___ STAGECRAFT*the College Crew al Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Yes, this is the titleof thenewestand most technicallyawesome Douglas College Theatre Department production to date. No, it does not refer to the days the play is showing. I literally had to kidnap two stagecraft students, drag them away from the set, and then bribe them (with special coffee and beer) into taking some time out from their busy schedules to.talk to me. Karla Rothweiler, Head of Props and Amadea Edwards, Stage Manager, were the unlucky victims. They have both been working at Douglas College for somewhere around thirteen hours today. Karla says fifteen; Amadea’s not sure. They are looking at me blearily over their drinks. I ask them what it is exactly that they do and Karla says, “ohmigod, where do I start? The first process is to read the script, and the second process is to read itagain. You go over it, and pick out all the props that are gonna be needed in relation to the lines that are being spoken.” “Basically the way they outline it is that a prop is considered anything an actor touches.” Some props also require “certain placements” that must occur between acts. “That's called pre-set.” ~ As far as Saturday, Sunday, Monday goes Karla said, “The essence of the play is that they actually cook and eat real food.” “So for this show, anyways, there wasa lot of shopping.” Having gone with her more than once, I remember buying everything from frozen dinner buns (theyre cheaper) to giant vats of tomato sauce. Another problem was the meal itself. “Because some of theactors are vegetarians, the ragucouldn’tbemade the way it wassupposed to, with meat. I have to pre-set. The actual ragu that they eat is pre-made and ready for them.” Other props mustbe rented and renovated like the dining room chairs which are seen in Some props are made from scratch here at the college, like the dining room table.” Amadea describes her position as Stage in this way: “I'm involved with everything to do with theshow. Everything from thedesigner’sneeds, the prop needs, thecarpentry needs, the sound, the lighting. I’m the information kinda little outlet for ev rr “It’s incorporating all of those elements and making the play.” The actors are her number one priority. “With this show, it’s a seventeen people cast, it’s huge.” Apparently props aren’t the only intimidating production feature of this technically fomidable play. Sometimes thesetitselfcancreateproblems as is the case here. “Because, it [the set] was so far forward, we couldn’t close a curtain on it” This means thatKarlaand thecrewdotheir job, rearranging furnitureand organizing all the pre-setsin front of a live audience. Sol’m thinking ofall these difficulties, and Thad toask why nee eecomrepey if it was that . -Amadea was quick to people they can get involved in it. “You're trying to involve as many people as possible, plus an interesting script that the public’s going to like. And you have to correspond the two departments: Theatre and Stagecraft.” She said that the main reason was the ey of the script, but also the director considers just what the production will bring to the theatre community. As Amadea said, “how many years ina Would you let these people rearange your furniture? row can you do plays like Guys and Dolls, or [Karla] Fiddler on the Roof or Oklahoma?” “Musicals always make money, no matter where youdothem, becausetheaveragemiddle Joe loves shit like that....like OK, I don’t want to think but like puta lot of visual stuff in front of me and I'll be happy.” She says saree does both. “I mean it's about a family and everybody’s usually a part ofa family. It’saboutcommunication, its about relationships, its about food, its about, home life. And when you think about family if there is any particular culture the Italians rule. The meal is an excuse for these people to all get together and share stuff.” Both women say their timeat the college is very important to their future careers. According to Amadea, “it’s what I want to do for a living so this is like a big test for me, to see if I can manage it. And in school it’s very different than being in the professional world.” “In the professional world if you fuck up you're lost. They kick you out. There’s no second chance, there’s no little pat on the back, ‘well we know your tired but’...[it’s more like] “toobad getanother job... peopledon’thave the patience.” Karla adds that its high stress because of deadlines. You have a day that you open and you have to open on that day. You have to have everything done and ready” Amadea adds, “theres no sorry’s.” They both agree that it’s a “collaborative effort.” In Amadea’s words, “without theactors we would have no jobs, without us the stage would be lost.” There’s somuch animosity betweenactors and Stagecraft, in the professional world, but there doesn’t need to be.” Karla agrees. “The line that separates the technicians and theanimosity thatha; theresometimes, I think is just a lack of understanding. The 5 hoe te So, * a8 4 SIT ITITITLG . mainte nte"e "e's "siete tate le a ss aa* Peers Tae ee hE SESH LES THESE UEP ETE ETH Hea RIFE TORRE EAA RRL IRT LEP ED FS OLN EO SEEN ETT Pirie OOF eN OS SSS ASSSHSUTIITTIT LIT Lila riveree veel eee ee es cUvegesereeveersueverds seaney technicians just don’t really have a clue to the process that the actors have to go through to accomplish their character - that they have to step within themselves and find out how they feel about this character that they’re going to portray, and they have to be that character .” “Most of the technicians don’t see this, so they think that they’re just fucking around doing bonding courses, and vice a versa for the actors. They don’tseeusand what wedo. They just see the finished project.” Amadeaagreed and added thatthe tension is understandableafter “being with these people every day and doing the'same thing over and over,” butshe says the whole process is kind of “like watching this little seed grow.” Amadeaalsostressed the need to beable to take “abuse” and “rejection”, for both actors and stage craft crews. Don’t forget, besides creating productions for the Douglas College Theatre Department, these people are students. They have other classes too. The production itself is one class. “In the real world you can give a hundred percent to whatever show it is that you're working on”, Amadea said. “If | was Stage Managing, and I was notin school, that’s all that would do. But I ‘ve got five other classes.” She also said that because of the emphasis that is put on the productions they end up getting most of their attention, but was quick to say that other instructors do not accept production as an acceptable excuse to skip classes. I then asked her what she gets out of the program. Does she graduate? Amadea says “You get a certificate, and you have a good idea of what it’s about.” “You've tasted lighting , sound , props, painting, a little drafting, then inall reality you should further your education.” “Most people walk out of there with new interests. I never thought of Stage Manager.” Karla agrees sleepily, that she had no idea, previously that this was the kind of work that she wanted to do. “All I knew was that I wanted to go to college and I was gonna take maybe business managementorsomething like that. Sol bought a calendar and looked at the table of contents and picked outall thethings thatI wasinterested in. I saw Sta and as soon as I read it I knew that was what I wanted.” They both had lots of good things to say about the program here. Amadea said “[we have] top of the line lighting, we have this huge stage, we have a house that seats 350 people...great materials, stuff that theatre’s across Canada would kill for.” “But it’s necessary if you want to teach people what all these materials are about and what they're used for - you need them”. “There's placeslike Studio58 that have this great theatre department, -or one of the top acting schools in Canada- Langara, and they have the shitiest facilities, they have terrible equipment. It’s older than my Grandma. Amadea starts almost dreamily “If you had the professionalism of Langara and the facilities of Douglas...” Karla finishes “It would be the best in the world.” Karla and Amadea thank Cheryl Matheson, Sharon Thompson, and ™rew Young.