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Act 1.

Setting: The rehearsal space for the Greensboro Opera Company.

A truck delivers three large trunks of costumes from a New York theatrical rental company.

Enter two women. One is costume coordinator Patricia Mueller -- Pat to friends -- wearing an eye-catching, long red sweater over a black, red-trimmed shirt and black pants.

On her heels is trusted assistant Deb Smith, who has arrived from Texas.

Mueller casts a quick eye around the room. Something is missing: racks on which to hang the costumes. She takes it in stride.

Mueller: I want to get everything racked and name-tagged and ready to go.

Smith: Well, we can't do much without racks and hangers.

Cue dramatic music.

Curtain closes.

End of Act 1.

* * * * * *

Each year, Greensboro Opera Company hires professionals from the Triad and beyond to stage productions.

For this fall, it chose Gaetano Donizetti's comic "L'elisir d'amore" ("The Elixir of Love"). Set in a small Italian village in the 1860s, it tells the story of a poor peasant in love with a beautiful landowner.

Typically, costumes are rented from an out-of-state supplier.

The expertise to breathe life into them comes from here: Mueller.

For 15 years, this Winston-Salem woman has customized costumes to create just the right look for each production and its cast.

Vernon Hartman, stage director for "L'elisir d'amore," says that in a business where pursuit of perfection under pressure breeds stress, Mueller is "calming, unflappable, resilient, resourceful -- everything you ask for in show business and none of the baggage."

Even when costumes come from rental companies, Mueller is still integral to a production. The job of any costumer is all in the details, from shirts to shoes to buttons. Costumes not only have to fit the actor, but the show and the period.

Mueller, who turns 69 today, brings more than 30 years' experience handling costumes, wigs, hair and makeup for opera, musical theater and film.

Her assignments are short, intense stints that have taken her across the country.

Tulsa. Wichita. Atlanta. Oklahoma City. Green Bay. Boston. Those are some of the places she's worked.

Ellen Burstyn. Polly Holliday. Comedian Jo Anne Worley. Those are some of the many performers she's made look great.

In the increasingly cost-conscious world of the arts, Mueller works that magic within a budget. She knows where the bargains are and heads to Goodwill for a piece of clothing or an accessory when needed.

"You have to know how you can give the best possible look for the least possible money," she says. "They are hiring you to make it wonderful but to do it so they can afford it."

She enjoys the colleagues, the colors, the textures and the fabric in her work.

And, in opera, the voices.

"That a human voice can sing like that -- without microphones," she marvels.

She just finished preparing costumes for a cast of 75 in Opera Carolina's production of "Faust" in Charlotte.

After only two days' break, she started work on Greensboro's opera.

"L'elisir d'amore" has a smaller cast of 28: five principal singers, 20 chorus members and three nonsinging supernumeraries or "supers."

That equates to about 35 costumes, a figure subject to change before opening night.

"I am not going to say, 'piece of cake,' because if you say that, the great theater god will get you," Mueller says. "But this is more relaxed."

But she's not relaxing. Much work remains, and only 17 days to do it.

* * * * * *

Act 2.

Hartman is dissatisfied with the soldiers' costumes.

The supplier shipped new-looking bright yellow jackets.

Hartman has set the opera during the Italian unification movement of the 1860s. To make costumes more authentic, he envisions soldiers in red shirts that look more distressed -- the way movement commander Giuseppe Garibaldi has been pictured in history.

The change doesn't ruffle Mueller. She offers to make the shirts.

Says Hartman: "Most designers would go, 'What?' But she says, 'Here's what we will do.' That's why I like Pat. If I ask for an idea, she will give me three."

By the next day, Mueller has a money-saving idea for sewing eight red shirts: bed sheets. That's right, bed sheets.

"If I bought red sheets and laundered them," she says, "I'll bet for under $100 we could do them, rather than buy fabric by the yard."

Mueller and Smith sew two sample shirts from a pattern Mueller created herself.

"They look great," Hartman says.

* * * * * *

Mueller's job is in the details, big and small.

Does the costume fit?

Should seams be taken in or let out?

Is it comfortable for the actor?

Is the length appropriate?

Do dresses need petticoats?

Are any parts so worn that they need to be replaced?

What can be added to enhance the costume? Fresh trim? A flower? A hat?

Her basement studio is a laboratory of sorts, holding sewing machines, dress forms, bolts of fabric, shelves of reference books, lace and trim -- even egret feathers from a Paris flea market.

She often has to build new costumes for some actors. They have to look like they arrived with the package.

"It doesn't do any good for people to say, 'Oh, what a beautiful costume, but it doesn't go with the rest,' " Mueller says.

Some costumes have to make a statement. Others have to be subtle.

In 2003, she sewed a dress designed to conceal the pregnancy of soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge, who played the title role in Greensboro's "Lucia di Lammermoor."

That was a major undertaking. Others, not so much.

She might have to add a new top to an existing bottom. Or fresh sleeves or cuffs to replace worn ones. Or just an apron.

Some tips and truths she has learned along the way:

* Men's pants can't be too tight or too loose. Their chests and abdomens need room to expand for singing. The answer: hard-to-find button-on suspenders.

* Shoes from the 1970s make great 18th-century shoes. Just add a buckle.

* And the measurements a performer gives are not always the whole truth. "Maybe it's wishful thinking, or they had measurements taken recently and think they're still good," Mueller says.

Her job is a demanding one, heavy on long hours to meet deadlines.

Mueller smooths the stress and the snags with a sense of humor and by focusing on the performers.

She rarely gets to take a bow. But the performers she dresses get lots of applause.

"Many times, just a little touch, a little something you add makes it come to life and makes it work for the character."

* * * * * *

Portrait of a young woman: Patricia Ryder Mueller grows up in New Hampshire in the 1940s and 1950s, listening to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio with her grandmother, a former opera singer.

She wins a state high school drama award and aims for a career in theater.

Enter her grandmother, who offers advice:

"This is a very tough business. Many people have a great deal of talent. So, be aware that you may not get to do what you want, in spite of all the hard work."

While working in summer stock, Mueller hears actors talk about living on tight budgets.

Exit one career for another -- nursing.

The scene shifts to Winston-Salem, the early 1970s: Mueller is a stay-at-home mom with a son and daughter and is married to a physician.

In her free time, she paints sets for The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem. Costumes for one play leave her cold.

"I could have done a better job," she remembers saying.

The producer gets word. He offers her a job.

She designs costumes for Edward Albee's "The Sandbox."

She then takes on the complicated garb for the musical "Camelot."

The family moves to Texas for five years. She wins state awards for costume design.

And one day, the unexpected: a summer job offer from Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City, a company that produces major musicals with Broadway actors.

"This is way out of my league. I can't possibly do it," she thinks.

But she says yes, and ends up spending 15 summers there.

Word of her talent spreads. Work offers come from theaters and operas in North Carolina -- and across the country.

When the Greensboro Opera Company hires Mueller as its first professional costumer in the 1990s, its volunteers breathe a sigh of relief.

They no longer have to handle all alterations.

* * * * * *

Act 3.

Costume racks have arrived. So have two "L'elisir d'amore" stars, Kristen Plumley of New Jersey and Elena DeAngelis of Greensboro, ready for fittings.

Mueller pins and fastens while explaining planned alterations to Smith, who notes them on a laptop.

DeAngelis dons the dress and scarf of her peasant girl character.

"This is adorable. You just need a little height here (under the scarf)," Mueller says. "And we'll put metal stays in there (the bodice)."

The moment of truth will come this week, at the first dress rehearsal.

While Hartman looks at the big picture, Mueller eyes the small.

Hems.

Sleeves.

Accessories.

How singers react to their costumes.

Mueller will take notes and consult with Hartman.

"You see them individually in the fitting room and it really looks good," she says. "Then all these people are on stage, and you see them with the sets and under the lights. Sometimes a color clashes with the person next to them, or they disappear, or it just doesn't work."

Mueller might change a sash or shawl, apron or hat. Perhaps there will be a hem or sleeve to adjust.

Come show time at 8 p.m. Friday, it will all appear seamless.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com