As Alina Luke, junior, watched the freshman-sophomore production of A Coarse Acting Show 2, she noticed the fabulous acting done by her peers. What she and the rest of the audience did not notice, however, was the chaos behind the scenes.
This seemingly organized chaos includes the actors and actresses, technical, costume and set crews and many other students and teachers who make the show possible.
“[These students] do all of the lighting and the sound and move everything on and off stage,” Greg Booth, Keating Center Manager and math teacher, said.
In the middle of the theater there is a bulky black box containing dozens of colored switches, buttons and knobs that control everything heard in the Keating Theater.
“It takes a long time to learn how to do the board. It is a technical skill that takes talent, [and] not everyone has the patience for it,” Booth said.
It takes over two months to prepare the set and all of the things it takes behind the scenes to make a production run smoothly in Keating Theater. A show in the Black Box (a smaller stage for smaller productions) takes a little over one month.
“My favorite part of being on set crew is painting the sets,” Autumn Smith, senior, said. “We painted this really awesome mountain scene once.”
Not only does it take a lighting, sound and set crew, but someone has to make the costumes. Costume crew, run by Amanda Obermeier, family and consumer science teacher, is made up of about eight girls who work after school Monday through Thursday from 3-5 p.m.
“It takes a lot of work to put together even just one costume,” Gaby Saravia, freshman, said.
The costume crew does not buy all new outfits for the plays. After they find out what is needed for each character, they search through two big closets full of old clothes where they find pieces that are a close fit to what they need. Then they add details to make them fit the time era or the part better.
“I really like making something very plain into something unique,” Saravia said. “If any major changes need to be made with the items, Ms. Obermeier takes them home and fixes them.”
For a major production it takes about two months to prepare costumes and one month for smaller shows.
Although Smith and Saravia agree being on crew is a fun way to be involved with theater without being the center of attention, it is frustrating to never get credit for the work they do.
“It does kind of suck that no one gives us any praise for what we do. We work very hard,” Smith said.
Booth said the point of crew is not to be noticed by the audience.
“Our job is to make people look good. The less they know we are there the better we’ve done our job,” Booth said. “The actors and actresses get up there and do their thing, and we’re the little fairies that make it all happen.”
