news from behind the curtain of The Dining Room

here is a post from some of the stage hands for the new play that opens this weekend !

The doors just opened. We’re all waiting for the audience to arrive. Since we (Sarah and Lindsey) are backstage, all we can see is black fabric, but the stage is ready to go and it looks amazing! While sitting here, all we can hear is the song “Come dance with me” over the speakers, setting the scene for the play. Everyone is getting into their character, to the sound of the chatter of the audience as they get settled. Why is it that uncontrollable laughter always hits us at the most inopportune moments?! We valiantly try to stifle our giggles and wheezes in order to keep a peaceful vibe for the actors.

Our mission (in charge of props) is to make sure that each character has the right things for all of the 18 scenes. This play is more complicated than most because there are only 7 actors playing 57 parts. Each actor has 7 or 8 characters, and they have to transition basically every scene between characters. Since there are very few costume changes, there are a lot of props instead.

Tonight is the first performance of the show (whoops, someone in the audience forgot to silence their phone ) for a closed audience. Tomorrow night, we present it to the media, and then Friday night is OPENING NIGHT. It’s our job as the backstage crew to make it as easy and smooth for the actors as possible. Both of us have our specific jobs, giving different props to the actors, with a chart in case we forget. Since this is the modern-day theater, of course the chart is on a mac instead of paper.  In all there are about 300 props in this play, everything imaginable in a dining room from soup tureens and silver sets to typewriters and camera tripods.

We can’t see what’s happening on the stage, but it’s really fun even hearing the different things they are trying out on the stage. After hearing it so many times, it’s noticeable when the actors do different inflections or try a slightly different attitude for their character.

Definitely the most interesting scene to “listen” to is scene 8, also known as Winkie’s Birthday Party. Anyway, scene 8 is where 4 of the actors have to be little kids, it is hilarious to see them do things that kids really do. We never realized how funny those mannerisms really are, until we saw them on adults! More updates on different scenes, and the action behind the curtain to come tomorrow!