The Show Comes Together

My apologies for not keeping up with the Theatre UNI blog. If only there were 25 hours in a day.

Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for the Theatre UNI/UNI School of Music production of The Crucible, an opera based on the play by Arthur Miller. Since I've already sat through four technical rehearsals, I decided to duck out tonight and write instead.

The road to mount this particular show has been complicated. Because Theatre UNI is undertaking a large scale alumni production of Miller's Death of a Salesman this spring in celebration of the 30th anniversary of our home, the Strayer-Wood Theatre, we (referring to the Theatre UNI faculty/staff) decided last spring that it might be in our best interest to put a little more time between the end of the first show of the semester and the opening of Salesman. Therefore, we scheduled The Crucible to open a week earlier in the semester than our usual production calendar would suggest. We decided to open on Thursday, February 14. Valentine's Day does seem like an odd choice of opening dates for The Crucible but considering the production calendar, that was the day.

Several weeks after choosing the show dates for our four main stage productions, building the production calendar, starting a season ticket renewal campaign and advertising in a couple media sources, an overlooked scheduling conflict was brought to our attention and made it necessary to move The Crucible up by another week, opening just three and a half weeks after the start of the second semester, instead of our normal five and a half weeks.

So the production calendar was updated, people who had already purchased tickets were contacted, and we adjusted, holding auditions and beginning the design process last fall while we were also working on Cloud 9 and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The building of scenery and costumes began so soon as Midsummer opened.

After a nice holiday break, we jumped right back into the production and have managed to pull together a truly beautiful production. Winter weather, illnesses among the production team, cast and crew, and the workload of some production personnel have made it difficult at times to see the light at the end of the tunnel but I truly believe that we are there, just in time for opening. Now I hope the weather cooperates.

And speaking of, as I sit in my office typing this, I'm glancing out the window to watch the snow continuing to fall. The forecast calls for up to a foot of snow by noon tomorrow. At least we have an evening off before the opening on Thursday.