Musical Took Lots of Work
Behind the Scenes

By Erin Tylski
CyberNews Staff Reporter

3/13/02

This weekend, Drake Theatre presented "Two Gentleman of Verona," a musical based upon a play by William Shakespeare. Before the curtains opened, a lot of work went into making the musical a reality.

The budget for the musical was $6,000. This included everything form the publicity to the scenery and costumes, to the royalties and special effects. Specifically, $2,000 went to costumes and $2,200 went into scenery.

The first aspect of the work for this production was its design element. In the show, the four areas of design are scenic, costume, lighting and sound design. For this show, it was decided that the time placement would be set in the late 1960s.

In a musical, the sound design consists of sound reinforcement so that the actors will sound as natural as possible and may be heard above the orchestra.

John Holeman, the assistant professor of theater arts, did both the sound and the scenic or set design. Sarah Reever (FA4) was the assistant scenic designer. While Holeman was in charge of the main portion of the set, Reever did the paint designs and proscenium. Work on the designs was started four weeks before rehearsal started. It was very important that the set be a reflection of the show. When deciding on a design for the show, Holeman said, "There was really no great menaing for the set. It just needed space to unfold in."

The other main aspect of design for "Two Gentleman of Verona" was the costumes. The costume designer for the musical was Josefa Poppen, the theater costume designer. Darby Harris (FA4) was the assistant costume designer. "Although the idea of putting the show in a different time period was toyed with, we decided on keeping it set in the '60s," Poppen said. Research for the costumes started in mid December, and most of the sources used were relating to 1969 and the "hippie" times. Of note, the decision to cut one of the songs in the musical in light of the Sep 11 tragedy changed the emphasis of some of the characters, making changes in some of the design decisions.

The construction of the costumes was done under Poppen, while John Poperoy, associate professor and chairman of the theater arts department managed the work done on the set. Pomeroy said, "The biggest challenge was putting up a set on pipe and making it safe and structurally sound." But Poppen and Pomeroy used the help of their work-study students, along with the Intro to Theatre, costuming and stagecraft students to aid in the construction. Construction for the musical began the first week in February and finished the week of opening.

Another quite essential part of the musical is the music itself. The musical direction for "Two Gentleman of Verona" was done by Colleen Jennings, a local area high school vocal instructor, and James Geneske (AS3). Research on the music began in November and included research on the authors, the genre of music, the concept, the basic arrangements and the vocal part assignments. Geneske said, "The most important part was creating one safe and aesthetically pleasing vocal sound and style."

Rehearsals for the show began Jan 27. "The rehearsal process is the most essential part of putting a show on," said Jessica Remis (FA3), who played Julia. Rehearsals are the place where the blocking, dialogue, music, costumes and set come together to create the finished product. Charity Fick (FA3), stage manager for the musical, said, "The most difficult part towards the end was that it felt like we had worked so hard, and there were only four productions to show for it."