Work on the production of “Les Mis” has been going on since September, but the crew has had very limited time to work without actors on stage. The last crew-only day was Oct. 24th, and everyone jumped to help whoever needed it the most.
Being the biggest show this year, lots of work has been done to perfect how the stage looks and how other crews contribute to the mood of each scene. This is the largest set that the theater department has had since their unified production of “Frozen”. However, it has been very difficult with a small set crew and having less time to work on it without getting in the way of the actors, as well as the pit which contains live music from the school orchestra.
“During the show, I am on one of the headsets telling crews things like sound, lights or set their upcoming ques,” senior Daiten Gubbels said.“I talk with actors just to make sure we are all in the same loop in each wing. I also help crews that are split, like sound crew which has people in the auditorium working but also a few people backstage who do mic changes, so if something happens, I can give messages back and forth between them.”
Stage managers are like extra directors that reach all parts of the show. There isn’t a single person they don’t talk to or work with in some way. This show has two stage managers because of the big cast, seniors Gubbels and Devin Hoshaw.
The director and set crew have had a mental image of what they wanted this set to look like, but bringing it to life is its own task. After the initial design, having to make the entire thing stable and safe for the actors to climb, dance, and jump around was the top priority.
“This was a long and drawn-out collaborative effort.” theater director Brooke Phillips said. “I started having meetings over the summer with some of the directing team and sort of a shell of a vision. I wanted a large structure and a bridge-type look. Then I asked the Theatre tech class to do some design work on the show and come up with their own concepts. We took folks’ ideas and combined them to make what we have today. One special feature of the set was the idea of some detached movable triangle pillars. Some dads helped us make those and they ended up being one of my favorite parts of the design.”
Having extra hands to work on the set was extremely helpful because there were moving set pieces, so they had to paint all sides instead of just one side like normal. The bridge, which is about seven feet tall, was the most exciting, but also the most challenging part because Javert, who junior Killian Cusick plays, had to jump off it, so making the whole thing stable was very important.
“This set was very close to Frozen in how intense it was,” junior Chlo Hindes said. “This set has so many moving parts to it, plus we didn’t have enough members that showed up to work on it for a long time, so that made it worse.”
While each crew was expanding, the set crew still had challenges trying to find out where to put all of their members and figuring out how to move set pieces around without running into the actors.
“I just hope we are able to move audiences,” Phillips said.“I hope that they are left thinking about the world a little differently.
The preview of Les Mis was on Nov. 6, which was not a public showing but was for any teachers or students who have a free block/permission to attend it. The first public showing was on Nov. 7 at 7 pm and went up until Nov. 10.
