By Chelsea Schmid
Staff Writer who is Special to LIVE!
November 30, 2007

Think of it as a giant Lego set: Tons of blocks and other pieces that may be arranged in any order to create the desired staging effect. Located in the CARR building, Angelo State University’s Modular Theatre is one of six in the Texas Tech school system capable of fully undergoing such a change. Even the walls are moveable.

“It’s funny because you have to pay attention. One day the door might be right there,” stage manager Kelsey Davis motions to the door at her right. “The next it may be somewhere else. Sometimes freshmen will walk right into the wall,” Davis says.

Having arrived thirty minutes before the final dress rehearsal for Kurt Kleinmann’s murder-mystery, “Cross Stage Right: Die!,” I follow Davis as she weaves her way through the theatre’s greenroom and dressing room to give the actors and make-up artists a “call ‘til house,” or how long they have until they must be ready to go.

Preparation for the production, including set design and construction, modular (or “mod”) shifts, and lighting and sound design varies in length depending on the complexity of the set. For “Cross Stage Right: Die!” the process is particularly arduous—the entire play is conducted in living black and white, or made to look as if viewing a black and white film.

The absence of color makes for many hours of painstaking and tedious labor on behalf of the various crews who have to paint, dye, and cover items in varying shades of black, white, and grey. For this particular show, construction began back in October and ran right up until the lights dimmed and the play began.

Standing backstage with Davis, I eye the prop table curiously. Every item has its place. A white sheet of butcher paper covers the long table, and written in various Sharpie outline widths are the names of props that belong in the respective spaces. A long, skinny scribble simply says “cigar” and has its black spray-painted namesake sitting in the space; there is a circle for the glass of water; a rectangle bearing the title “notepad”; etc.

Approaching Davis with a look of concern, props manager Jennifer Crump holds a set of keys, still tacky from a fresh coat of silver spray paint. She inquires about a blow dryer. The crew’s attention to detail is involved—they wouldn’t miss a thing.

The members of the different crews are dressed in black from head to toe. They busy themselves with last-minute preparations and modifications before the show starts.

“There is a crew for everything,” Davis says. “There are makeup crews, wardrobe and prop crews . . . I have a crew, including my assistant stage manager, a lighting operator, and a sound operator.”

Most of the students working in the theatre are here to satisfy course requirements for shop hours. But students with varying majors express interest in helping the production.

“We try to cast those who need the shop hours first, and if there are spaces left over, we fill them with other volunteers,” Davis says. “We also shuttle back and forth between here and the Angelo Civic Theatre; we have a few actors and actresses in shows over there, and a few stagehands work over there as well.”

Auditions and performances are open to anyone. You need not be a drama major to play a part, or a student to attend the show, and ticket prices vary depending on the type of show hosted. “Cross Stage Right: Die!” is a dine-in production, and patrons with meal tickets are served before the play begins.

Outside now, an actor approaches Davis with a coke bottle and a straw. Davis promptly removes the cap and hands it back to him. He puts the straw in the neck of the bottle and takes a sip.

The make-up artists spend an average of two-and-a-half hours applying layer after layer of white makeup to thespians’ faces, necks, shoulders, and hands. Subtle shades of gray are used for shadowing effect on the cheekbones, darker ones blacken the lips. Performers have to be careful not to smudge or transfer the makeup before and during the show, Davis explains.

Joining us outdoors, production manager and professor Dr. James Worley elaborates on the student make-up artists and set builders’ training.

“We have an excellent makeup designer named Eldra Sanford who experimented with many different kinds of makeup and applications last year,” Worley says. “We used to hire local hairstylists to come and do hair and makeup for exposure, but we had some problems with getting them to show up, so we train the students ourselves now.”

Recalling the time of “outside” help, Worley tells of an actor whose role called for his hair to be gold. Having hired a hairstylist for the play, the crew assumed she had come with an idea of how to turn it just that shade. With no such plan in place, the stylist ended up spray painting the student’s hair gold—a sticky style he wore for the next two weeks until it grew off.

Since this incident, the department has been training the students in all aspects of makeup, wardrobe, and hairstyling. In fact, the students construct almost the entire production in the theatre’s shop, providing them with multidimensional hands-on experience.

“I have a great technical director who builds the set and props I design, or the other way around,” Worley says. We bring in carpenters when necessary.”

While the script itself is an explicit text, the set, props, lighting, and sound direction are all at the discretion of the director and production manager. Light and sound techs select music, focus lights, and choose sound effects at their own preference.

“The lighting and sound are visual jobs; you really have to pay attention,” Davis says. “You have to watch the actors and actresses closely: If they go to turn on or off a radio, you have to be watching and time it with their actions.”

I follow in the dark blue spot of Davis’s flashlight back inside for the call ‘til places. The lights backstage are dim, and most of them shine through colored gels to minimize white light.

One by one the performers file out of the dressing room, walking softly so as to not be heard by the dining patrons. I’m positioned backstage, stage right, with assistant stage manager Joshua Samsel. In the moments before the play begins, the cast lines up in sequence, pace, and make gestures, while silently speaking to themselves. They fidget with props and their costumes.

Cast members enter and exit the stage, and various crew members meet them with wardrobe changes and the next round of props.

Communicating via wired headset, Samsel and Davis quietly relay messages to each other, calling for things like makeup touch-ups or garment modifications; noting when an actor or actress says the wrong line or misses his or her entrance; and reminding the players of mundane details like keeping their hands apart so as to not rub off the makeup.

The smooth flow makes the process seem relatively quick and painless to an outsider’s view. Actually, construction and preparation for a production takes many weeks and long hours.

“[Rehearsal time] varies depending on the complexity of the show,” Worley says. “Normally on a straight-play like this one—that doesn’t have musical numbers or a large degree of difficulty like the Shakesperian language—I schedule about 90 hours of rehearsal. Normally we cram that into a four-and-a-half to six-week period.”

“The work of the crews takes place outside of the normal rehearsal period. It takes about six weeks of work to get the scenery built and the lighting done, and the costumes built and everything,” Worley says. “Late in the rehearsal period, like the last two weeks, all the crew people are there with the cast.”

The drama department at ASU puts on six productions a year, with Dr. James Worley and Dr. Bill Doll alternating as directors. Each year the department submits a production to regionals. This year marked the first that ASU has submitted two plays, one of which is “Cross Stage Right: Die!”

At the time of publication, the department was still pending response on whether the play would advance in regionals. The storyline was “not their cup of tea,” Worley said of the play—however, the uniqueness of the” living black and white” production may have what it takes.

The play is by Kurt Kleinmann and was originally performed in 1986 in New York. Set backstage in a New York playhouse in 1949, the plot unfolds as would-be actor-gone-detective Harry Hunsacker tries to find the murderer among the cast who have been trapped inside the theatre.

For further information regarding the theatre schedule, casting, auditions, or acquiring tickets, please refer to the drama, communication, and journalism tab on angelo.edu.