COSTUMES: Legally Blonde

[KateBaxter]

I am stage managing a comm. theatre production of Legally Blonde. In the course of the show, the main character Elle has almost 15 costume changes and many of them are really fast. The cast is made up of about 35 people so they will have to be changing between characters and we will defiantly need several dressers backstage. I was wondering how many dressers would we need and would you say it would be best to dedicate one dresser to just handle Elle? I know some of her changes may require multiple people but how many other dressers would be needed to dress the rest of the cast?

[nick_tochelli]

Impossible to say.

How many changes happen at once?

Where do the changes take place? Are there 6 changes happening at 6 points on deck, or are they all happening in one clump on Stage Left?

How fast is your "quick change"? If it's over a certain time say...2 minutes... does the actor actually need a dresser?

Do you dedicate two dressers to Elle so they are always responsible for her quick turn around, or just the one?

Do you have the space to do onstage quick changes, or do they need to go to a hallway etc?

Can there be any layering done to prevent a full "down to the britches" quick change?

Are chorus members fully changing clothes, or just pieces/accessories?

Long and short of it: You'll have to figure out these things and many many more before you can figure out how many dressers you'll need. I would suggest dedicating one person to Elle which appears to have been your original thought. You may want to consider a second one depending on how complex her changes are.

[KMC]

Kate, first of all welcome to SMNetwork.  You should make a post in the Intros board and tell us a bit about yourself.  To answer your question, I'll respond with another question:  "How long is a piece of string?"

This community is incredibly helpful but we'll need some more information to provide you with anything substantive.  If I said you need 17 dressers without knowing your production at all, would that really help?  I don't intend to sound harsh, just want to ensure the feedback you're getting from the community is valuable and can actually help.

Nick's questions are a good starting point.  You can also search our "BTDT" (been there, done that) section to see if any of our members have experience with the show.  They may be able to offer you some detailed insight. 

[catalinacisne]

I recently closed a professional production of Legally Blonde, so my insight is tied directly to how we did it.
   - Elle had her own dresser, who would assist others when not needed
   - A few of Elle's changes were just piece changes (putting a jacket over her Harvard T-Shirt etc) to save time
   - Almost all costume changes happened in the wings as opposed to down in the dressing rooms, which technically defines a QC at my theatre, but the actual quick-quick ones for the chorus were Jamaican Me Crazy into Personal Essay, Personal Essay into First Day of Harvard, Bend and Snap into Second Courtroom, and Courtroom/Bathroom into Graduation.
   - That being said, we had three non-Elle dedicated dressers, and members of the stage crew would help the chorus with their changes whenever they were able to. Most cases Wardrobe preset everything out and the actors were left to their own devices, and everything went fine. Keeping in mind that your actors may not be used to changing entire outfits in <30 seconds, it may be useful to have some more dressers to assist.
   - I have my costume change plot from Legally Blonde; it is all tied to our blocking and costume design, but if you think it may be useful, you may PM me with your email and I'll send it over.

[omaira17]

We recently did Legally Blonde as well and the most challenging part was all the costume changes. We had a 2 dressers backstage for the ensemble quick changes and 1 dresser dedicated to Elle. Some changes we actually moved onstage behind a dressing screen (in her dorm room), in the shopping mall, etc. This worked better cause she could keep going with lines while she was changing. Some full changes we scrapped and just made small adjustments because of time contraints (we would add a jacket, take of t-shirt to reveal a glittered tank top, throw sweater over dress to look like shirt and skirt, etc.). One helpful thing we did was call everyone involved in the quick changes early to a rehearsal just to go over quick changes. They practiced over and over till they figured out the easiest, fastest way to do it.

Good luck!