Before the production process even begins, theater students have to audition for one, or both, of the shows.
“All of my theater students enrolled in Theater I, II, III, and IV are required to audition,” Yanchak said. “This year we had about 75 people audition for two shows in the fall.”
After auditioning for the show, theater students get the option to choose whether to be cast into production or as one of the characters of the play.
Once the auditioning process is over, the production team starts meeting.
“[During the production meetings], we’re making sure that people who are new to the program know the policies about how we run things, how to communicate for rehearsal schedules, how to find information, making sure they understand rehearsal and production etiquette,” Yanchak said.
Cast members also receive their scripts, get measured for costumes and state any conflicts they have in terms of scheduling.
“They [also] meet their stage management team,” Yanchak said, “which are a group of student leaders who are going to be helping us in the rehearsal process and communicating and taking notes and stuff like that.”
The theater props crew meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on creating the objects and props necessary for the show to run. Sophomore props leader Graham Ross plays an important role in making sure things go accordingly.
“Usually, I’ll grab my team and we will compile a list of things that we need to get done,” Ross said, “and then I’ll send them on their way to individually do their tasks.”
Though this is Ross’s first year as props director, his past experience with the costuming and makeup program has helped him work accordingly.
“I’m a very creative person, so this is definitely an outlet for me to be super creative and enjoy creative freedom,” Ross said, “especially with [Puffs] in particular because [it] relies on so much originality.”
Thanks to the creative nature of the show, Puffs relies heavily on the use of props. The props team worked on capturing the wizard-y magic of Puffs, whether it’s by building wands that somehow manage to light up or by creating a giant snake puppet.
“There’s so many great people in props,” Ross said. “It’s such a great space.”
Junior costume director Charlie Denbar is working hard to capture the story of Junie B. Jones through costuming.
“I always liked costuming,” Denbar said. “I went to renaissance fairs in middle school, and I would make costumes for that, and I just wanted to keep doing that sort of thing.”
Due to focusing mostly on acting instead of costuming, Denbar didn’t work on theatrical costumes until last summer. After getting selected as costume lead for the show they did in Scotland over summer, Dunbar decided he wanted to keep doing it in fall.
“Without the costumes for a show, it’s really just the bare bones.” Denbar says. “It’s just the blocking – which is where you go on the stage – and the acting piece – which is a really big part – but the costumes really bring it all together and make it so that you can believe that you’re in the world that you’re in.”
When working, the costume crew usually meets during official design days with props and hair/makeup.
“You can pretty much equate it to being in the show,” sophomore costume director of Puffs Julia Clebsch said. “You have to go to rehearsals, you have to put in the work to come to design days, make costumes, organize stuff.”
Apart from costumes, the hair and makeup team plays a key role in capturing the essence of the character.
“The hair and makeup team is small because usually what they’re doing is coming up with the designs,” Yanchak said. “So they’ll come up with designs and then… teach the actors [to] do [it] themselves.”
