The advanced directing class for Los Medanos Dramatic Arts is putting on a play as the culmination of their studies over the semester. The show is completely student-written and will be prepped and performed completely by LMC students.
Every single detail that makes it to the stage has many hands on it throughout the process, whether it be the costumes, the sound design, or even the stage itself. Many different departments and teams must find a way to achieve the vision of the play.
The director of the play, Nick Garcia, gave the students much room for creativity within their roles. Compared to the other recent productions the school has put on, this is very new for many of the production team.
“It can be a little overwhelming at times,” said Bradley Cooper, a member of the props department. “It also has its benefits of being able to put as much creative drive or vision for what you want into it as you can.”
The production will be a trial of the experience and mastery of all areas of the theater. The show began production this month and will be performed by the end of the semester.
All told, the total time to prepare for opening night will be around three weeks.
Much of the work to be done first is planning.
“A lot of it is sitting around and drawing sketches,” said Silver Conner, a set crew member. “Trying to figure out what we’re doing, where, what we need.”
“We had to find a way to build the whole set around a certain effect we wanted,” said Conner. “So it was a lot of drafting out where we wanted things to be on stage.”
Once things get off the planning board and are being made, the show can start to come together.
“The majority of everything needs to be done long before opening night,” said Nicole Dorr, costume designer for the theater. “We wanna try to run it in rehearsal as close to what the show will look like opening night.”
All the while, small changes or additions are being made by everyone involved, said Jonathan Ramos, a member of the prop crew for the show.
“This is the hardest part, the beginning. We have agreements and disagreements; this is the process of talking amongst ourselves,” said Ramos. “How can we use this prop? What would really make it pop out? Ooh, I really like when this person does this or that.”
“This is where it becomes more of a family than anything,” he said. “Because of how much we see each other, how much we are trying to put these ideas together.”
For this show, the set is going to be particularly spectacular.
“It’s a bit wider in scope than normal,” said Hannah Dorr, Set Designer for the production. “But we can do this. We’ve done things like this before.”
Even after the chaos of getting the show ready to run, opening night comes with its own set of hands to make sure the show goes off without a hitch.
The person running the show on performance day is Zoe Lewis, LMC’s stage manager.
A stage manager’s job during production includes managing rehearsals when the director is absent. But during the shows, the stage manager is the one in charge, said Lewis.
“They don’t do anything until I say go,” they said. “When it comes time, it is my show.”
For the upcoming student production, Lewis also wrote a portion of the script.
“I’ve never written anything before,” Lewis added. “Seeing what we wrote actually happen, I think, is really cool. It’s a high stress process but it’s still exciting to see something we created come to life.”
