It is often said that one minute on the stage means 10 years of hard work behind the scenes.
While the rest of us are complaining about our typical schedules from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the theater program is working overtime prepping much about everything for the upcoming play, “Much Ado about Nothing.”
“A typical tech week looks like four to five hours at school,” lead actress senior Kathleen Shumate, who plays the witty yet romantically vulnerable Beatrice, said. “There’s a lot of running the show on stage, getting used to props, making sure that the tech and the cast are comfortable on stage and tweaking stuff to make sure everyone’s ready for show week.”
This year’s fall play is a modern twist on Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy, following two sets of lovers as they embark on the stirring yet tortuous path of finding happiness.
Set in the premise of late 1940s New York City, the play takes on themes of feminism and romance and includes a jazzy live band that embodies the city’s contagious, electric excitement and refined taste.
Lead actor junior Matthew Chan, who plays Beatrice’s counterpart, Benedick, described the magical experience of first seeing the play come together.
“For the longest time, it’s just been the actors on a bare stage or in the drama room,” Chan said. “Just being there on stage with the full set and the lights and all the costumes and the sound design and the live band, that was really impressive. It all tied everything together.”
This nouveau Shakespearean adaptation reflects the work of the many Tech Theater students who are essential to the play’s execution. For example, costume and makeup head senior Kaylee Fernandez has fitted over 30 people into their costumes over the past week, while also managing scheduling conflicts and strategically assigning dressing room seats to maximize efficiency.
However, according to Fernandez, all of it was worth it when seeing the costumes made of satin, silk and sequins take the characters off the page and bring them to life on the stage.
“Kathleen’s masquerade dress is a very sleek, A-line dress. It’s off the shoulders and it’s a very almost satin-type fabric, and it is a bright vibrant red, which I personally feel suits the character the best because this is a very spunky, witty woman,” Fernandez said. “That dress has just been the perfect embodiment of what we were trying to achieve for that character. It’s been my favorite ever since.”
Box office manager junior Alec Pham and the collective front-of-house team has been preparing the ticket scanning machines and training ushers to make sure the audience can watch the play smoothly.
“We get [all of the front-of-house] together, we put them in a big room and then we play little icebreaker games so that we’re all comfortable with each other,” Pham said. “We also decorate the front of house area and test all the equipment, like we make sure the ticket printers are working.”
The big, bold and beautiful stage production of “Much Ado About Nothing” ran from Oct. 22-25, a result of the meticulous preparation of the staff and students in the theater program who are devoted to meeting their own highest expectations.
“It’s important that no idea is a bad idea,” said theater director Michele Sheehy. “It goes from my base idea and then they build upon it and then it really becomes theirs.”
To track updates and announcements from the Northwood theater program, follow them on Instagram @nhs.theatrearts.
