On one cloudy night on Feb. 3, I just got out of afterschool, making things for the upcoming spring play. I came home and I got an email from the Stage Manager that roughly wrote, “You have interest in the crew, you want it?” and I was like, “Yes.”
As a journalist and a part of the play, I’m not going into detail about what is actually happening. You will have to wait until April 24-26 to see the full show, so no SPOILERS!!! However, here is a brief look behind the scenes of “The Little Mermaid.”
Bryan Wilson, the Director of the “Little Mermaid” play said, “And I gave her [the stage manager] a choice, we talked about who we wanted to bring in, we had different crew members applying for positions, we wanted a mix of people who had experience and different skill sets they bring to the table.”
Being in the crew has honestly been amazing and an opportunity to work the fundamentals of the show and see the show in a way no one sees it, literally and figuratively.
Anyway, a day of being a crew is “learning as we go.” New things are being added and taken out, one thing is for certain: timing. It is so crucial. Everything is in a short amount of time to put everything in place for the next scene. It is truly nerve wracking to not miss queues and mess up.
With the crew being small, only 6 people in crew, it gets harder to do the tasks with a ton of cast at the wing, waiting for their scene. Wilson added, “When there is issues that say ‘okay, how do we find more time, or how do we get cast members to help, or how do we figure out a way to make it less complex.’”
Jacqueline Gomez, a junior and the Stage Manager said, “It’s the best thing, because you grow that confidence, so I’m really confident we are going to pull it together.” Gomez also added, “Me and my stage management team, with input from directors, we chose good people who are there for each other, support each other, and really have a passion for crew.”
Crew is really hard, because like the cast, there is so much stuff that is happening that it does get overwhelming at times, but that jumble will make something spectacular.
