Behind every musical or play presented by the SJHHS Conservatory is the Theatrical Production class that deals with the technical process of the shows.
Theatrical Production is the highest technical course out of the three levels of Stagecraft that work on the 5 productions performed this year. Before enrolling into this course, students must have completed the one or two years of the beginning level courses, Intro to Stagecraft and Stagecraft.
This advanced class is composed of 25 students who are actually designing the theater productions. They are divided into different design groups, such as props, lighting, set, hair and makeup, costume, publicity, and more.
Each of these crews has one head designer, who had to go through an interview process where they pitch their vision for the upcoming show to the director, Cambria Graff.
To briefly spotlight a few, the set design creates the environment in which each of the actors exist on stage; whether it be building or painting the backdrops, walls, platforms, and structures. These students can gain workshop and construction experience, but also get to utilize their creative and vision for the show when creating the visuals.
“I really loved working on the production, Metamorphoses, we did a few years ago. We built a pool in the black box. It was a big undertaking and I think in general that the show from start to finish was such a huge problem, but it became such a beautiful end result,” said Graff.
Another curative component of the shows is costume design that deals with everything an actor wears. Most of the costumes in the shows are student-made. For example, in Cinderella, the spring musical for 2024, the transformation dress will be handmade by the designers. The theater building even has a costume stock of costumes from the last 20 to 30 years that the costume designers can pull from.
“All the students have their job and their task, and I give them weekly benchmarks to meet but in general, the class is student-run.” said Graff.
Unlike the beginning two courses, Theatrical Production allows students to choose which production team they would like to be a part of. Students are able to hop around between each team, which gives them more experience in different fields of management.
“What’s great is we can honestly say that our stuff is 100% student-built, student-run, and student-designed. So it’s all sort of about guiding them and making sure their ideas have a reason and purpose. and are acceptable for high school” said the Theater Arts Department Director, Cambria Graff.
“With production stage management, you are essentially one level below the director. You are there to make sure that everything that’s happening in the rehearsal room is getting conveyed to exactly how the actors need it…Everything has to be cued by a stage manager.” said Owen Pasternak, who holds the leadership position of Production Stage Manager for the upcoming fall play, Clue.
Theatrical Production takes a lot of time and dedication out of the students, because as the head designers, most of these students stay after school to manage and work on the musicals and plays. It’s an all-hands on deck class, where everyone comes together to make these shows come to life.
