First Dress - Misery, a new definition

Being in a very large tent in the middle of a chilly December at 11pm wearing an Arabian dancing girl costume, żaqqek barra, with no heating. I think that this was the worst Panto experience until now – freezing our arses off during the first dress rehearsal.

We looked enviously at the director, crew, and miscellaneous Panto people, all wearing nice warm jackets, and looked longingly at the empty heating ducts running overhead, but no, our request for the heat to be turned on was denied. This was a new experience for me, standing on stage and shivering, one I hope not to repeat.

The chorus girls especially were very glad to change into the next costume, which is by contrast very warm and not revealing at all.

I was also using dress rehearsal to get used to navigating the backstage area in dim light with no spectacles on. Rather than leaving them backstage (which would be a problem anyway because sometimes I exit on the opposite side of the stage than I enter on) I decided to leave them in my dressing-room. I had a few hairy moments because there are wires snaking all over the place, and crossing from one side of the stage to another involves a huge detour because there is a projector set up to project onto the backdrop from quite a distance behind the stage, and we must avoid the cone of projection. Well, I survived and learned how to get around well enough.

Dress rehearsal was also our chance to get used to having all our costumes in our possession and organising our dressing rooms. We are fourteen girls and thirteen boys in chorus, split between four dressing rooms. In our room there are seven girls, sixty-nine costumes and no rails to hang stuff on. Luckily for us, some of the chorus boys are very practical and handy with whatever they find lying around – they rigged improvised railings for themselves using lengths of pipe and cable ties, and then very kindly came over and rigged two pipes for us too.

It took ages to get the costumes organised, especially since each is comprised of a minimum of three pieces, and in some cases up to six or seven. I'm terrified of going out on stage missing bits of costume, so I made a chart showing all the components of each costume and taped it up in my section. I use it when I'm getting dressed for each scene, and as a last-minute checklist before I go out on stage. It's right next to a list of all the scenes in the show, which is very handy for figuring out which costume comes next, and how much time we have to change into it.

Next up is a dress rehearsal but with a small audience, which should be exciting.