Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Inside the Broadway Community Project: What Happens When a Costume Needs Fixing...But the Actor's Already Wearing It?
Playbill: Today, meet Ali Valcarcel, a dresser who was working on Broadway's Diana up until the theatre shutdown. As a member of the wardrobe crew, she assists with quick changes, keeps track of a host of moving parts and accessories, and comes to the rescue for emergency repairs during performances.
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Dressers must have the best and the worst backstage experience. I loved this interview because the questions were very thoughtful. Ali’s story is also super interesting. Her grandmother’s love of theater is what pushed her to do what she does today, that makes me happy. I definitely agree with her about her answer to the three skills people need to possess to do her job. Being a people person is so important, as it being calm in stressful situations and being detail oriented. These feel like three skills that are important pillars for being able to work successfully backstage. In my experience when being backstage as an assistant stage manager, I would agree with her that watching someone stitch or gaff tape something backstage before sending a performer back on is super freaking stressful. I remember having to use gaff tape on a costume backstage and that was a roller coaster.
I am a firm believer that some of the most magical people in the world are dressers! Being a dresser is no easy task, especially when so many shows on Broadway have multiple characters quick changing at the same time. I’ve been on productions where we all thought certain quick changes were simply impossible, only to be proven wrong when a dresser was able to pull the change of in less time than we originally budgeted for. They have the most amazing demeanor and concentration when something goes wrong backstage and are able to think and preform so well under pressure, and most of the time they’re doing it in the dark of backstage! This article was a really love piece to highlight just how wonderful and important dressers are. Also in the article Ali mentions that Diana was filmed for Netflix, which is something I didn’t know. Its wonderful to know that even though the show hasn’t gotten a long amount of time yet to shine during their run, that everyone’s hard work and passion will live on for Netflix.
Apparently my theme for comments this week is costumes, no complaints here! When I was beginning to delve deeper into the theatre community back in high school, I spent hours watching videos on youtube that I found inspiring. A lot of those happened to be about wardrobe crews, quick changes, and costume development. Something I took away from both the video and this article alike was that costume staff are so incredibly resourceful. They possess a wild combination of skill, creativity, clever problem solving, and persistence that makes watching them work wondrous. It is neat to see people like Ali Valcarcel be recognized by major theatre news outlets like Playbill. Hopefully they know that their work is appreciated and so very necessary in so many ways. I have seen the weirdest costume mishaps happen moments before going onstage, and the costume staff who were around always solved it to hold until they could deal with it later. I actually learned some things from them and used them when I had to in high school as an ASM.
I like that she mentions the need to be a "people person" when working so closely with others, especially backstage. There's so much more to it than that though. You're surrounded by artists- so many different large personalities in such an interesting environment. On top of that, the backstage environment is very fast paced and filled with "organized-chaos," for lack of a better phrase, so knowing how to maneuver is ideal. In my experience, you have to understand everyone that you are working with. As a dresser, or anyone working directing with the performers, you have to understand what each of them are like when they are working and do absolutely nothing to disrupt that. If the performer is one who likes to chat about things unrelated to the show when they are backstage to keep their mind calm, try to go along and chat with them. At the same time, there are lots of performers who like to stay in character and in the zone as they are backstage. Sometimes they walk in circles reciting lines, sometimes they need to do special warm ups, sometimes they need to be extremely serious and pretend as though they don't even see you, etc. In this case, don't bother trying to be too much of people person, going up to them to talk. That's interfering with their process. It really is a matter of gauging everyone and understanding what's best for you and them.
I love reading about people's theater jobs and their philosophies surrounding them. It is quite fascinating to me. Dressers are truly incredible. They have to do such quick costume changes in the dark in close quarters. Being in theater is all about how to communicate effectively with people in often stressful conditions. Dressers have perfected this art form. They proceed with calmness and speed having to communicate with other dressers and the many actors backstage. It is wild to me how sometimes they even have to do on the spot costume fixes in such a short period of time too. I feel as if dressers are such an underappreciated yet so important aspect of theater because if they do their job well no one will ever notice like so many other aspects of theater. They help maintain so much of the theatrical magic. They don't have an easy job but it seems so rewarding and exciting at the same time.
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