little Mermaid.”
“I thought that ‘The Little Mermaid’ might be a really good show for my seniors this year,” said Clark, “but I wasn’t sure how I could get past the costuming pickle. Then it just so happened that Robin [Dawn Ryan] was doing ‘Mermaid’ at Fort Myers Theater. She had talked to me about some of her ideas for costumes, which actually started with a TikTok that Paper Mill Playhouse [in New Jersey] posted from their production of ‘Little Mermaid’ they did earlier last year. Robin and I had seen the same video and we were on the same page about how we’d want our costumes to look if we decided to do the show.”
When Ryan and Fort Myers Theatre’s Michelle Kuntze offered to loan their “Mermaid” costumes to Bishop Verot, that sealed the deal.
“It would have been impossible to do ‘The Little Mermaid’ without Fort Myers Theatre’s collaboration,” Clark conceded. “Something like the ‘Les Poissons’ number where you've got, I think we have like 22 chefs on stage or something ridiculous like that. I don't have 22 chef costumes in my shop. I have maybe three. Robin had 14. That meant I only had to buy a couple to fill in the gaps.”
"Les Poissons" is a comedic musical number in “The Little Mermaid” that is performed by Chef Louis as he prepares a fish dinner while chasing Sebastian the crab. The song is known for its French-inspired style and lyrics about cutting and cleaning fish.
Clark also cited “Kiss the Girl,” which is a musical number midway through act two. In it, virtually every member of the cast appears as either a lily pad, frog or some other aquatic animal.
“That number requires a lot of matching costumes, where you need X number of the same exact costume. It would cost too much and take too much time to build all those costumes from scratch.”
While the costumes for Ariel, Prince Eric, Sebastian, Scuttle, Flounder, Ursula, Flotsam and Jetsam are one-offs, they’re incredibly elaborate.
“So, it really helped to have those already in place.”
Borrowing costumes from Fort Myers Theatre had another important benefit. It enabled Clark, Rustic and their costume team to begin fitting their cast members from the time they were chosen for their roles.
“So, none of them have had to stress about whether something fits them because we fit them in November when they got cast into the costumes that Robin had given me and made them work,” Clark said. “Sure, we've had to make a couple of little tweaks here and there, but honestly, it's been so awesome to have that baseline."
‘Little Mermaid’ requires lots of quick costume changes
Although Michelle Kuntze and Robin Dawn Ryan helped her solve the problem of sourcing the hundreds of costumes needed for “The Little Mermaid,” Clark knew the production would challenge her high school actors by dint of the sheer volume of quick costume changes required by the show.
Costume quick changes require teamwork, forethought, communication, and practice.
The team consists of the director, costume designer, fabricators, actors and dressers. Like any team, success depends on attention to detail and practice.
When costumes are layered smartly, actors are already halfway into their next look. When garments are quick-rigged, transitions happen (literally) in a flash. When multiple hands pitch in, the workload becomes manageable. And when everything is rehearsed and set up for success, the quick-change transforms from a daunting task to a choreographed routine.
Layering
Layering is one of the most effective and common quick-change techniques. By stacking different costume pieces over one another, actors can remove or reveal new outfits easily. The average theater viewer would be shocked to discover just how many different costumes a single actor might be wearing at once.
Some of the most iconic quick-changes rely on layering. Elle Woods’ transformation in the opening number of “Legally Blonde” is a prime example. In that scene, the actor playing Elle removes a white outfit to reveal a “newly bought” pink dress underneath in under three seconds. It would be physically impossible to pull off a costume change like that without layering.
Of course, wearing multiple layers of clothing under bright stage lights can be hot. Veteran Fort Myers Theatre costume designer Fran Grogan has a simple solution to that vexing problem.
“In some costumes, I put a little pocket so that the actor can put a cool pack in it,” she said.
Quick-Rigging Costumes
If money were no object, every outfit subject to change would be constructed with that change in mind. In theater, that’s referred to a “quick rigging.” The term refers to designing, altering or changing costumes specifically for speed. These solutions can range from simple fixes to complex construction techniques, depending on time, budget, and production needs.
Where costumes are intended to be layered, they can be crafted with thin, lightweight material to reduce bulk and facilitate quick changes. A costume that needs to be removed quickly can be carefully engineered to redesign closures.
Buttons are the nemesis for actors making a quick costume change, as are lace-up bodices, dresses and boots. Not only does it take time to unbutton and button a shirt or blouse, there always the chance that one side of the shirt will be longer than the other.
“That happened to me when I was in ‘Footloose,” Clark confessed.
Simple quick rigging methods are usually applied after a garment has been constructed and includes measures like swapping buttons for Velcro, adding zippers, or replacing shoe buckles and laces with elastic. While these solutions cover the majority of changes, more advanced features may be needed for vintage dresses and suits – such as sewn-in petticoats or pull-away pieces that instantly alter the piece’s appearance.
On Broadway, “Frozen” and “Cinderella” are renowned for magical onstage transformations in front of audiences. Both rely on quick-rigged pieces that were designed specifically to create an impressive costume change moment.
Quick-rigging works best when there is collaboration across the board. Directors, designers, actors, and crew must all be on the same page to pull off these transformations successfully.
However, in community and high school theater, budgetary limitations may preclude creating original quick-rigged costumes. There may not even be enough money to source and design the costumes needed for a show.
“With community theaters, there's a limited amount of money for each production,” observed Lauren Barnhardt Perry, an area costume designer, choreographer and actor. “You also have a challenge in being able to get the source material for costumes. The irony is the bigger the production, the more expensive it is for the rights. So you have that tension where if it's a huge production that needs lots of costumes and pieces, you may have even less money because the theater paid so much money upfront to be able to produce it.”
Foundation Garments
Foundation garments can make or break a quick change that might otherwise feel too intimate and uncomfortable.
Every female actor is wise to invest in Spanx and a comfortable, flesh-colored bra or tank top. For men, briefs or boxer briefs are preferable to loose-fitting boxers, especially for period pieces.
Clark has her own recommendations for each actor’s base outfit.
“When I'm in a show, I'm wearing shorts, tights, and a tank top so that I can change wherever and whenever and not be worried about it,” Clark said. “Sometimes actors are changing really quickly. Sometimes they can't make it back to the dressing room. So everybody has to have a base outfit so that they don't have to worry about someone seeing something they shouldn't."
Then she added, thoughtfully, "And here, well, we’re a Catholic school and my students are all underage. Teachers are walking around in the hallways so that base outfit is really important. They all have to have little shorts, the tank top and tights under all of their costumes and actually kind of helps with costume changes because you dance a lot, maybe you get a little sweaty, and it can be hard to pull things over your head.”
Dressers
In professional settings, theaters often employ dressers or designate a crew member who is specifically responsible for helping actors change in and out of complex costumes. Some dressers are assigned to a single performer, while others assist with multiple cast members throughout the show. It all depends on the individual production’s needs. For example, it is impossible for many of the actors in “The Lion King” to take off or put on their costumes without help.
“Ariel has so many quick changes,” Clark noted. “She has a span at the end of the show where she goes from her pink dress to her tail then to the purple gown and then to her wedding dress and that's how she finishes the show. All four of those costume changes happen in about 11 minutes, so she has someone helping her specifically with her costume changes for this show.”
In some theaters, it’s not a lack of funding that precludes hiring dressers. There’s simply not enough room backstage for any additional bodies, especially if there’s already a large number of actors in the cast. This is often the case for Fort Myers Theatre and The Laboratory Theater of Florida, where there is little more than a narrow hallway behind the stage that must also accommodate props and scenery for the next scene or two.
In those instances, actors must rely on themselves or each other to speedily get in and out of costumes and change their makeup as well.
Dedicated dressing rooms and designated changing areas
To complicate matters, many community and school theaters don’t have the space for dedicated dressing rooms or changing areas or as is the case at Bishop Verot, these areas are too far removed from the stage to enable actors to make timely entrances.
In these instances, a portable garment rack may be used to organize costumes and props. The rack may have upper and lower shelves and storage baskets that can hold props and accessories, making it a versatile solution. The rack can also provide a modicum of privacy. Whether or not racks are available, making sure that costumes and props are properly organized and accessible expedites the changing process.
Another key component of a quick-change station is a place to quickly touch-up hair and makeup. This frequently includes both mirrors and lights that don’t cast shadows.
Choreography
Perhaps the most important part of creating a successful quick change is preparation. Much like a director and choreographer would never put a dance number onstage without hours of rehearsal, quick costume changes must likewise be well planned and rehearsed. At most theaters, each costume change is mapped out ahead of time to promote speed and to create a level of comfort with the actor. Long before opening night, everyone involved in the change knows where to stand, in what order pieces are removed or added, and how each individual costume functions.
Of course, costume changes can and do go awry. So the cast even rehearses how to ad lib or improv onstage to give an actor more time to complete a costume change that may require more than the allotted time.
Costume changes don’t happen in isolation
It is important to note that costume changes don’t happen in isolation. They are almost always accompanied by changes in makeup, accessories and props. Sometimes an actor may change hair style or remove or put on a wig. And set changes almost always happen at the same time as costume changes.
“We have some beautiful, large pieces of scenery that the cast and crew have to move on and off the stage,” noted Rustic. “They're doing all these things in tandem, so it's pretty amazing.”
Costumes help tell the story
Along with the script, costumes combine with set, lighting and music to tell the playwright’s story.
“When the actors put on their costumes, they become that character and they tell me how special they feel in it,” said Grogan. “That’s true whether the actor wears the same costume throughout the show or changes costumes and characters several times. When the costumes help them get into character, it's all worth it.”
The Cast
Ariel - Katt Torres
Prince Eric - Braden Heckman
King Triton - Bobby Nolan
Sebastian - Noah Rodriguez
Scuttle - Alexa Careccia
Flounder - Isa Scala
Ursula - Samantha Careccia
Flotsam - Gianna Velez
Jetsam - Bella Eggers
Grimsby - Jacob Kurian
Chef Louis - Troy Gunnels
Aquata - Emma Giordano
Andrina - Sephora Esperance
Arista - Madilynn Pease
Atina - Brooklynn Varnell
Adella - Kareena Kurian
Allana - Giovanna Muro
Pilot - Liam Coyle
Windward - Sabrina Kosmala
Leeward - Nora Drake
Maid 1 - Sabrina Kosmala
Maid 2 - Nora Drake
Maid 3 - Addyson Greenwell
Maid 4 - Elee Durko
Ensemble: Liam Coyle, Teagan Clark, Nora Drake, Elee Durko, Analeise Grant, Addyson Greenwell, Taylor Hoffman, Sabrina Kosmala, Mia Rieman, Sophia Sill, Giana Geary, Leydi Manahan, Ainsley Judd, Hailee Specht, Leilani Reddy, Sadie Greene and Bella Vest.
Positoovity Tap Ensemble: Isa Scala (as Flounder), Alexa Careccia (as Scuttle), Sephora Esperance, Leydi Manahan, Teagan Clark, Kareena Kurian, Nora Drake, Gianna Velez, Samantha Careccia and Emma Giordano.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
