Editor’s note: We were misinformed of the date that part of the “Rent” crew traveled to New York. The correct dates of the trip are Sept. 30 – Oct. 4.
The rattling of a chain can barely be heard over conversations filling a crowded black room. The sound of mixed voices blended with the steady stream of spray paint and creaking of a trampled wooded platform allow the chain to go unnoticed. Everyone in the room is busy moving furniture, hoisting screens, painting graffiti on the black walls and focusing spot lights to notice the dangling chain.
It isn’t until the chain starts to slide off the beam, clanking every inch along the way, that Ivy Thomas, senior theatre major, notices the danger it poses. Within seconds her overpowering squeal silences the room and the only sound heard is the chain hitting the ground, forming a pile of rusted metal. Silence follows and slowly the tension starts to ease.
“Is everyone alright?” Michael Frohbieter, associate tech director, is the first to break the silence. Murmurs of “yes” answer his question.
He stands, feet spread shoulder length apart, gripping two ropes with both hands close to his chest. Above him sways the screen he has been helping raise since he walked into the black room. Three others help guide it to the correct position.
“Good, is the set okay?” Frohbieter asks and is greeted with the same positive answers. Like magic the room is filled with conversations, sounds of conversation moving furniture, spray paint and the creaking of wood.
For the past two weeks dozens of students have made their way into the little black room and lent their hands, feet and hearts to USI’s theatre program. Final preparations for the musical “Rent” have kept theater students busy with set building, light, sound and video set up, painting and costume making. How do they measure there time spent on the iconic musical?
Set building
Frohbieter measures his time in welding and construction.
A majority of the set is made of steel. Steel columns hold up platforms for the actors to parade on, a steel fire escape sits on the corner of the stage and steel bridges connect the three platforms to the fire escape, all of which had to be pulled from past shows or built at the scene shop.
“We pulled some of the set from two different shows that the New Harmony Theater put on,” Frohbieter said. “I helped the New Harmony show put it together so this is my second time installing the pieces into a show.”
The pulled pieces were still not enough for “Rent” though. Frohbieter along with an army of students, including squealer Ivy Thomas, welded together five eight-foot beams and one six-foot beam. The students then move the pieces to the theater and construct them.
“Welding the pieces was hot, and sometimes a pain in the ass,” Thomas said. “Sometimes the shapes were too big for the stuff we were building, but everyone was willing to lend a hand. We’re all helping each other out with everything.”
Working eight-hour days, it took a week and a half to finish the six pieces they had to weld. One column takes around 20 hours to complete, Thomas said.
After the welders are done with their work, the painters get their hands on the set pieces.
Melis Gucer, an international student from Turkey, measures her time in brown paint.
For the past six weeks, Gucer has been painting the set brown. Her shoes and baggy clothes are splattered in brown paint, her hands are coated in the color, and she lets it be heard that she does not want to paint anything brown ever again.
“Brown, brown, brown, there are so many things that I have to paint brown,” Gucer said. “I told the director that I can now put professional brown painter on my resume.”
Her break from brown finally arrived in the last week when she started spray painting graffiti on brown stools and chairs.
She stands close to one of the chairs spray painting a blood red heart on the back of a dinner table chair. She goes over the heart again and the paint starts to dribble a little bit down the chair. A passerby tells her that it’s a really pretty heart.
“That’s the first time anyone has complimented on my work I’ve done for ‘Rent,’” she said. “I’m so happy to be away from the color brown.”
Costumes and Make-up
Whitney Claytor measures her time in sewing, thread, muslin and body measurements.
Claytor, junior theatre major, is one of many students who work on putting together and making costumes for the actors. She works at a steady pace checking off costumes and writing them down on an already full sheet of paper. She listens to “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” soundtrack. Humming along as she pulls costumes off the rack, checks them and puts them in the exact spot. She is taking inventory on the work already done.
Like the set many of the costumes are pulled from past productions and altered. A few costumes however, had to be made from scratch.
“We mostly do alterations like sewing a shirt to a jacket to make a coat dress, or hemming things up to make them shorter or jagged,” Claytor said. “Angel’s Santa dress however had to be made from scratch, and that is a long process.”
To build the costume from scratch, they had to start with finding a pattern they want to use. Then they make alterations to the pattern to fit their style and vision. Then they construct the entire garment in muslin and use that to fit it to the actor, then remake the outfit with the actual fabric and add the details.
“We’re ultimately making the outfit twice,” Claytor said.
To add to the work load “Rent” has a costume list that nearly doubles the average USI play. Each main character has about 16 pieces of wardrobe, where the average play would have six pieces. And with 14 characters, that’s a lot of alterations. Their work is not done when the garments are finished though. They still have to transport the costumes to the theater then make the trip after each performance to do laundry.
“We spend about an extra two hours every night doing laundry,” Claytor said.
Becky Fortner, senior theater major, measures her time in measurements, airbrushes and stencils. Fortner puts in about 14 hours a week at the costume shop.
“There’s always work to be done but we always have a good time in here,” Fortner said. “When we get into crunch time everyone gets stressed, and no one talks but it’s never a negative work space.”
Fortner is also the only make-up artist for the show. She does all of the special effects make-up throughout the play. She makes the stencils for tattoos and wounds, airbrushes them and makes sure they look good on the actor.
“I made a tribal tattoo for one of the actors but it came out looking like a 69, so I had to edit it to make it look less sexual,” Fortner said. “It’s a lot of trial and error because it’s my first time using an airbrush.”
Lights and Video
Jennifer McDaniel measures her time in lights, pictures, videos and programming.
McDaniel is the center of attention. She stands, arms spread, in the middle of the spotlight in a pitch black room. She yells commands to tone down the light, move it left or move it right to the man controlling the spotlight. Together they are trying to focus the light and find the perfect position for it to be in.
The assisting lighting designer has a crew of 10-12 students that have helped hang, position and focus the lights for “Rent.”
“It’s a lot of work to get everything set up, and then make sure it works,” McDaniel said. “When we try to do turn them on about half of them usually work then we have to start troubleshooting.”
McDaniel is also in charge of bringing something new to USI theater, video. For the first time ever a production will have a video running throughout the entire play.
“There are parts in the musical where the video will draw the attention of the audience, and other parts where the actors will have a video camera and live stream to the projectors,” McDaniel said.
She had to teach herself to use the video program Isadora and find different subjects to put in the video. She fooled around with textures, pictures and video that students took while in New York at the beginning of Oct.
“I think the video will be a success,” McDaniel said. “If it’s not then we will learn to grow and how to use it in the future.”
