Written by Riley Walling
I saw a Broadway show in New York City during Christmas break. It was a fantastic performance that lived up to its reputation of greatness. As I walked away from the theater thinking about the different moments of the show, I didn’t give much thought to the amount of work that was put into the production.
I didn’t think about how the actors had worked tirelessly to perfect line delivery. Or how the lighting was put together. Or even what the director’s beginning vision was for the show, and how it changed. All I cared about was the one night I saw the show — a performance that was possible only because of months of hard work.You never really think about the work until it’s your job to get it done.I like to act in play for fun. So when Logan Kays, a juniortheatre major, told me she was holding auditions for her one-act play she was required to direct, I was thrilled. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.The show, “The Scheme of the Driftless Shifter,” was performed Feb. 11-13. To anyone not in the show, those dates were simply a weekend. To the cast, it was a deadline.
We got our parts and scripts one month before show time.The shows plot was simply enough. Man has two daughters. Evil man comes and takes younger daughter. Older Daughter’s fiancé rescues younger daughter and captures evil man. There are a few other twists in the plot, but they basically all live happily ever after.The 12 cast members held practice six days a week. We began with the blocking of the show. Blocking is a theater term for where characters move on stage. In the first week, we had no set or costumes.In fact, the only evidence that we actually were a cast was the little yellow script we each held in our hands as we stumble around the stage, mumbling lines.”Blocking has to be the first thing you work on because everything else builds on where the characters are on stage,” Kays said.She was the captain of our ship on its voyage to performance.Week two we worked on our characters. Each one of us had to play a role, but each role needed to be unique.Chris Briggs, the junior theatre major playing the role of the drifter, said character development was important and enjoyable.”Working on our character develop was my favorite part of the show,” he said. “You had to come up with a another personality of who your character was, what they would do or not do. This helped us determine how to deliver lines and really brought out the story in the script. We had so much fun at those practices. Being set free to be as ridiculous as you want on stage was awesome.”During the third week of rehearsal, the show became a part-time job for us. We spent 14-16 hours a week practicing in the Ulrey building. The cast pulled together as a team.We had our blocking and lines memorized, costumes and make-up finalized, and our lighting set in place. All we needed was to polish the show to perfection. The week continued with stop-and-repeat practices to ensure we remembered exactly how to perform each moment of the show. By the end of the week, the cast was hoping for someone to forget a line so that something new could happen on stage.When the curtain raised during show week, we followed ever cue and line with precision. The sweat and tears that went into rehearsals paid off, as the performances went off without a problem.After three quick days of performances, it was done. The set taken down, the costumes put up and the make-up stains cleaned. Was the show worth it? Beyond a doubt.So the next time you see a performance, take a minute to appreciate how much those people have work to entertain you.
