Isn’t it exciting to arrive at the theater, take your seat, and soak in the hush of anticipation for the curtain to rise? Yet you likely don’t realize that the show “started” hours ago, featuring remarkably complex choreography that is performed backstage with precision and grace.
If you scored opening night tickets at the Auditorium Theatre to enjoy a Rochester Broadway Theatre League production, that backstage prologue began hours ago, when ten to twenty semi-trucks backed up to the building, and a team of stagehands began orchestrating a magical transformation of the theater. The magic continues throughout the week for multiple performances of award-winning shows.
There are many “magicians” backstage, including lighting, staging, and sound professionals. But the most fascinating are the dressers. Dressers are responsible for assisting cast members with costume changes backstage—don’t forget the jewelry, purses, and scarves—and ensuring that costumes are ready for performances, which includes mending, laundering, ironing, and steaming the clothes. They also play a much larger role in the cast members’ lives—they are trusted friends and saviors.
Just ask Brittny Smith, who was in Rochester with the Tina cast, where she played an “Ikette” and ensemble roles. Smith hails from Houston, Texas, but is rarely there, as she travels the country playing a variety of roles. She has performed in the Ain’t Too Proud national tour, The Donna Summer Musical national tour, and Dreamgirls international tour.
“Dressers are more important than people realize,” she says. “Costumes can be complicated, and you need to hit the stage on cue.” She recalls a near disaster when performing in Dreamgirls. “My mermaid dress ripped while [I was] standing in the wing. I was mortified. I had to hit my mark when that bell rang,” she shares. “The stage manager couldn’t hold the show. Thankfully, the dresser was there with an extra dress, which she helped me slip into just in time. She pushed me on stage as she whispered, ‘You got this!’” That quick action, in what Smith calls a “hail Mary moment,” is a tribute to a dresser’s role.
Just how do they do it? Martha O’Connor, who has been a dresser for more than seventeen years, notes that you need to be detailed, obsessed, meticulous, well organized, confident, and super humble. An adult educator by day, she loves serving as a dresser to keep her connected to the creative side of her soul.
To be successful, you need to have a deep understanding of theater. For each show, you’re given a “track”—essentially a script or recipe that tells you where and when each and every single wardrobe piece will be worn and by whom. “So your track might tell you that actor #17 (each actor is referenced as a number) will need her right glove at the first bridge of the song,” O’Connor explains.
In the ensemble dressing area there are four chairs, all numbered. It will be the dresser’s job to know how to lay out the wardrobe pieces for their assigned actor. “Actor #4 likes to sit and put his shoes on, so place his shoes with the toe box facing out. Actor #9 prefers to put his foot on the seat of the chair to put his shoe on, so place his shoes with the heel facing out,” she explains.
The role also requires incredible physical stamina. When O’Connor dressed Elsa, the lead in Frozen, she ran up and down 32 flights of stairs for each performance. In fact, the work takes such physical and mental concentration, the dressers really don’t get to see the show. After working fifty-six performances of Wicked in Rochester, she traveled to Buffalo to actually see the show.
O’Connor is one of fourteen local dressers that help “fill the call” from the wardrobe supervisor—the professional who travels with a show to ensure that each performance fulfills the standards set by the show. For Tina, a dedicated sewer was required because of the physical rigor of the performances. The sewer, who teaches at Nazareth University, sits at the sewing machine mending pieces that are then tagged for return to the proper gondola (theater jargon for dressing rack). On the evening I joined the dressers two hours before curtain, they were quietly and efficiently getting ready for the show. The wardrobe supervisor called them together about ninety minutes before the show to review actor changes and offer reminders.
The dressers are members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local 858.
Karin Eckert, who lives in Rochester, is the business agent for the local union. She fills the call by selecting the local dressers that will work each show. Eckert has worked in theater all of her career. While working in New York City, she dressed Rachel Welch among many others.
“Dressers are one part confidante, one part Mom,” she says. “You want to build a trust with the actors so that they can focus on telling the story. You have to be able to read them,” she says.
“I love the magic of theater,” she says. “Helping other people tell stories in a poetic and beautiful way is one of the joys of my life.”
As the curtain drops, the dressers are readying for the next performance. For shows with large casts, laundering the undergarments starts that evening to ensure that when they arrive the next day, they will have everything in its proper place, ready for the magic to begin again.
O’Connor was quick to extend her appreciation for the interest in her role. “Thanks for shining a light on the work we do in the dark.” Dressers may never be in the spotlight, but they are an integral part of helping actors shine and making stories sing.
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