Taking a look behind the curtains
While it may have been a unique year for high school theatrical productions during the pandemic — as actors like to say — the show must go on.
One thing that is still a must for a high school play is what goes on behind-the-scenes. For every actor on stage, there are multiple people making the magic happen — from designing and building the set to sewing costumes to creating programs and posters. During the show, a crew operates the lights, runs the sound board, calls out cues and moves props between scenes.
Orchestrating the flow behind the curtain is an essential part of a production. To make sure students understand, Syracuse High Fine Arts Teacher Christine Detweiler requires her actors to spend several hours helping with technical work.
“If you’ve never done tech, you don’t realize how much work it is. The set and costumes don’t just magically appear. We need to respect those that are helping us do this show,” she said.
Some students actively choose to be full-time members of the stage crew.
“Some students really like theater, but don’t like being in the spotlight and want to be involved without being on stage,” said Detweiler.
At Bountiful High, Fine Arts Teacher Emily Wadley tells students they don’t have to be on stage to be a part of the storytelling experience. Those students can learn to build props in a stage crew class or design sets and costumes in the theater design class.
“In high school, they are discovering things about themselves. A lot of these kids who are working on the stage crew don’t have a place where they belong, so it’s an option for them to belong someplace,” said Wadley. “Every single time, during stage crew class when they see the set they’ve been poking at for weeks and weeks, they can’t believe that they are just kids and they made something that people paid money to see.”
Bountiful High sophomore Aiden says being a member of stage crew has been a unique opportunity.
“So far my experience with stage craft has been great because I have met so many people and have gained new skills,” Aiden said. “I always look forward to and am always excited to see the thing that I helped build be in a play and being used.”
Detweiler says watching the stage crew students at Syracuse High grow in their roles and increase in their confidence is inspiring.
“When they start out, it is generalized as they learn various things. Then they specialize more and more. By the time they are a senior, they start overseeing and teaching others and a couple have gone onto major in stage management in college,” Detweiler said. “It is tremendously exciting for me to see, especially because I have these students over the course of three years, going from ‘What’s a screw driver?’ to operating machinery and helping new students learn how to do that.”