Production Journal: Week Four - A Quick Look Behind the Scenes

As we're getting ready to head into our fifth week of rehearsals this week, it seemed appropriate to take a look at some of the different aspects that go into creating a production. Acting is just a tiny part of what brings a play to life. Everything that the audience sees on stage, that adds to the story has to be developed to fit and make sense with acting.
Throughout the course of developing the production there are a lot of things that have to be considered and developed along with the acting. Between the sets, costumes, props and lighting, there is enough work to keep our small crew on their toes throughout the whole process.

During the first few weeks, we rarely have many of our final props available to be rehearsed with so we end up making do until we can get all of our props for the show. Right now we're beginning to seriously go hunting for props with all of our cast families hunting around for anything that they might have tucked away in attics or basements.

The scenery at this point in mostly still in the concept faze. We're doing some preliminary sketches and trying to figure out the best combination for our budget and production needs. Once we have those ideas finalized we'll start to get things handed off to the construction team.

Costumes are another big part of the production prep.  With 20 + parts which have to be costumed for, things will be pretty busy right up until the days before the show making sure that everything is properly fitted and looking like it should.