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Publication:The Signpost; Date:April 22, 2005; Section:Arts & Entertainment;
Stagehands scramble to make shows seamlessBY KELLY BINGHAM The Signpost correspondentThe house lights in the theater begin to dim, the curtain prepares to rise, and the drama begins to unfold -- and that's just backstage. Such is the frantic life of a theater stagehand. Stagehands are the black-clad, headset-wearing crew members who give their performance behind the scenes. Their dance partners: the props they set with speed and precision. Their audience: the actors they support Nikki Pappas, a Weber State University theatre arts student, has worked as a stagehand on productions including last spring's "Company." "We make sure props are in place and that all the actors get their five-minute warnings," Pappas said. "We sweep the actors off the stage before the show, then make sure all the furniture is in the right place." The title "stagehand" is apropos in that they help hold the production together. "The overall performance is just as dependent on the people backstage as it is for the people on stage," Pappas said. "There's definitely a rhythm to it. Everything has to be planned out because if you do things differently every night, then you never know how it's going to turn out." Allison Holtkamp, an actor in her junior year at WSU, agrees. "On a show I did, the stagehands were in charge of handing me a tea set as I went onstage," Holtkamp said. "It was important that the handle be on a certain side, and one night it was on the wrong side. It totally threw me off." A good stagehand crew enhances the overall performance. "They're in charge of being the backup for the actor," Holtkamp said. "Without them, we wouldn't be able to focus on what we're supposed to do onstage." Despite the benefits, stagehands are sometimes not used in student productions. WSU student actor Mitch Fowers describes the experience during last spring's production of "Cabaret." "It was a mess," Fowers said. "The cast had to move everything and do all the work backstage. There was too much to do. It's so hard to think about what you have to do as an actor and then remember, 'Oh yeah, I also have to take that lamp off when I'm done.'" Ibsen Santos, a stage manager on WSU student productions, concurs. "The two sides of the brain, the creative side and formulative side, won't work at the same time," Santos said. "You have to use one on or the other. Because of this, the stage hand is one of the tools the stage manager uses to make sure things run seamlessly." Even with the symbiotic relationship between actors and the crew, egos sometimes get in the way, creating "diva fits" backstage. "There are times when actors will get very disrespectful with the crew," Pappas said. "Some actors see the crew as lower on the food chain. During one production, dancers were in our way all over the place. We're trying to do a billion things, and they weren't being very cooperative. They weren't appreciating that we needed to do our jobs." WSU theatre faculty attempt to cull diva fits before they happen. Theatre students are required to perform different functions in various productions. Whoever is playing the lead role in one production may be working as a hand backstage next time. Stage versions of sibling rivalry aside, Fowers appreciates the contribution of the stage hand. "It's more brainwork to be a stage hand than it takes to be an actor," Fowers said. |