Penguins and Squat Goals

by Brenda Quesada (Costumes Crew)

You would think that working in the costumes department is a very relaxing and rewarding experience. And it totally is!

It is so relaxing stripping clothes off another person in milliseconds and putting on a more complicated set of clothes in less time than that. It’s like dressing up a giant baby – but with more struggling.

It is very rewarding to run around backstage as your pants are falling down due to the constant squatting required to put pants or skirts or shorts on for an actor. Pretty sure the cast appreciates my cheetah print underwear. You would not believe how much squatting I’ve done. My pants are going to rip one of these days… if they don’t fall down first.

But honestly, I could not ask for a better, more relaxing or rewarding way to experience Legally Blonde than the costumes department. The costumes department work as a crutch for the actors – literally. We support them in a big way.

Backstage is where the essence of all things that make us human collide. We collide constantly.  
​
I have also gotten to know the run crew very well. Holding clothes in our arms, shirts and pants prepped to be put on, we sometimes forget the run crew exits the stage, and we are often standing in the wings, exactly where they need to be. We are quickly herded into a corner, just like penguins, and we waddle around the tables and the giant staircase to a better position where we’re not in the way.

​Thanks to costumes, I have gotten some much needed exercise. Chasing actors down with forgotten jackets, squatting constantly to pull up pants and put on shoes, stretching to pull shirts or dresses over an actor’s head – just a few of the fabulous exercises involved in my costume changing routine.

I’m so happy and lucky to have gotten so close to everyone in costumes and the cast (too close, some might say). I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. 

---