Author Spotlight
Michael Yi
As soon as Jonny hurled himself into the nuclear reactor in the winter musical “Zombie Prom,” theatre’s costume crew rushed to quick-change freshman Chase Reeves into a zombie in under four minutes, painting him green and even tying on his boots.
“[Chase] would run off stage, and then we’d get him in his clothes as fast as possible so we could do his face makeup and then put on his wig,” costume crew member Henry Byrd said.
In their black outfits, or “crew blacks,” you might not spot tech crew behind you in the sound booth, beyond the painted backdrops or over your head in the catwalk. Their biggest moment isn’t under the spotlight — it’s in the countless hours of preparational work building, painting and programming the show to life.
“That’s the best part about tech theatre,” lights crew chief senior Adelaide Basta said. “You get to feel like you’re a part of something, and you helped put this show together for people to see.”
Crew is led by seasonal crew chiefs and staffed by crew members and volunteers. Before a big show like the musical, tech crew works tirelessly after school and on Saturdays to develop the technical elements of a production, from metal rafters to the 100 light cues that light up the stage.
“Some schools require the actors to put in 10 hours or something to be in the show,” technical director Tom DeFeo said. “We don’t do anything like that. The theatre department is student-driven and student-owned.”
During a workday, different crews break off to work on projects around the auditorium. Set crew heads into the “shop” to cut wood and build set pieces, and house crew goes into the arts supply room, the “nest,” to craft art pieces for the lobby bulletin boards with colored paper.
At the back of the auditorium are the lights and sound booths, each containing smaller crews of less than five. Sound works on distributing and controlling the mics and mixing sound, while the light crew focuses on programming cues before the performance and setting up the necessary lights.
Basta put in over 100 hours during the winter season programming the cues for “Zombie Prom,” utilizing over 200 lights in the auditorium. During the show, a lights crew member plays the cues in order, ready to improvise if the show is altered.
“It’s very stressful,” Basta said. ”You have to be attentive all the time. But I like that. I don’t get bored, although it gives you a headache because you’re literally focused on something for like, two hours with no break.”
Set crew chief Dashiell Zaman joined theatre at East to act, but applied and became a set crew chief last winter to work on “Zombie Prom” with his friends. Between building Jonny’s revival entrance and lifting up heavy metal scaffolding poles, he’s found a passion for set.
“[My friends] tried for a long time to get me into it,” Zaman said. “I just never really cared before. They finally gave me a big speech about how much fun they had, and all their memories, and I was like, ‘I might as well give it a try.’”
Students are incentivized to work in crew through “thespian points,” which are used to letter and earn scholarships. While most crew members are theatre students, anybody can come to a work day and try out a crew.
“We had a lot of new people try set crew [in the winter], and all of them were so willing to learn something they’ve never done before,” Zaman said. “I don’t think a lot of people would be willing to be bad at something and start out learning something they’ve never done before.”
Junior Kai Campbell has been a set crew chief since his sophomore year. A veteran of countless Saturday group lunch breaks at Raising Cane’s and “secret pals” gift exchanges, Campbell says the best part of crew is the relaxed and welcoming community.
“There is stress, especially during shows, but for most of the season, it’s working and getting stuff done, and then that feeling of accomplishment, like, ‘Oh yeah, we literally just built that,’” Campbell said.
Currently, in the spring season, crews are split working between the smaller spring show and the constant barrage of performances from band, orchestra and theatre that require crew members to set up for sound, house and lights.
During the first spring work day last Tuesday, friendly chatter filled the auditorium as set crew painted purple over “Zombie Prom” flats, lights crew flooded the walls with colorful patterns and sound performed a mic check with lyrics from “In The Heights.”
Lights crew chiefs and sophomores Maddie Torkelson and Dane Schwartz were up in the lights booth preparing to program their first show, “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon,” coming this spring.
“It’s the people that come back [to crew], like, they show up and then they come back — that’s what truly makes theatre what it is at East,” Torkelson said.
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