behind the scenes

The point of going to see a show, is to see the show. But the real show is what you don't see. What you do see is so well engraved into the actors brains that they could do it in their sleep, but they do give the performance 100% anyway. Behind the scenes of any show are stories that could (on some days) easily show up some pretty good comedians. Towards the end of the process of putting on a show, all of the actors are running on low amounts of sleep, so they can be very unpredictable and funny when no one is looking.

Rehearsals are the best and worst times of a play. They go from not knowing anyone to knowing each other like family. From nothing to a full play or musical. The most chaotic processes known to man... not really. They consume one's life anywhere from two weeks to three months. It all depends on the theater company, the scale of the show, and how long until the next show after the one at hand. All of that time is spent memorizing, learning, and even improvising to find the right move, or sound for something. In every show rehearsals also enclose tech week, which is when the directors, actors, and techies all learn all of the light cues. In some theaters that have much more stage to cover, more lights, and less time to rehearse, this week has lived up to a very sinister nickname: hell week. I have been told of a show where it took three days to get through 90 minutes of one show.  Thankfully this doesn't happen much in the Bemidji area, mainly because we don't have as many light riggings that more major theaters have to work with individually.

Backstage is one of the best places to be, especially if you know the show as well as the actors. The funniest thing I can imagine ever happening in theater is someone taking a camera and filming both the show and what happens backstage, then putting both recordings side by side. The resulting film would include many hyper actors trying to pass time until they have to go back onstage. With a strict no talking policy, this is very interesting. It mainly consists of multiple people lip syncing to whatever is going on onstage, and even taking on specific characters to act out the scenes where no one is watching. There is nothing short of entertainment back there.

Not only is backstage one of the funniest places to be, it is also one of the most chaotic. Most theaters have to work around set changes, so they have to keep everything backstage. I still wonder how Walker School kept everything backstage in their performance of Peter Pan. They had seven pretty big set pieces that all had to hide. Most actors also have multiple roles or costumes for their character. So they must rush backstage and change, sometimes including hair and makeup. In my opinion, one of theater's most impressive tricks is not somethings like making people fly, but the art of the quick change. I've heard from a friend of mine that he once had to change while running down one flight of stairs, past the orchestra pit, and back up another flight in about twenty seconds. One of the longest ones I know of takes about one minute, and I know it doesn't sound all that impressive, but believe me it is. The actor had to go through full prosthetics for a character, and she had multiple people around her working on it. I've also seen multiple changes actually done on stage. Those are the ones that impress me the most. These people manage to change hair, costume, in a matter of seconds in front of everyone.

The final part of a show, and one of the saddest, is strike. Strike is the destruction of the set that became a second home to the actors, collection of props and costumes, and final clean up of the theater. Everyone must take part in this, or face the shame of being lazy and leaving the work to others. How long it takes depends on how big the set was, how many pieces there were, how they were attached, and how much the director wants to keep for next year. It usually takes a couple hours to get absolutely everything done, and by the time it's all done, all the actors who stayed for the whole strike go home and collapse. The task is very tiring. Having to have built multiple sets for Walker, I did also have to participate in strike, and I usually found it fun because I got to take down some things that were quite a pain to build. But as an actor, I do find it painful to watch as it goes down. Strike means that the show is over, for real. When people say they are in denial about it, strike is what brings up the realization that it's all over.

Shows are extremely fun to watch, and that's why I love them. But please realize reader, that the performing isn't the hard part. The actors know the show inside and out. They even know many of the songs and scenes that they aren't even in by heart. The hard parts are what the audience never sees. Just because it's hard though, doesn't mean that they aren't also fun. Next time you go see a show, please think about all of the hard work that truly goes into it, and all the fun that the actors are having because of it.

-ls