Quick costume changes Add a layer of intrigue to any theater production.

That's especially true in a show where 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, describe the magnitude of the challenge.

The ensemble, I don't think they wear the same costume twice.

They start as sailors an then they become sea creatures.

And then they become chefs.

And then they become lily pads or seagulls.

And then in 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 for Verots Anderson Theater during a recen Little Mermaid dress rehearsal to pull back the curtain on the techniques actors use to make quic costume changes look effortless.

The first is layering Robin Dawn Ryan whose assisting Clark on Little Mermaid explains.

Sometimes you're wearing two and three outfits under the outfit that you already have on so You go and you rip off one layer and you come back out.

You go bac and you rip off the next layer.

Verot costume designe Heidi Rustic says Katt Torres, who plays Ariel, reall makes effective use of layering for a number of the costum changes she's required to make, both on stage and in the wings.

When she has a quick change coming up, she'll have one gown underneath another so that when the lights go down, we go to a blackout.

She can quickly have a little bit of assistance and take off that top layer.

In Equity theatres costumes are often built with special features to facilitate quick changes.

Community and high school theaters rarely have that luxury, Clark notes.

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.

There' I mean, sometimes we're working with, like, vintage gowns from our shop because it's what looks best in the scene.

But even vintage gowns or off the rack costumes can be retrofit to help actors speedily get into and out of them.

Sometimes we'll make alterations like we've put snaps on something that had buttons so that it can just go instead, almos 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 remove on stage 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, It gets to b choreography backstage for them.

The shirt hangs here becaus 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.

And that's why we get in costume so early, because thos transitions just take a while.

But it's rehearsal, you know, 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 is key.

Rustic says that's yet another techniqu that Katt Torres has perfected.

Katts really the magic 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.

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