Robert Rutland and Ray Boucher, who star in "The Mystery of Irma Vep," in their rehearsal costumes.

Jessica Jahn, a costume designer early in her career, steps up to a unique set of challenges in The Mystery of Irma Vep. The show is a melodramatic spoof about characters with cursed backgrounds who cross paths at a haunted manor house. On the moors. On a dark and stormy night.

Part of Irma Vep’s comic spin is that playwright Charles Ludlam has structured the evening based upon quick change, a now almost forgotten art popular in music halls and vaudeville. As the name implies, the theatricalism of quick change relies upon very few actors playing very many characters and cunning use of costumes. One Victorian specialist in the craft was famous for playing all the characters in Dickens Tale of Two Cities…solo.

In Studio Arena Theatre’s upcoming production, virtuosic performance is supported by clever costume design to dress the cast of leading ladies, noble heroes, bedeviled villains, servants, exotic foreigners, mummies, werewolves, vampires…and the mysterious Irma Vep herself.

Artvoice: You’re tackling a Victorian wardrobe that must be taken on and off in record time many times a night…what a great show to design! How did you get this gig?

Jessica Jahn: Yes, it is a great show and great theater. I know Deborah Shippee, who was the costume director at Studio Arena. She had recommended me a while ago. She and I have worked together before, and she knows I like humor. And I used to be a dancer. So things that have to do with physical comedy are things I am comfortable with.

AV: I’ve known of a few dancers who have become costume designers.

JJ: It only helps me. It has never hindered me. Dancers or performers who become costume designers contribute to helping performers and director understand what will work or what won’t work onstage.

AV: Well, in Irma Vep, an actor really needs a costume designer friend. Using a lot of Velcro?

JJ: Velcro kind of became outdated a while ago. Usually we use magnets for garment closure now, depending upon the costume.

AV: What factors do you consider when designing a costume that has to be put on or taken off really fast?

JJ: Sometimes, in a man’s suit, say, a shirt, tie and vest will all be rigged together as one piece so it can go on in one step. For a show like this, where you have men playing women, the dresses themselves are built out so that the actors get a nice, feminine shape.

Jessica Jahn's sketch of Boucher's costume.

AV: For the sake of the show’s humor, are you overstating the Victorian elaborateness of the clothing?

JJ: Lady Enid’s costumes are probably the most overstated. But everything is kind of bigger than life. The fun part for all the designers on the show is being able to pull inspiration from so many sources…B-movies, old plays and so on. Then we found some things from true period research. Like advertisements…cigar ads that showed men on safari which showed Victorian perceptions of what an exotic place might look like.

AV: Is there a particular costume that you like the best? Or a favorite character?

JJ: No, no…I don’t need to have a favorite.

AV: Director Tony Caselli has staged Irma Vep for different theaters. What knowledge does he bring to help the technology of the show?

JJ: He has a sense of the timing and is able to manipulate the timing in way that works for everybody involved. It is helpful to know what he needs, which will affect the length of a jacket…or how overdressing and underdressing was used before. It has been helpful to me and the costume team to have this information as we start out. If he hadn’t that experience, this is information we wouldn’t have until after our own rehearsals.

AV: Have actors been working in costume earlier than usual?

JJ: They are not wearing the actual costumes. They will not use those until the tech period starts. They have been given rehearsal costumes. They have costumes that have the same sort of openings and closures that their stage costumes will have. So they can get used to getting in and out of costumes in the way they will during the show. The wardrobe staff is going into rehearsal early so that they can get used to having dressers and working out the timing of the changes. Outside of the backstage theater community, a minute seems like only a little time to do a change…but costume changes, even when they are not as completely rigged as these will be, can take place in 20 or 30 seconds. We will have two dressers backstage and a wig person.

AV: Does every character get a wig?

JJ: Just the women. Lady Enid and Jane [her maid] and Irma and Pev Amri [one of two sinister Egyptians]…well, her wig is attached to her hat. I like what we came up with for her and her costume. Both Alcazar and Pev Amri were inspired by the movies…The Mummy, The Mummy’s Curse and everything that followed. [She laughs.]

AV: Yeah?

JJ: Actually, now that I think about it, she might be my favorite character…

AV: Aha!

The Mystery of Irma Vep begins previews April 16 and opens April 23 at Studio Arena Theater, continuing through April 7. For tickets call 856-5650 or visit www.studioarena.org.