Costumes and Quick Changes

So, uh, so this week it's been a mix, right? Cuz we had the hurricane introduce yourself. Oh gosh, yes. So my bad. We're really bad at that. I know. Well cuz everybody in the room knows who we are, right? Yeah. But everybody in the podcast land, it's not maybe Yeah, I know. It's a valid point. , you know, my brains not there.

Everyone will know the microphones are here, but they're not like in my brain. It's time. Yeah. You know, we're just having a conversation like we all just picked up, you know, we're what we do on a daily basis. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Right. So I'm Kristen. I'm Angela. And I'm Cathi. And today we have, I'm Laura Lolo.

Lolo. We love our Lolo's, Lolo. And we have Lolo on today to talk about costuming and wigs and all that kind of fun stuff. But before we get into that, Yes guys, how'd you, How was your week this week? Uh, it was like a mixed bag, right? Didn't we have a hurricane this week? We did. That's right. Oh my God. It feels so much.

Can you call it a hurricane? I know. Last it was this week. It was this week. Yeah, it, yeah, it was Thursday. Yeah. It was Nicole. It was a wind event. , It was Nicole. Yeah. It was a wind event. Yeah, it was. I'm sure we needed school off that day. I'm not complaining. No. As a teacher, , I am not complaining that we had those days, that day off.

Yes. I'm more worried that we may, like now we, we may be eating into Thanksgivings break. I doubt it. But yeah, I'm hoping, I've been teaching 16 years and we've never had to, My mom taught 42 years and one time did they, And it was the year that they had the four hurricanes that hit Oh gosh. In 2004. That special year.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So. . Yeah. I was glad we had it because I was sick in bed all day. Mm-hmm. , that was a good day for that. Mm-hmm. . It was a different type of hurricane coming through your house. I know it's going like through one to the other. Oh yeah. It's going around creeping. It's covid. It's not flu. Mm. It's not strep.

Yeah. It's just, just the funk. It's going through my classroom. Mm-hmm. , we have been like zy, camm, nasal swabbing like crazy around here. I've tried that and I don't know. Ah, it works, It did not work for Lolo. Cause I've tried it several times. First naysayer on the, because Kristin's over here going do it.

Lolo do it. Okay. And I have, It works. No, nothing. I do it. Right. Well, that's just crap. You have to do it. It doesn't go in your ear. Each nose. I'm doing it. Mike. User error. People user error. Which is highly likely because I, I do have user error all the time, but no, I did it twice in each nostril. You got it like repeatedly.

I, Yes. I did it over and over again. Maybe it was like a supervisor. Were you that aggressive with it? I was very aggressive with it. It's good thing this is recorded . Visually I did very aggressively. It was not fun. It was like taking a covid test. Well you might have been sticking it in there. Two far. I could've.

I's supposed to be on. It's just at the tip. I dunno. Gonna listen. That's a whole nother conversation, ladies. . Whole numb conversation. Hold on. I've gotta have some more water. Seriously,

I made the kids do it. You know, McKay's autistic. So she is, you know, hypersensitive to stuff and, uh, the first time I made her do. It was okay. But then the next time she's like, Well, how long do I have to sit with this on my nose? Like a snotty child, . Cause that's kinda what it's Right. I mean, it's not wrong or anything.

And it's totally empathize with her on that. Yeah. Cause it feels the same way to me. And I'm just like, I'm fighting every fiber of my being to like, not wipe it. Yes. You know? Mm-hmm. . Yes. But, um, I make her and, and Pinky, well, because we had, uh, districts this week mm-hmm. , um, Pinky has been, I cam in like every day, twice a day.

Why didn't LK do that? She did. Oh, didn't for, didn't work. Well, she's got a whole different, I'm just saying, See, I'm just saying she's not the norm. . She is, she is not. She's the, she's not the norm. No. Special in many ways. Yeah. No, because I cam work, um, Cause we made it to districts yesterday. Yep. We made it there and then Pinky woke up this morning, goes, My throat's a little sore.

And I was like, Well, you sang all day yesterday, so we're just gonna go with that goes I came again. Yeah. Hey, explain exactly what districts are because people listening might not know what that's all about. We had, um, Junior Thespian district festival, so all the junior thespians and Polk County came together.

Middle school came together to compete in lots of different, um, events. Like our kids did solo musical theater and they also did small, small group. They have so many like different categories though that I, I just didn't expect. So like our first year, last year, There was somebody that did, um, like scenic design.

Mm-hmm. . Nice. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Um, this year, what did she do? Um, script writing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was really, and they got like all kinds of feedback on it. It was really neat. Yeah. The feedback I think is the most I importance most of the time. Definitely. I mean, yes, getting your superiors and your things like that are awesome and wonderful and a great confidence boost, but I think the feedback is what's the most important.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's good when the judges take the time to actually leave, like good feedback. Yes. Um, even if they're a hard judge, which like, you know, Pinky was, she had one of those kind of more difficult judges, but that judge left a lot of very valuable feedback. Mm-hmm. , sometimes it's a little subjective.

Yeah. Because she would say, you know, um, your, your character. Wasn't fully developed and you know, your blocking was not great. And then the next guy goes, Your character was awesome. I loved how developed they were and how you're so effective. Yeah, yeah. How you moved across and the blocking was fantastic.

And you're like, What the hell, . Yeah. Which is, that's what I do with that. You know, that's not meet in the middle , I guess. I don't know how that Yeah. But, um, get that though, because if you get a superior, which our girls got superiors, which is woo woo woo woo. Yeah. They, um, get to go to states and compete again.

That's so you can take that feedback that you got and tweak your performance and hopefully we'll do, which is too, like the solo, I don't, um, so Pinky this year will be auditioning for the local, um, like I Arts High school. And, um, she's actually gonna be taking the same song that she's sang at districts and now, um, at State, she will also be using that to sing for Harrison.

So all of that feedback that she got, From those judges would be applied. Oh yeah. Just in time for Harris. Just in time. Yeah. That's great. Well, and they're used to hearing it from their vocal coach or their director at their community theater or their, whatever they're doing. So to have somebody on the outside Yeah.

Come in who do not know them and do not know anything like their work ethic or how long they've worked on it is I think a really great thing for them to do. Because they're like, Oh, so that's what my vocal coach meant, you know? Yeah. Maybe I should done that. You know, if it's the same note or not saying that your girls do that, but like for other kiddos.

Yeah, that's the truth. Cause they get, you know, there's that level of comfort. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And so that relationship is a little bit different. Mm-hmm. than having somebody with brand new eyes. Mm-hmm. . Oh yeah. Coming in. Yeah. It's really nice to get that feedback. And we noticed too, we're so fortunate that our kids can have private lessons.

Yeah. Cause there were a ton of talented kids there. Mm-hmm. . But you could tell the ones that had had training and ones that were just a part of a group at this school. So if you're able to get your kids that kind of training, it's very beneficial. Oh yeah. Big difference. Dance, voice, all the above. Well, it's kind of funny cuz you know, I we're so heavily involved in all of this stuff, theater in this area, but, you know, I was like doing blood work a couple months back and the lady's like, um, asking me, you know, what are we doing?

And I'm like, Oh, well we're about to go into whatever show it was at the time, I don't even remember. And um, she's like, Oh, my daughter auditioned for that and didn't get in. And I was like, Oh. Oops. The doodles. Yeah, pretty much. She's like, before or after she needs the needle, I'm just blood draw . So like, so then, but then the question comes, the one that every parent wants to know, which is like, how do I help my kid get past that barrier of casting?

Mm-hmm. , right? Like, how do I get 'em in or whatever. Mm-hmm. . Um, my tip to her was get involved. Like put your kid in the classes that happen at the local community theater. Start getting them some training if they want to sing. And that's like their big thing. Get 'em a vocal coach. Like even if you're not doing the rest of it, like get 'em that, get 'em some help.

You gotta find, I mean even, um, you know, growing up a band nerd, I had multiple instructors Yes. That were there that, you know, just private tutelage basically. to help me with all of that stuff. And even when I went to college, that was actually a requirement of my scholarship when I was going for music for performance.

Wow. Um, and I had to have, so I went up there for saxophone and clarinet and I had to have a tutor for both. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh yeah. So it was a lot like, I think I did music like four hours, five hours a day every day. Oh, yeah. You know, it's a commitment, that's for sure. It is. But I mean, it is in this vein too, like, you know, so if you're a parent out there and you're struggling Oh yeah.

To figure out how, like start with that. Go find somebody to do some voice lessons. If your kid loves to dance, go get 'em and dance. Well, there's plenty of online options now you can zoom. That's very true. The comfort of your own world. Yeah. Thanks to Covid. Like everybody feels comfortable. The one thing that came out of Covid, right?

Yeah. The zoom . The zoom lesson. The one good thing You mean the one good thing? Yes, the one good thing. There's plenty of things that came outta there of things that came out, but yes. One good thing, and, uh, let's zooming and, uh, Zy. Camm. Just gonna, No, Zy. Camm. I'm telling you. Don't listen to them. does not work for Lolo or lk.

No, it's not. Maybe it's just an L thing. . I don't know. Don't know. So when are states then? January. Okay. Mm-hmm. . And when are the, where are they held? Oh, Orlando Convention Center This year. I don't know that it's always there. Okay. Okay. But yeah, this year I think that the girls to aunties, handlers need to go.

Yes, definitely. I'm just throwing that out there. Poverty has already told me that, um, she needs extra chaperones. Nice. Good, good. Yes. Pink. Yes. And I was like, Okay, so, so Lolo and Jojo, it's up to you to ask your teacher how many chaperones you're allowed to bring. I think if you pay it doesn't matter.

That's kind of what I'm suspecting. But yeah, so Lolo and jojo, but it's like two days. See, like districts was just one day, they, half of that day was, well, a little more than half of that day, I guess maybe was, um, them actually doing their performances and stuff. Mm-hmm. . And then the other half of the day, which we didn't stay for this year, was, um, they do like classes and stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then, and then at the end of the night, they have like their little awards, ceremony type shindig. Mm-hmm. , you know, they have like dinner and then you go party and dance. The kids dance. They screamed a lot last year. And I was, yeah, a little, I was a little, Yeah. No, thank you for me much.

That's a hard pass. . Yeah. . We might be able to do some videoing from there. I hope so. Yeah. Yeah, we could do it. Drama mama's on location. , uh, yeah, that. We might be able, I mean, we should see if our producer can make that happen. Like, yeah, let's check Christmas. I think you have an in with him. Uh, do I ? Depends on the day.

It does depend on the day. If he wants to be a certain puppet, , I'm just throwing that out there. Bumble has anything. Well, the cool thing about um, states too is the workshops are absolutely amazing. Like we went to one guy last year who is a costumer for Wicked and he talked all that. See, this is why Lolo needs to go.

Yeah. It was really, really interesting. And one guy is a professional makeup artist for theater and just really neat workshops. That's really cool. That when in January, Oh listen, Lolo, it's a Martin Luther King weekend. Yeah. You have a show, don't you? Yeah, I do. You're gonna be pretty, I mean, your show's gonna be fun show.

So it's going to be a Okay trade. It will be a fun show, but, Hmm. No, I'll be there. I'll be, So we'll take one ante, but not the other. Fine. It's a weekend. Do you guys do rehearsals on weekends? We do. We do five days a week. So we do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then possibly a Saturday morning and it's, and or a Sunday afternoon.

Well play by ear. Right. Look at the calendar. You might be even just scoot out there. Mm-hmm. for part of the day. Do we know the dates yet? Mm-hmm. 12 through 14th. Okay. So 12 and 13 are the, um, workshop days. And the 14th is a competition day. Okay. So I know that, that this show that you're about to do mm-hmm.

is uh, that schedules might be already set. It is set. It's a little bit different than how Yes. Um, some of our other shows have gone. We set this schedule back in August. Oh, okay. Um, because of the nature of the show. Um, , no. , No. We start in January. Um, , the bulk of the rehearsals start in January and then we open the middle of February.

And because of the nature of the show, it's um, musically heavy. And so, you know, we are getting right up to bat with rehearsals and starting and things like that. And being the stage manager, I, I be there every day. Yeah. Which is fun. Yeah, you're gonna have a great time. I'm very excited. You run on your own board?

Yes, as of right now. So this will be, it's in their new black box and, um, they just showed me where the stage manager booth is. It's upstairs above the black box and, which is really cool. I'm really excited, but I'm not sure if the board will be up there or if the board will be continued to be downstairs where the sound is.

Okay. They, they know that I prefer to run my own lightboard, especially with this show because it's completely sung through. Yeah. And I prefer to run my own board because I can keep the beat better with myself and I feel like there might be a little bit of delay when I call. And it's also a control thing.

I like to have control. You have control issues and I like that control. And if there is a mess up, it's my fault and nobody else's fault. And, um, and I can quickly hit the back button or do whatever. So give a quick explanation of what the board is. The board is the lightboard, so it is, um, what it sounds like it is a big old board that has tons of buttons and sliders and stuff on there that controls all the lights that go on stage, um, the spots, the specials, any of that thing.

It's what our lighting designer sits at and programs in. And then he sets it all in and. Either your stage manager runs the board, um, meaning that you hit the go button to make all the lights go. Um, or, but it like walks through the each step, you just hit the button to advance basically. Yes. So you, There's the go button means it's moving to the next queue.

So you obviously start at q1 and that's usually like a pre-show where it, um, the house lights are up. The, um, sometimes there's a show go on. The grand, the grand being the curtain, um, that separates the stage from the audience. And a show go is, um, a light that goes over a, um, not a light, it's a, it looks like a stencil kind of mm-hmm.

that goes over the projection light itself. Mm-hmm. And it projects the, um, show the title of the show we had in another show we just did this summer and a bunch of things like that onto the grand. and then you go to the next one and then you just keep going. But if for some reason you've skipped ahead, cuz sometimes your finger can get a little trigger heavy.

Mm-hmm. or people are talking in your ear and you're like, Shut up. I just missed, you know, a cue or whatever. You can hit the go the back button. You can stop that current queue that's loading in and then go backwards so that you're out of that queue. I've had to plenty of that. Yeah, me too. I've had to do that.

It's human. No, no. Go back. . In the meantime, a deck crew discovered on stage. Yes. Yes. I think I've ever caught a deck crew member. In my experience you have caused other deck crew members to be caught. I have, yeah. Moana when the fly went up and I listen. . . Listen. Listen. Uhoh, that show . Listen. Yes, I did do that.

I don't remember. Oh, it was? Yes. Mm-hmm. . Listen, it was not my fault. It probably was my fault, but we're gonna move past that. It's right, it. You live and you learn when you call a show from Backstage . So you're stage managing this show, but a lot of times when you're not stage managing, you are all about the cost.

Yes. So we want that You do more of that than the other. Right now I do. Okay. When I first started 10 years ago, 10 years ago at, at here, um, I stage managed all the time. Um, but we didn't have a set costumer. Um, we had a couple different ones. Um, now we have a set costumer that basically does the costumes for every show, um, for us.

But I stage managed all the time. But then, you know, you get, it becomes a lot. And my day job is teaching and so I, not just teaching, but teaching, Oh, I teach children, um, preschoolers with special needs. Um, so I have a. Wonderful special group of little kids. And so that is my day job and I've been doing that for 16 years.

I don't know how you have energy after that day job to then to then give to theater at any capacity, to be honest with you. Cuz I know in the beginning I had a lot more. I was, I was younger . I was in my early twenties last life. I mean, and now I'm not beginning. I had a lot more too. I did, you know, life just, you know, pulled those over now.

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Now I'm like, I get through the day with wine and coffee of coffee, Chocolate. See, I don't drink coffee. Chocolate. Oh, chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter mixed together. Ooh. That's my favorite peanut butter whiskey. They have some peanut butter whiskey, peanut butter chips in that bowl over there.

Holy smokes. Yeah. That might have to make its way over here, . Yeah. But um, so if I can, naps are nice in between the workday and theater life in the evening, but it doesn't always work that way. Um, if I don't have, that's why having Thursday off was nice. Yeah. Because of the hurricane. I was a lazy teacher and did absolutely nothing perfect.

I literally stayed in my pajamas and laid in bed and watched stupid television , which was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So pretend you need a day like that, you know? So, especially this week when I was stage managing two shows at one time, cuz one show was in rehearsals and one show it was in auditions. Yeah. So, and at two different theaters, one you had a lot of, cuz this show's kind of a, the one you're about to start doing mm-hmm.

in January. Mm-hmm. . Um, That's a big, that's a big name. That show is So you had a lot of, a lot of fun. A lot of Very talented. Very talented. Yeah. Hard decision. It, it was a lot of fun and it's going to be a lot of fun. And then currently with a, with a kid show right now. Nice try Kathy. So I missed it. I was not paying attention to Kathy.

That's okay. She goes, Can we talk about that? And I said, No. We're talking about costumes. You're talking about costume. I focus. Focus. I wanted to talk about that show so much freedom when we get to January. Yeah. Yes, yes. Um, how did you get into musical theater? Cuz you answer to musical theater. I was an answer.

Yep. So I grew up in the dance world. Um, my first live, live performance experience was when I was three. Oh geez. Um, my mom. I'd love to see those pictures. Yeah. Um, I'm sure my mom has them. Um, my first live experience was the Nutcracker at three years old. My mom took me, gosh. And her best friend and her little girl, um, to the Nutcracker.

Here in the civic center and if you, you three, cuz you know me, can imagine me, but just little . Yeah. Exactly how I was You're a poor mother. Yeah, my poor mother is correct. She's um, but she's just like, I am so it's, you know, twofold. But I, you know, very talkative and very rambunctious and very, you know, like here I am, um, and the Nutcracker is very long and my mom was like, Oh, I don't know if she's gonna make through the, make it through this whole thing.

But my mom said, I sat on the edge of my seat the entire like what, three hours that it was. Oh, I did not move. I did not make a sound. My mouth was open and my eyes were wide the entire three hours. I did not make a peep. And she said, she looked over at me and went, Well I think I just found, Yeah. Her thing.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And so I started dance probably. the next August probably. So that was December and I was three the next August. And I, that was what I loved to do and I danced all the way until I was 20, 25, 26. Um, and I taught dance. So when I got into high school, I started teaching dance at the, at the dance studio that I grew up at.

Um, but I also played soccer too. So I was one of those that like, went to the soccer field, went to the ballet theater and ballet studio and back and forth. Um, that only lasted a couple of season. My mom was like, Listen, you've gotta choose. And I was like, Okay. So, um, and I actually stopped dancing for a couple years cuz I wanted to play soccer.

And, but then I broke my knee and went, No, I'm good. And went back to the dance . It's the same trick knee now. Yes. It's soccer, it's the, it's soccer's fault. Well, the right one is the left one is Theater Fault , but the right one is Soccer's fault. Oh, see, I didn't realize you had two trick knees. I do. The right one is soccer, The left one is theater.

Um, but yes. But anyway, so I did that and I started working at the dance studio. Um, and then I also grew up in choir, so I was a singer. Um, I did it in elementary school and all the way through middle school. And I was in show choir in high school and we traveled and toured and, and I choreographed our dances and show choir and stuff.

And I did a couple of musicals in middle school. Um, but I've always been a lover of musicals. But it wasn't until I was in college that I really was like, I love Mesa Calls, show tunes. Um, and I just, I've always been, I had friends that grew up at the theater and gone and seen their shows. Um, my first, um, like community theater production that I saw was Annie and my friend was an orphan.

And so I went and saw her and went, That's awesome. Saw all those different things. But it wasn't until I was in college and or that I met a friend of mine who, um, eventually started working, um, at our community theater, and then they wanted to start a program for special needs. And, um, she's like, Oh, I have a friend that that's what she does and she's into theater.

So she called me and I helped them do that. And then she's like, Oh, you'd be a great stage manager. And I was like, Okay. But I knew what stage managers did, but not really, not really what they did. Yeah. Um, and I took a workshop and here we are 10 years later. Wow. . Wow. So somewhere along that journey. Yeah.

You ended up in the costume side. How did that Yeah, so in the dance world, um, you have to quick change. And you have to do a lot, You have to underdress your tights and everything like that. And in the dance world, and it usually just hap literally happens right off in the wings. Like you leave that, you leave the stage and you are stripping down to your next costume.

Cause sometimes you have maybe a song, a performance, um, little vignette or whatever it is. Um, and then you go right back into wherever you're going. So that's where that started in the quick change world in costumes. Um, but it wasn't really until I started at the working at the theater that I loved costumes that I, I, you know, I loved, I loved playing dress up when I was a kid that probably had, I find something to do not, I loved playing dress up as a kid.

Um, I loved playing Barbies and dressing up my Barbies as a kid. And so, and I've always loved hair, doing hair and never was a makeup person. So it's funny that I like to do it now. Um, but so those things, all of that mixed together kind of held. My me fall in love with costumes. Um, and it really wasn't until I started working with Heather, who is, um, a magician.

A genius. She is a genius. She is a, I'm gonna say it, she's a fucking genius. She is. She is amazing at what she does, the things that come out of her mind and her fingers. Mm-hmm. , how, how did it start like that? And now we have this gorgeous dress. Yeah. The vision, like how did it get this? It's just amazing.

So really wasn't until I started working with her that I was like, Oh, I really wanna do this all the time. And so, which was probably five years ago maybe, and the first time I worked with her, I was in a show. She was costuming me and we. Clicked and became really good friends and, and, but I had done, worked, you know, been a quick changer and things like that before then.

Mm-hmm. . So it's kind of a combination of everything, you know, it's kind of interesting, the quick change aspect of that. Mm-hmm. , like, I don't think until you're back there mm-hmm. that you understand, you know, you're, uh, oh. I mean, you wear stuff underneath your costume so like, you know, you're still modest enough.

Yeah. But you really kind of have to be comfortable doing Oh yeah. Stripping down. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . And, you know, if you think your kids aren't getting exposed, like they kind of are back there to that kind stuff a little bit. They are. But especially in a kid show, we always, and I think it's even, you know, nice in a, with adults too.

Nice. Um, you know, wear. Wear Leo tar. Well, I also think wearing tights is, is nice anyways, just because in my personal opinion and my preference as an, um, actor and a dancer, um, it just helps your, the lines of your legs look, you know, you know, cleaner and that kind of thing. It just completes the top. I wore underneath that Beauty and the Beast Uhhuh costume that I had to wear.

Mm-hmm. Big, I mean that a, it was very heavy. Very heavy. I beautiful dress Heather likes to use, um, and I will call her out for this. She likes to use, um, fabric, um, um, yes, fabric, but, um, upholstery fabric sometimes. Yeah, that's, and I look at her and go, Oh, I'm not wearing it. It's hard to say, guys, I'm sorry.

So, but yeah. Yeah, wearing a couch. But I wore, basically, I wore workout pants underneath that. Well, yeah. So I just come to the theater and that I just didn't take 'em off. Well, and that's the thing. So sometimes if, um, if I have a, if I have a long skirt on or something and that's all that I'm wearing, or pants, I'm lowering type.

Or if I am, I'm just gonna wear like knee highs. Yeah. They wear like Capris. Right. So I could lift cuz I had to like, yeah. I had to lift those skirts to go up the set and then run down the set when we're scared. You know, who the beast? Yeah. Like everybody's coming to life and Yeah. You know, we're there to kill the beast, I guess.

You know, , I never got, I never saw the beast, you know, in my scene there, but it's too busy changing his, But yeah, like NoMy air scared me and I had to like go down and I was like so careful going down the stairs and like lifting the skirts. So I wanted to make sure like, you wouldn't see my pants. Mm-hmm.

like the girls say safety shorts, they shorts is very, I always have safety shorts on too. But yeah, so, but always wearing, especially in a children's show, a leotard and, you know, usually a, you know, a skin tone leotard, right? Mm-hmm. and tights and or safety shorts is always nice because you're back there, you know, our dressing rooms are only so big.

And most of the time, you know, shows casts are a little bit bigger than the dressing room and we have to use auxiliary dressing rooms and you know, people are in and out and, you know, changing and things like that. And sometimes you have to change backstage. You don't have time to go back to the dressing room.

Right. So having that extra layer of modesty helps, um, you know, especially in a kid show. Um, and then you get to adults and adults are adults, so you do what you wanna do. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So, um, but yeah. So with those quick changes, what are some tricks that you use to help those go smoothly? Cuz we've had when you need, and we just don't have this, so, um, Well first with the quick changes, you have to decide if it's actually a true quick change or if you have a little bit more time.

So, I, So sometimes people will go, Oh my gosh, I only have a minute to change. Well, honey, a minute's, like five or 10 minutes. It's, it's, to me, in, in the quick change world, um, I consider a quick change. Anything that's probably about 45 seconds, 30 seconds or less, um, for me, um, just because I feel like, you know, a minute, Okay, we've got some time to breathe, we've gotta, you know, we have some time for a flub.

Um, it doesn't feel, always feel that way in the moment. Um, but, but yeah, so at first you have to decide if it's, if it's a true quick change, then you are like, Okay, well that has to happen outside. Then you have to talk with your costumer and say, um, okay, well this is not gonna work here. Mm-hmm. After you've done it like first dress.

And what usually happens is, Heather and I have already decided it's a quick change or whatever classroom I'm working with, and we'll go, Okay. So we try to be preemptive with it. We know all the layers that have to go on and all the layers that have to come off. So what's gonna make it easier? So sometimes we put Velcro, if it's a button down shirt, we put Velcro on that shirt where the buttons still stick out and it still looks like it's, you know, you actually buttoned it, but you can just rip it off.

Or you put magnets in a jacket to help it stay closed. Mm-hmm. . Or you use snap tape. Um, funny story about a snap. Wait, explain what snap tape is first. So snap tape is, um, it's literally what it sounds like. It is a long piece of fabric that's, um, that has snaps all the way down. It kind of, so it's like those tracksuits that athletic athletes wear and they just go flu, rip it off, rip it off.

When they're about to go on they're warmup suits. They have snaps all the way down and sometimes they're sewn in individually. Otherwise we have what we call snap tape and it's on one big roll, kind of looks like ribbon. It's not, you know, the fabric's a little bit tougher than ribbon, but it, it's just, you don't have to do each snap individually, you just sew the entire thing down and then you snap it all together.

So, funny story about snap tapes cuz you know, story time a lolo's always fun. Yes it is. I was doing this my favorite . I was doing a show. Um, the guy had a, it was, it was the lead guy and I was his dresser and he started the show and like these really pretty linen like shirt and, you know, pants. And then he had to go really fast into his next costume because it was like a flashback.

So the beginning was like, here we are, present day now we're gonna remember and we're going flashback to like, you know, way back when. And, um, but he couldn't take his boots off because he had severely sprained his ankle first dress. So we had to figure out a way to get these pants off quickly and safely without taking his boots off.

Because once we wrapped his ankle and got that boot on, they were not coming off. Yeah, because he was stable and could move. So I'm trying to think, and I'm trying to think, and I'm trying to think. And I'm like, I, and wake up at like two in the morning and ice cream, stripper pants, and I, and the only thing I could think of was stripper pants.

Snap tape. I couldn't think of snap tape, but I could think of stripper pants, . And so I get to the theater the next day and I go to our costume, um, and I go, So we need, Cause I couldn't think of, I still couldn't think of snap tape. Um, I said, you know, and of course I didn't think of athletes either. I just think of strippers, straight to strippers.

And, and I was like, you know how strippers they pull their pants off and they go, Wha and they just all fall apart. That's what we need. And the customer went snap tape. And I was like, Yes. Snap tape. That's what it is. Look. So sometimes your brain just doesn't wanna give you that word. It does. It doesn't.

And it takes a while for me to find things. So yes, Snap tape is amazing. A game. It's funny. Strip pan. And so we do that a lot too, um, quite a bit lately. Magnets are really, um, good and heavy and, and they like to and they stay close easily. We use those a lot. And then Velcro as well is, I don't know if we're allowed to say this trick on the air.

The frozen Was that magnets? Yeah. Yes. Some of it was, yes. Okay. I mean, I can tell you. I'll tell that one. Yeah. Cause that was amazing. My favorite part was you with your black. So you master hitting your hands out there so you could just grab it. I have iking behind us. I think I may have explain that one.

Cause that was amazing. She was a little ninja back. Yeah. I felt like come out behind nobody could see. Nope. So, um, that might have to be one of my top two like favorite quick changes that I have ever done. And it was in Frozen Junior and it was the Elsa let it go. Quick change, um, from her coordination gown into her infamous let it go, you know, moment dress that's just beautiful.

So, um, So Heather and I, you know, she talked about it with the director and she had her vision and what she wanted to look like. And we knew it had to be a quick change. And we knew it wasn't one of those that was coming off stage. There wasn't going to be basically a light shift like it was happening on stage, cuz some of those changes happen on stage in front of the audience or behind a set piece.

This one was on stage in the middle of the song. And so, and it's iconic because it's, It's frozen. Yeah, Yeah. Like everybody song is building, building, building. And she finally reveals, I am done being this person now I'm this other person. So you know, you wanna get it right. So we talked about it and we talked through it and Heather and I went through some things we're like, well, do I pull it from the back?

And it just comes down, you know, the front? No it doesn't. Uh, it's, you know, we're afraid that these are gonna show through and, and this is gonna show through. So we decided, she decided it needs to be in the back. Well, how are we gonna get it in the back? Cuz it's gotta be this thing. Her sleeves and her sleeves and all these different things.

There's a lot of things to think about. So she has, from the entire, the show starts, especially in the junior version, you, she has on that dress and she has the cape on underneath it. And that's all snapped up to the top. And when you, when we would put on her coordination dress, I would tuck the, the cape, the little cape in the back of her, let it go dress up so it wouldn't fall and show.

And then her, um, sleeves would be pushed up, the ci that they wouldn't show either. So the bodis of the dress, the coronation dress was a breakaway zipper. So it wasn't one that, um, like on a pair of jeans where they're automatically disconnected. It's like a jacket zipper. A breakaway, it just comes right off.

And then the skirt was all magnets. And so, and there were two little snap magnets on her sleeves. Um, so as she would walk up and she would sing and stand there in her spot, she would kind of undo the, um, sleeve magnets. Okay. Never caught them, which yeah, never caught, you know, she would do things with her hands, you know, I'm gonna set a flurry and do all these different things.

So, and she was right behind or right up against a, um, rain curtain, so me looking like a ninja. Um, I was dressed in all black. I had a hood, I had, you know, everything on and all black so that I blended in with the dark behind me. And I would come up once the rain curtain was down and I'd stand, I was on stage on the platform behind the rain curtain and I'd she'd back up just enough, um, that I could reach her and I would unzip as she's singing unzip and break away the bodis, I would undo the first two snaps and kind of shove.

Cape down Uhhuh. And then I would, hold on, depending on which else it was. Cuz he had, they decided to turn different directions. Right. I would hold on to one side. Mm-hmm. . And then as they turned, I pulled it and the magnets just flowed away and I would catch it through the rain curtain and as she turned, it all just fell.

And there she went and she had changed. Right. It was amazing. It got like a cheer every time. . Yeah. And I would just collect it in my hands and walk back down the escape stairs and go about my merry way. And so magnets and Velcro and all that stuff are magical. You had to do something kind of ninja like that for, was it Cinderella?

That's my other favorite one I've done. Okay. So I did Cinderella and um, she had on, and this was a different costumer that I've worked with cuz this was, um, before Heather. And it was, and she was a genius. She did the, um, she did the Cinderella, uh, words are hard guys. , Cinderella. Um, like her rag dress, like her peasant dress at the beginning.

Yeah. Um, and then we had two of those. So we had one, just a normal every day that she would wear at the beginning. And we added Carlin underneath it, so it'd be a little bit poofy, so that when we switched to the trick dress that had the, um, dress underneath it, it would, wouldn't. You would tell difference.

You could tell a difference. Thank you. Yes. So she, so this dress, um, the trick dress, it was all down, it was all opened on the middle and it was kind, it's kind of hard to explain. They, um, kind of wove together. They almost looked like hair elastics that I would weave, that she sewed in all the way up, and I would weave them together.

So they looped in and out of each other. And then there was a little button at the very top that the, the top one would loop. And then they had magnets at the sleeves at the very top and around her arms, the big poofy part. And then she had a, and then her apron snapped in the front. So it had, on, everything in the back was solid and the bow was on there.

And then the apron in the front just snapped. Okay. So that it would break away. So I had to go down, Oh. And then she had her crown on and she had her cur shift over it so that she would just take the curf off and her crown would be there. Um, and then underneath was her ballgown. And we, I, they put little hook and eyes all the way around it.

And I, we just used the hooks, not the eyes. And I would run a string and I would pull it up and I would tie it up so it would be up and it wouldn't, cuz it was really long. So then she would do, you know, it's possible. And she'd sing all that stuff and she'd stand there. I was down in the, or. and I came up through the trap door.

Nice. Which is a hole in the stage. Mm-hmm. , right. Um, so I sat on a platform to get me up high enough and I had a headset because I was down there with the orchestra. So they put a headset down there so I could hear the Q line cuz I was with a live orchestra and I, they had a fog machine that was there too because, and the fog would, you know, shoot up.

Did you have to control that too? I did not control the fog. Someone else controlled the fog. So there are these, So I would listen, I have two arms and like I couldn't, so I had to open up the trap door at a certain time and let it hang there. And then she would take off for cur and then she would undo the um, the little button part up here and my hands came up and I pulled on them twice and it all just unraveled and came back down.

And then I'd put the. The trap door up and she'd spin out through the fog and there she was. Oh, that's amazing. Wow. And it was, I think those two happened to be like my most favorite that I've ever done. They're just, and I think it's because their kids in the audience and their princesses and the kids in the audience go like, Cause she, you know, Oh my gosh.

You know what I mean? And I can hear those, you know, being in the, in the pit for the Cinderella one, it's hard to hear, but having the headset on, I could hear it through like the stage manager's headset and things like that. Oh, nice. So I could hear them clapping and cheering and all the kids go, Ah. And, um, and that kind of thing.

So, because it's, yeah. And there's just like, it's magic. Oh my gosh. Same with the Elsa one. Like those two I think are my favorite that I've ever done. And I love all the theater magic stuff. When you I do do that and be a part of that. It's, yeah, it's the best. Mm-hmm. , is there any. Theater magic piece that you haven't done yet that you've always kind of thought about you'd wanna be involved in?

Geez, I know. I just threw that at you right now. You did. I don't know. Oh, I have to think a surprise question from Kathy. Totally know. Sometimes I go, You never know. Think about on it and, and see. Yeah, just think about that. I don't know. I'm trying to think. I mean, you've done a, a lot. I've done a lot that I've been, I, yes.

I've been very blessed to do a lot of theater magic and you know, I've, I've, Most recently I've been to New York a lot, in the last year and to see shows and always watch them going, How they do that. Right. How'd they do that? What about like in Harry Potter, Right? There's a lot in there that I would love to do.

Yeah, there you go. Well, and you see it differently once you've been backstage and worked it, sometimes you have a hard time paying attention to the plot cause you're like, Oh, that was a quick change. Well, I did that. So I did that the first time that I watched Harry Potter in The Curse Child. I knew there was going to be a lot of magic.

Um, and I wanna know how it's done, . Mm-hmm. , but obviously they can't tell me how it's done. Mm-hmm. . Right? So I sit there and I go, I forget all about the plot that I'm watching. Yeah. It's a good thing that I've seen it two other times, so then I can focus on the plot. But I, Because you're speculating, I'm like, how did they do that?

How did they, they had to have done it with whatever they did it with. Like, it's, Yeah. It's so stripper pants. Stripper pants about the stripper pants. And you answer it over and Yeah. So there's, there's a bunch of magic e fun things that I just am like, so I saw Frozen on Broadway, um, with my friend Jordan and Steven and , and we went, and I knew it was coming.

I knew that, and I, they'd, I think they had just done like the view or something to let it go. So you saw the dress change happen and I was like, Oh my God. And so, and we were there, we went on the matinee and there were tons of kids there because they go on field trips in New York City and it happened to be like, World Theater Day, which made it even better.

And so we were surrounded by kids and we were up in the mezzanine, which is the second level. And I'm like, I hear the do do, do, do. And I went, It's coming. . And I sat between Steven and Jordan and if you ever go to a show with me, I'm very sorry. I hit When I'm excited you leave with bruises on your legs.

finger marks. Finger marks you. It just happens. And so I'm smacking them going, Here it comes, here it comes, here comes. And I get on the edge of my seat and I know it's about to happen. And it happens. And I literally, I scream louder than the kids did. . I like lit. Thank God we were in the last row of whatever section, the front mezzanine section.

Cuz I literally threw myself back and was like, Oh my God. . Like, I literally, Yeah, poor Steven and Jordan had like bruises on their, on their legs. Cuz I was like, Here comes, here comes, It's coming. I mean, just the first do like, it was so, it was so cool. It was really fun and it totally lived up to all of your IT expectations.

That's awesome. And then I went backstage and they told me how it worked. . Oh, nice. Nice. Which I will not tell you how it worked. That one I will keep a secrets, but, But yeah. Cause don't they do it like down? Yes. Yeah. That one goes this floor. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. , Cinderella one. Kind like the ci. Yeah. But it, it was, yeah, so that one was really fun.

I felt like a kid in a candy store. Like I felt like I was one of those like, excuse me, five year old little girls seeing their first show for the first time again. I was like, it's just so pretty. How did they do it? Yeah. It's just so cool. We found ourselves doing that. We got to go see some Broadway shows last year and I had one kid on one side and one we just constantly

You see that? Did you see that? I mean, every nut And it's like when you are, when you're in it, like we are in it, you forget when you get to be an audience member. How truly magical it really is. You know, you can get a little jaded and you can get a little whatever when you're backstage all the time. It's still so much fun and you still get lost in it.

But it's, there's just something about when it's like, Oh, I don't, I have to do it myself. I could sit and watch it. Like it's just, I appreciate it. Yes. Yeah. You appreciate it cuz you know what goes into it. Yes. Mm-hmm. and you remember, oh, this is why I love life theater. Mm-hmm. . And this is why it's, it's magical in the way that it is, because it doesn't happen like that anywhere else.

You know? It's just the things that you can do in life. Theater just makes it. Magical and the quick changes alone snaps, . Just every time. Don't go a apprentices. We're still learning. Yes, we got print. Yes. Y'all knocked it outta the park and I love you. You're perfect. Listen. Sorry, you called me out. I went to New York.

I'm so sorry. On here episode. I did, I went to New York. You have to share the Lolo love. I do. I mean, listen, I'm not gonna be around forever. Gotta pass on the stuff, but Well, you still have to teach 'em, you still have to teach them how to like do that mapping out because you made a chart. I did. And it had like QA and whatever on, I'll tell you what they stand for.

Yes. So, And a lot of of shows, So not every show do you need to make a costume plot like that? Um, usually I make it if I'm a specific person's dresser. So when I did Mary Poppins, I was. Strictly Mary Poppin's dresser. And so, um, I did all of, I did a costume plot for her because rarely is Mary off the stage.

Right. And rarely does she have time to do anything. So it's not just to help me, you know, remember , cuz just, just like, you know, in the other tech, in the community theater world, dressers only get four days just like, you know, your, your run through, you're, I'm coming in. Sometimes I will go in before and wa depending on the show and watch a run.

I've come in completely blind before. Like, I close one show on a Sunday. First dress for the next show was Monday. And I had never even watched anything I and I had, and it wasn't even show that I knew, like I couldn't go in like, like if it was a Shrek and I had done it before, or, you know, I'd let it go frozen.

And I had done it before, I didn't, I don't know the show. And I came in completely blind. . Normally I try to go in a, you know, the week before and watch a run or whatever if I can. It doesn't always happen. Um, but anyways, so I try to map out like, this is what you're wearing at this time and then you're gonna change and blah, blah, blah, blah.

But if it's a big show, like, I Love You, You're Perfect Was Yeah, where we only had six actors and they barely, and every time they came off they were wearing something different or changing into something different. I do what I, you know, they're never the same character. Mm-hmm. from scene to scene. I mean, not never, but it's pretty rare.

It's pretty rare that they are playing the same character cuz it's all different vignettes. So I make what I call a costume plot. So our costumer, um, she starts it usually, so she writes down everything, you know, each, um, actor. And then in each scene she writes down who they are in that scene. And then she'll add in as she's building and as she's fitting and things like that, she'll add in, okay, this person is wearing, you know, the brown pants with the.

Um, whatever shirt with this hat, whatever. And then the next scene, I know they're wearing this mm-hmm. . So during tech week, I go through and I write down what side of the, um, stage they are exiting and what side of the stage they have to enter. And if they, um, cuz sometimes they like, they like to exit stage left and have to enter stage.

Right. And you're like, Oh, okay. They have to run around so they have to run around and strip their pants down themselves. So, um, pink one to you and they ping one to you. Exactly. They ping one to you? Yes. And they literally look like penguin. And then I, you know, and I write down that they are coming from this.

You know, they're taking off these things and they're adding these things. Um, and sometimes it, it says qa, which is quick ass fuck. That's usually my, my term there. Um, so sorry. Um, so really, it really, it means really, really fast. You do not have a lot of time and this is what we're doing and it's QA, man.

Um, and I make a little plot and I put it on either side and then we take that week. Um, and you can edit it, you can write on it, You can, you know, for, especially for this one. When I wrote it for you two, um, ladies, it, um, I was like, You do what? You write it, how, what works best for your brain? Here is your outline.

And I ca cuz I wasn't gonna be there opening week, opening weekend, opening weekend. So I stayed the entire week. I planned it. I, you know, did all those things. And then I said, Here it is. Write what you need to write. If you wanna scratch something else, scratch it out. That's totally fine. Here is your blanket.

I would go home at night and I'd look at my notes. I'm like, Oh my gosh. So I'd have to come back the next day. Laura, what does this mean? I write here cause I don't remember what this means. And I just go, uh, Blazer, It's a blue blazer and it's a whatever. So costume plots really help, um, because dressers also have tracks and, you know, we have a, um, just like actors do, actors have a track.

They know that they're going to leave the dressing room at this particular line. They're gonna grab this particular prop on their way to stage left, and they're gonna enter in, you know, it's stage left and one. Well, dressers do the same thing. We know, like, um, musicals are a lot easier for me to follow because I'm a musical, so I know that at this particular song mm-hmm.

at this particular time, I need to be stage left, getting these costumes ready and having this prop for this person. And they're gonna come out and I have this amount of time and they have to be back on stage by this time. And sometimes that involves a wig as well. And sometimes it does involve a wig.

I've done shows where I've had to do complete top to bottom wig has to go the entire clothes, their shoes and their jewelry. Everything has to go. Um, I did always Patsy Klein and she changed every time she was out was a great, was a great show. Mm-hmm. , She was an amazing actress and singer. Um, but she changed every time she left the stage, she was somebody else.

And you know, and you underdressed so that helps too. You wear, explain what that means. Mm-hmm. you are fixed into. So if you, if wearing, let's say you're wearing a long dress, , um, along skirt. And your next costume is, say, a shorter skirt or shorts or pants. You go ahead and put those on underneath that skirt or dress for that scene.

Um, that way when you come off stage, all you have to do is take that dress off or take that whatever. And you don't have to put those pants on. Yeah. They're already underneath you are underdressed. Um, it happens quite a bit. Um, you can do it with a shirt. It saves a lot of time. It does. Um, pj, your husband, he, when he was in SpongeBob, he had some underdress moments.

He did. So him and Laura got a little close . We did. Dr. Paul and I got a little close doing SpongeBob. Thank God Kathy doesn't mind. No, he's all for the theater. It is all for the theater. Yes. I had to, I had to, I have dressed both of your, your, your actors and your family. Yeah, Gabby and Dr. Paul. Um, so yeah, he did.

He had on, We would leave. A bass layer. Well, and and it took us a couple of times too, I finally looked at him and went, Why are we taking those pants off? We don't need to . And he both and I went, Shit, don't , because he had some really quick ones too. Uhhuh. And he would have to take his wig off cuz he had a fabulous wig.

And his SpongeBob. That was fabulous. He was feeling himself purple or something. Oh yeah. It was like on Magenta. It was glorious. His whole costume is purple. It was awesome. Amazing Perkins. Yeah, it was amazing. But we would take off the sport coat that he had on Levi's and we would also, it took us a couple times too.

I think it even took us all the way into like halfway through week and one that we both went, Why are we taking that shirt off? And we went, I don't know, . Um, It's just a mad scramble back in sometimes. Yeah. But it's because, you know, you know, and he would throw, cuz he'd had to go in all blacks cuz he was doing a fun little black light number.

But we would lift his pants up, you know, and chuck 'em in so that you couldn't see the rainbow. And we'd add shorts and. . Um, he'd keep the same shoes. Um, and then we would take his, you know, he'd, he borrowed one of my sweatshirts and we'd turn it inside out cuz it was black and put it on him and that kind of thing.

So yeah. With the hood, with the hood up. Um, so that you couldn't see. But it all just depends on what, if you can underdress underdress, if you can, it makes life easier. But sometimes there is no way that you can underdress. Yeah. There's absolutely no way that you can underdress because the costume's either short or you're doing cabaret where it's nothing but lingerie and Right.

You know, you Yep. Can't, you can't underdress under lingerie. So tighten anything in there, ? No you're not. So, um, it just depends. But those, Yeah. Underdress, if you're able to, So sometimes you've got all these layers on. Mm-hmm. like. 80 pound dress . That was layer layers. Like just the dress alone. Yeah, it was stay alone, un zipped it and got in and like it was standing on the floor and you just step over into it.

It was beautiful, but it really was, it helped lifting it up and the zip, so yeah, it got us alone. You're running around, you're sweating like crazy. How do you care for these costumes? Cuz you can't take them home and wash them every night. No. So some of them like Kristin's 80 pound beauty, the bres, I can't wash.

We cannot just stick in your washing machine. Yeah. That fabric wouldn't survive. It wouldn't survive a wash. So some things, um, at the end of the run, those things we can take to a dry cleaner if we can. And we can take certain things too. Um, . But if I can wash them, I'll take home the shirts, I'll take home the pants, I'll take home all the elk stockings.

When you did, Did out. Yes, I did. So all the, So when we did el socks, because they get, they get nasty, man. Yeah. Especially if you're doing a kid show. I'm gonna, Yeah. She got some socks. I'm calling Gabby out. Stan feet out. Not the, throw those shoes away. No, it was bad. It was bad. And handing those to, to our friend and he just looked at me like, Really?

I'm like, Yes. All you gotta hand those. You can't. I asked you to quick changer. You couldn't do it. So you're gonna have to hold the shoes. So sorry friend. Oh listen. My first experience with her nasty feet as a mom. So she's seven And you're like, what? Little kid? Little girl. Seven has like, you know, we call him vinegar feet in our house.

Oh, well yes, there are some friends that have vapor feet. Oh. So we're driving back and forth to the theater. Cause you know, things are crazy that, you know, whatever. And so she would leave her shoes or I'd pick her up at the end of the. Um, theater and she'd take, the first thing to do is take her little shoes off.

And so, you know, days of being like, what is that smell like, I dunno what that is. So I'm thinking maybe somebody left something in the back car or somebody, you know, life is crazy. So you're going through drive-throughs. Lord knows what hell you're eating that week. You know? Ain't that the truth? Yeah.

Stray nugget back there. Yes. the Lord only knows. I'm like, We gotta clean out this car. So we had a minute or whatever. So I'm cleaning out the car, I'm like, No, nothing smells back here. This is so strange to me. So then, I don't know, the next day, I think we were well into the show. Mm-hmm. and, um, I picked up one of her little shoes, her little black Mary Jane, like Mary Jane shoes.

Mm-hmm. . And I, I was like, that is offensive. felt so bad because she, she comes out of these shoes when she wears a long pajama. Yeah. She went off. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I, that, I'm surprised it didn't stink up the entire side. I think I was like, Gabby. What is going on? So we started putting dryer sheets in her shoes and I do it to this day because Does it help?

Yeah, it helps immensely. That's good. Mm-hmm. dryer sheet in the shoe. Yeah. If your kid does theater, please, please take that tip and do it because man, take it from and dress her. Thank God she's cute, because I'll tell you what I'm sure. And I'm gonna tell you what, the girl dressing room is always worse than boys.

That's surprising to me. But yeah, no, it, you walk in there and you're like, Oh gosh, why does it smell like feet in here? Because there's 30 girls in there with feet. It's literally like, you can visibly see it. Like you walk through, you open up that door and it's like a block. Like I'll scream, Somebody needs deodorant in here.

Just walk out. Yes. Oh, and I think cuz you're at that age where it's like, do you need it? Do you not? If you question it, you always need it. Yes. Just do it. Always reapply, reapply, reapply. No. But for booze. Explain what for booze is. So would that work in shoes? Oh, it might. So for booze , it's my other favorite thing to use.

So if we cannot get to, So usually, um, uh, in community theater anyways, Broadway's different. Um, and regional and things are different. But community theater, we aren't able to wash clothes after every performance. Usually if I am doing, um, costumes or costume laundry, I come like, we clo we finish on a Sunday.

We have four days off. I'll come in like Tuesday or Wednesday, grab all the laundry and do it. But in between shows, you still need to somehow preserve them so they're not stinky, you know, because actors sweat and it's hot under those lights and they're dancing or whatever. So we use FA booze, which is.

It's straight up vodka . It is literally vodka that we spray on them. And it's because vodka, the alcohol cuts through the bacteria. You do it, it the, the, um, alcohol and, and vodka because it is, you spray it on when you need it to, and when it dries, it absorbs the bacteria and the smell and it dries clear.

And it dries because vodka has no smell. So we call it fa booze and like fre, but that's hysterical. And it works miracles. So we go in and I was just there this week with Heather and she was fa boozing. So, um, she was, And you do, you spray it normally you spray it, you know, under the arms and around the neck.

If it's a guy and you know, he has a collared shirt and sometimes I just spray the whole shirt. Yeah, just depends. And you let it, And, uh, the weekend sometimes doesn't always work , but 95% of the time it does work. And until you can, are able to. Actually take 'em and wash them. That's interesting. Is a particular brand that works better than others

Nope. I'd buy the cheapest I can. Yeah. I just go by the cheapest. And you pour in, in Matilda we all broke the rules because they had those tube socks Yes. That they wore. That smelled. Oh. We had to oc and we sneak them home and watch them. And I wasn't there during those and I would've been like, Take them.

Oh they were, They were walking out. We weren't sure if we were supposed to, but it was like, seriously, I a jungle rod or something? I would've said Yes, take them. And it was more than one weekend, so we're like Yeah, it was three weekends. That was three weekend. Yeah. But sometimes, you know, um, and some actors do, um, take their shirts home, um, and I'll remind them, you know, I'm gonna do laundry, but if you feel like you want to Totally, that's fine.

Mm-hmm. that, you know, just please make sure that you make, get it back. And cuz I've had friends, actors do that and they're like, Crap, I've left my shirt at home. Well, Yeah. You need to go back and get it. Yeah, that's right. How much time do you have? How much time do you have? You've gotta, Um, but yeah, so Fa booze is great in between shows and then, um, well, and, and in Elf our, we actually did take, um, our buddy's costume and dry clean it every time because it's fleece.

Yeah. And the poor guy wore that fleece all the time. Mm-hmm. checking all the, and he's hardly off the stage and, and they're hardly off this age, so. Mm-hmm. . So, one thing I want parents to hear mm-hmm. , because this is very important. Yes. What should a child never do when they get their costume for the first time?

Don't complain. , I mean, that's a good one. You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. Just like the director has a vision of what their show looks like. The costumer has a vision of what her costumes look like. She has, he or she has sat down. With the director and they have talked about it. You know, costumes are creatives.

They, you know, some of these costumes are designing them themselves, like they're drawing them, they're doing this, they're doing that. Um, not every show is a pool show, meaning that you're not just going to the warehouse and pulling costume pieces. A lot of times the costumer has to actually physically design what these look like and then produce them so they have a strict vision.

Yeah. Um, and mine, and this is what your character is, and that you gotta remember that you're not playing yourself. So it's not what Laura would wear as Laura, it's what Laura would wear as. You know, tree number four. So it is, you know, all those different things, so don't complain. You just say thank you and you take it and you wear it.

Mm-hmm. , um, don't, I wouldn't eat in them. No, I don't eat, don't drink, You know, you can drink water, you can drink, you know, those type of things. You've got plenty of time beforehand. Usually in a community theater setting to um, you know, eat before you get there. Water is great. Yeah. So, yeah, those are my two big things.

Don't complain. Don't complain, and don't eat in your costume cuz I, Lolo will catch you. Oh yeah, we will too. And I have as Pinky. Yes, Pinky does. I caught Pinky one time. Made her wear or something. I think I was doing Matilda to wrap up for today. Yeah. I'm kind of glad cuz we still have lots of things to talk, a talker and full of information.

So thank you so much for your Yeah, you're welcome. Us today. Yeah. Thanks for coming. We can't wait for, have you? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. This was fun. Yeah. . Yeah. Awesome. Well thanks for listening and uh, we'll see y'all next time.