Theater crew goes to work on ‘Jekyll & Hyde’
“Jekyll & Hyde” is a bit of a change of pace for Wauwatosa East High Scool’s theater department in a number of ways. First of all, the show’s music is rock-opera based, as opposed to the relatively old-fashioned scores to “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
The show’s music reflects its themes: evil, murder, etc. The Players are also enforcing these ideas in the shows’ set design.
The set “is much more skeletal and suggestive rather than realistic, which is what we’ve aimed for in the past,” Tom Thaney, East’s theater director, said.
Among the technical elements used to pull this off is a scrim, used to cloud the action taking place on stage. This is supported by what Thaney describes as a “see-through front structural portal,” designed by senior Jackson Dejong.
Dejong serves as the construction head this year, his fourth with the theater. As construction head, Dejong is “in charge of what goes on in building the set and get to give various input on what looks good and doesn’t look good,” he said. “I get to learn a whole lot from Bob Wilhelm.”
Wilhelm serves as the theater’s construction superviser/coordinator, and has been doing so for “as long as dirt’s been on the ground.” Wilhelm was on the construction team during the restoration of the theatre lobby when Thaney recruited him.
“He’s a great leader, he knows what he’s doing,” junior Jamie Westfahl said.
“Jekyll & Hyde” provides crew members the opportunities to use special effects that have not been used before. The show will include a lab table for the laboratory.
“There’s going to be a lot going on [on the lab table] so it’s going to be really heavy,” said deck head, sophomore Elisa Shapson. The lab table will create some difficulty for Shapson who is in charge of changing scenes during black outs. “Even between shows there’s always stuff to be doing in the theatre,” Shapson added.
The members of the crew are very devoted to their jobs.
“My job runs pretty much all year long while the theatre is open,” sophomore Jordan Downing said. Downing is in charge of lights for the theater.
“[The crew] actually build the sets themselves, just under my supervision, when they need my help I lend a hand, but otherwise they build it all themselves,” Wilhelm said. “It’s an interesting show because not many people have heard of it before, which is always a great thing.”
“Jekyll & Hyde” opens March 19. Tickets are on sale now.