| Cast and crew plan a truly memorable musical (3/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Sandra Chen | |
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The theatre tech crew is planning, hammering and drilling the set for the spring musical.
According to freshman technician Marvin Huang, most of the larger pieces for the spring musical, Les Miserables, which will hit the stage on April 10-12, have has already been built. “We have a giant bridge built that is in the background,” Huang said. “We just need to build the movable props like the beds and tables.” The crew must share space with the rehearsing cast members. “Mr. Jefferson had to roll the piano into Mrs. Bookwalter’s office for rehearsals,” school technician Darcy Villere. “The dancers were onstage and the tech team worked over them on the platforms.” Les Miserables offers unique challenges. “It’s almost an action musical — it’s the French Revolution,” Villere explained. “There will be fighting. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s ambitious; the singing is ambitious, the very nature of the play is ambitious.” Freshman Taylor Edlehart, who will play Gavroche and young Cosette, said that the work put in by the cast and crew is sure to make the musical a success. “The musical will be really great,” she said. “The story is amazing and the singers have been practicing with Mr. J. I think everyone’s going to like this.” According to Edlehart, the cast meets every Tuesday and Wednesday, to plan blocking, stage direction, and to run through the first act on stage. Villere planned the set for over a month before he and his tech crew started building it. “Everything is made by myself and the students,” he said. “We’ve reused some of the things from the fall play, On the Razzle, but 75 percent of the set is from our own stock of supplies that we have already built.” While the set from On the Razzle had multiple backdrops and props, the musical will have a single “static set,” according to Villere. “With a unit set, we’ll be able to set up certain lights that we normally can’t,” Villere said. The tight-knit crew entertains each other as they work to finish the set. The crew members call junior technician Davin Chan “Chantastic” and Villere makes “jokes 24/7” according to sophomore Jackie Gutierrez. The crew has a motto inspired by the television series Futurama: “If you do things right, people won’t think you’ve done anything at all.” As Villere said, the tech crew is much like the Federal Bureau of Investigation: “The only time the audience sees us is if we’ve screwed up.” |
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