NAPLES, Fla. - A local acting troupe is gearing up for a teen production of the musical Footloose. The cast and crew that make it happen are almost all volunteers, and in this Maggie Monday, Maggie Crane finds out how they do it.

The Naples Players has been around for 55 years, making its home at the Sugden Community Theatre.

The Players put on about 20 different shows every year, and volunteers -- both on stage and back stage -- make characters come to life with hand-made costumes.

With dreams of one day singing and dancing on Broadway, 15-year-old Jenna Canfield takes to the Naples Players' stage in a dress rehearsal. She plays the female lead in the teen version of Footloose.

"Aerial is the preacher's daughter in Beaumont," Canfield says. "She's also Ren's love interest, so I'm kind of like a rebel."

The self-described "good girl" is nothing like her character, but the minute she puts on her costume, she transforms.

"The costumes are part of what makes the show happen," Canfield says. "Without the costumes, the show really can't work, so when you finally put on the costume that you're going to wearing on stage during the show it's really cool."

A team of designers and dressers create costumes to make characters come to life inside the theatre. Mary Anne McKerrow must outfit 49 teenagers for Footloose in just one week.

"We have so much to do in so very little time!" she exclaims.

"Every costume can have six or seven individual pieces when you start to go head to toe, the math gets astounding," Dot Auchmoody, Naples Players costume designer, says.

And no detail is left out.

"We're having corsages and boutonnieres made by another volunteer for the prom scene because who goes to prom without them? Nobody!" McKerrow says.

It's an over-crowded costume shop, stuffed full of shoes stacked from the floor, hats hanging from the ceiling and color-coordinated garments running the gamut from the Middle Ages to contemporary.

"What we hold on to are the things that we can't easily go out and get either at a consignment shop or shopping at the stores locally if it's a contemporary piece, so we tend to hold onto the things that are more novel, unique, dated," Auchmoody says.

And if they can't find it, they make it.

"Costumes create the flavor of a show," Auchmoody says. "It's information the audience sees that gives you information about the show about characters in a non-verbal way. Just by looking at the {actors}, you can tell who they are, where they came from and what their social-econ status is."

Designers say costumes create a picture of a thousand words, allowing the teens to cut loose into their characters.

If you'd like to see Footloose for yourself, it opens at the Naples Players in downtown Naples this Thursday and runs through Saturday with two performances on Saturday. For tickets, or if you'd like to volunteer on stage or back stage, contact the Naples Players at 239.263.7990 or visit: www.naplesplayers.com

If you have an idea for a Maggie Monday, please send Maggie an email at: maggie.crane@winktv.com