The lights in the auditorium dim and brighten as the production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” comes to an end on opening night. Cast and crew members exhale a breath of fresh air as they rejoice about making it through their first show. As the actors disband, crew members begin to prepare themselves as they have only completed one of two opening nights.
This year the Spotlight Players decided to have two casts instead of their usual one, doubling the amount of shows scheduled. Although the added cast allows the actors more opportunities to succeed, the additional performances also added extra responsibilities to the crew’s workload.
Creating and designing sets, costumes, and props that are meant to break is a difficult task as is; however, the physical difficulties were not the only challenges the crew had to overcome during this show. The theatre department had to overcome the new challenges of preparing two sets of actors for their individual performances.
For seniors Hailey Bensinger and Alex Buerk, the additional cast caused a few problems regarding costume design, time management and communication. With this being the first two-cast show for all of the crew, new problems arose as the setup of producing the show had to be adjusted.
Bensinger mentioned how sharing one stage with two casts increased her workload as well as created problems with equally distributing the space.
“I think having two casts increased my responsibilities because we had to get the same costumes in two different sizes,” Bensinger said. “It was a lot harder because we wanted each cast to get an equal amount of time on stage … but it’s a lot harder to divide the time up.”
Buerk also noticed certain problems arise regarding the two-cast system, noting that the previous issues the crew faced were only worsened by the new setup.
“It was a little difficult trying to get [the costumes] because a lot of costumes we had to get two off [per person], so we had four of the same dress and four of the same wig,” Buerk said. “And we merged makeup and costumes, and so that’s just like half of people doing twice the work.”
Working with two casts also led to a few communication issues, causing multiple problems throughout rehearsals. Communicating between the directors, crew, and each cast proved to be rather difficult as people were not as easily accessible as they had been previously.
The cast had to break up into groups, with different directors running different cast rehearsals in different areas. The separation between everyone made it very difficult to maintain consistent communication leading to problems going unknowingly unresolved.
“You would tell someone something, and then it wouldn’t get back to the right people. We wouldn’t know until the week before the play, and a lot of things were last minute,” Bensinger said.
When it came to telling people about important information, the distance between the two groups caused a lot of notes to be lost in translation. Buerk mentioned how making sure people received the feedback they needed was especially difficult because of the limited opportunities people had to speak directly with each other.
“Certain people weren’t there sometimes, so it was hard to reach people because they had other things to do, or like, they’re not there that day,” Buerk said.
For Bensinger, the one thing she would want to change about the setup of rehearsal would be the time frame of the show. Working with two different casts was similar to producing two different productions, so having to handle the stress of two shows within the same tech week made her feel uneasy heading into the opening nights.
“Honestly, as much as I hate to say it, I wish tech week was a little longer because there’s so many things we have to do,” Bensinger said. “And even though we’ve been doing this for two months, you still don’t feel ready.”
Preparing one cast for a performance is already difficult, and without knowing what to expect when doubling the amount of productions, adjusting to a brand-new setup caused significant difficulties for the cast and crew. Hopefully with the experience of working with two casts under their belts, the theatre department will be able to plan ahead of time for the difficulties the new setup brings.
After months of hard work, watching their efforts come to fruition is a wonderful experience for The Spotlight Players, and for many this feeling is one of the most rewarding parts of theatre. With this year’s workload being even more intense, the sense of pride the cast and crew feels is also intensified, making all of their strife worth it in the end.
“Getting to see the show and know that it’s great and that you were a part of it [is the most rewarding part],” Buerk said.
