Backstage Sessions: Interview with Broadway Costumer Cate Goetschius
I am absolutely thrilled for you all to read this blog post so I can introduce you to my beautiful friend, Cate! Cate has been the Glinda Dresser at Wicked on Broadway for the past four years. I first met her in January 2015 during my first week working as a swing dresser at Wicked. I introduced myself to her at the company holiday party and remember being so nervous! Since then we've bonded through some crazy times (in and out of the theatre) and have gotten so close. She has been an incredibly loyal and supportive friend to me. Cate is hilarious, generous, thoughtful and extremely intelligent. She always shows up for me when I need her, loves dressing up for theme parties of any kind AND she has the coolest tattoo of a purple spool of thread on her arm. So she's literally the best babe squad member a girl could ask for.
My favorite memories with her include having Disney sing-a-long dance parties in the Glinda dressing room and giggling with/scaring her and Kara (Glinda) backstage. Pretty much all of my favorite moments backstage throughout the show are when I get to see her. Unfortunately for me, Cate is leaving Wicked and her last show is on Saturday. I'm pretty heart broken and will miss seeing my friend every day like crazy BUT I just know we will work together again one day on the Great White Way!
For my birthday Cate thought of an incredibly thoughtful gift. She custom ordered temporary tattoos of me dressed like a unicorn. So when I started brainstorming goodbye gifts for her, the best thing I could think of was a photo shoot with myself because I’m the worst and the most extra of possibly all time.
How long have you been a dresser on Broadway?
I've been a dresser on Broadway for 6 years!
What was the first Broadway show you ever worked on?
I was a swing at Wicked.
What’s your favorite show you've ever worked on?
I loved working on Bring It On. I loved the music, and the cheerleading aspect of it was totally new to me and always blew me away. I was dressing Adrienne Warren who I dressed on the Dream Girls tour, and she and I always have a blast working together.
Who is the coolest celebrity you've ever met at work?
Well, I worked with Judith Light on Other Desert Cities and she is totally the coolest. She's hilarious and kind and just a blast to be around. But the only time I've been star struck by a celebrity coming to see a show is when Jon Hamm came to see Other Desert Cities. I'm a huge fan of Mad Men and at the end of the show, I came out of a dressing room and he was just standing there being very dashing and handsome! The actors in that show told me it was the only time they'd seen me speechless with a guest.
What is it about this job that makes you come back each day?
I'm a cog in the big machine that is putting together a Broadway musical. And theater is so immediate and gripping when you are there live that I think people relate to and see themselves in these stories more than other mediums. I think it makes people feel like they belong or validated, and I think that it has the power to promote empathy for other people. I'm a tiny part of that, but I think that the impact can be huge for a person in the audience.
What piece of advice would you give your 25-year-old self?
It's okay if you aren't perfect the first time. Everyone is faking it a little at some point, even if they don't look like they are. Do it. Mess it up. And then you'll know. It's better than never trying.
What's the craziest day at work you've had?
Definitely the first year I went to the Tony Awards. It’s a long story because it was a long day. I was working at Wicked and we had been offered tickets to the Tonys, so I had signed up for a pair for me and a friend. I was so excited, I bought a dress and we were gonna be sitting with Katie Rose Clarke (the Glinda at the time) and her husband. Then I found out that Bring it On was asked to perform even though we had closed 6 months before. We were going to be in the opening and the first show to perform a number.
On the day of the Tonys, I got up at 5am to get down to Radio City. Since we didn't have a theater, we were prepping our costumes in one of the Rockettes' rehearsal rooms. The morning was a whirlwind of digging costumes out of boxes and prepping them and reuniting with cast members we hadn't seen in months. We rehearsed the opening, had a quick change in a corner among all the beautiful big dresses in Cinderella and grown-up Billy Elliots and then went back to the deck to collect backpacks as they were chucked offstage in the number. Everything went great. I think everyone else in our number went home to nap. I went to Wicked and did the show and ran out of there after with my dress and shoes in my backpack. Everyone at the Tonys was jazzed. Our cast did an amazing job and I'm still so proud of them.
We packed up all the costumes, said our goodbyes, and I changed into my fancy dress and shoes. This was the sneaky part - I knew where my seat was in the theater, so I walked right back down on to the deck of the stage past all the performers waiting to go on and the celebrities chatting. I walked right over to the stage right pass door and I waited with all the celebrities who had just presented or won awards until a commercial break, and then we walked out into the house and to our seats before the show came back. I don't think we got out of there until midnight, but I wasn't tired at all.
What is your favorite thing about your job?
The people. I've been dressing principal women for most of my career, and have been embraced by these women who appreciate my dumb jokes and weird little songs and have encouraged me in the same way I encourage them. You're doing the same thing over and over again, night after night. The things that really change are the lives and hearts of those around you, so you share a lot with each other.
What is the fastest quick change you do at Wicked?
The change from Glinda's Shiz uniform to her Emerald City dress is definitely the fastest. But the hardest is the first change from the Bubble Dress into her Shiz uniform because there is so much more to do for that change and only a few more seconds to get it done. Thank goodness it's at the beginning of the show. (See what I did there?)
What is the biggest challenge you've run into as a dresser?
My job is a lot of one on one interaction with a single person who is expending a lot of energy doing their job. I work hard to stay positive and give them energy and try to read what they need before they need it. The most challenging days are when there is something happening in my own life that I'm trying to put aside to do my job well.
What is your favorite Glinda costume?
At the top of Act 2 Glinda wears a beautiful green suit with one sleeve, a beaded collar, a sweet little peplum, a diagonal row of buttons down the front and nude sleeve covered in rhinestones on her bare arm. The skirt has a bustle in the back and train of three layers of different color net. I love the silhouette, I love the fabrics, I love all the different textures and patterns, and I love what it says about Glinda's growth as a character at the top of the act. I think that costume really informs who she is as a woman and how she's changed from the girl you saw in the first act.
Do you have a favorite backstage moment with me?
My favorite Backstage Blonde moments are always having fun. Like when Kara Lindsay and I think we're going to scare you, so we throw open the quick change curtain and yell "boo!" but you're hiding in a rack of costumes behind us and scare us instead! Working with you is such a blast.
FUN FACTS:
What was your major in college and where did you go?: I got two degrees at college. One in theater (for technical theater) and one in voice performance. I went to the University of Maine.
First Broadway show you ever saw: Oklahoma! (I didn't want to see it because I'm not a huge fan of that show, but my mom got us tickets.)
Favorite Broadway show you've ever seen: Ohhhh this is too hard. My favorite shows on Broadway right now are Waitress and Dear Evan Hansen. Though, because we work the same hours, it's hard to go see other shows when you work on Broadway, so I haven't seen much.
Favorite NYC restaurant: Harlem Public. It's right across the street from my house and they have great fancy beers and food. My friends and I go there CONSTANTLY.
How heavy is the bubble dress? Everyone says it's 40 pounds. But I've weighed 3 of them during my time as the Glinda dresser and they all clocked in under 20 pounds.
How long were you a swing? I was a swing for 9 months before I started on a full time job.
How many Glindas have you worked with? I've worked with 6 Glindas, but three of them I worked with for two contracts, and 6 standby Glindas, and 2 understudy Glindas. So 14 blonde witches in total!
