What We ACTually Do Here: A Day in the Life of A.C.T.'s Production Fellow

-
By Lavine Leyu Luo (罗乐瑜)

Ever wonder what goes into the making of a show? What decisions are made before the reviews get rolling? What steps are taken to get the cast onstage, in front of a fully constructed set, wearing well-designed costumes, and accompanied with stunning visual and sound effects, all working together to bring the story to audience hearts?

The Production Department makes that happen; we’re the master cooperator that helps realize all the artists’ visions onstage. Our responsibilities range from small tasks, such as purchasing cough drops for the cast, to really large tasks—ensuring all aspects of production are efficient and safe, keeping everyone onstage and offstage alive and intact. There are so many small but essential details that need to be completed before a show can open. It’s only when the audience doesn’t notice any of these things that we know we’ve done a good job.

A.C.T.'s Production Department in the Strand lobby.
As the A.C.T. Production Fellow, I get to observe and participate in the production process from the first row, front and center. I was there when the Props Department gathered hundreds of empty liquor bottles for Sweat. I was there to test the traveling Grand Canyon walls for the Men on Boats set. I was there when we poured two tons of vermiculite (a mineral that looks like sand) all over the Geary stage for Seascape, and I was also there when we finally raised the raked stage after putting down hundreds of maple panels for The Great Leap.



Those same maple panels swelled up to different shapes and sizes when they traveled from Canada (where our sets are originally constructed) to California, which meant we had to trim each one individually to fit our stage. We couldn’t have anticipated that, but we handled it—just like we did when the projector rigged in the house arrived weighing 300lbs, and when a 20-foot curtain track ended up costing us nearly $1000, and when skipping an automation cue made the stage explode. No matter how much you learn in school, you’ll always encounter new problems on the job, and the learning process will never be easy. All of us in the Production Department have been through a good number of mistakes and failures, but those have become the experiences strengthening our toolkits. For me, that’s what it means to work in production: always learn, always fix your mistakes, and always joke about it afterwards.

Lavine Leyu Luo (罗乐瑜) is the 2018–19 A.C.T. Production Management Fellow. She is a proud alumna of University of Illinois’s stage management program. She has toured the US as an assistant stage manager and an assistant company manager, and she’s toured China as a tour manager of musicals. She is excited to continue her theater adventure in China after this fellowship.

Interested in A.C.T.’s Fellowship Program? Applications for the 2019–20 season have been extended through April 15. Click here to learn more!

Popular posts from this blog

“To Be or Not to Be”: The Iconic Speech’s Origins, Interpretations, and Impact

-
Image
By A.C.T. Publications Staff The opening line of Hamlet ’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is theater’s most iconic, most referenced quote. What’s less known is the famous speech’s history, with Hamlet ’s earliest publications offering varying versions of its language. Also questioned is its meaning—is Hamlet contemplating suicide or is he weighing the consequences of murder? Though definitive answers are unlikely to arise, the questions “To be or not to be” asks have kept audiences, scholars, and actors engaged for centuries. Hamlet ’ s "To be or not to be" speech as it appears in the three original editions of the play. Photo by Georgelazenby. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The first edition, or First Quarto (Q1), of Hamlet was published in 1603. Because the text is much shorter than later editions and its language is less poetic, it is nicknamed the “Bad Quarto” by scholars. “To be or not to be” in Q1 reads as: To be, or not to be—ay, there’s the point. To die,
Read more

The American Sound: The Evolution of Jazz

-
Image
By Cecilia Padilla There is nothing so uniquely American as jazz music. In its simplest form, jazz embodies the essence of the American people: bold and inventive. The improvisation of the jazz ensemble can even be seen as a metaphor for the American democratic ideal: musicians playing solos have the liberty to express themselves as long as they adhere to the overall structure of the tune—individual freedom but with responsibility to the group. The evolution of jazz music also carries with it the social development of our nation from slavery to the swinging songs of World War II. Musically, jazz contributed immensely to the way contemporary musicians approach instrumentation, composition, and vocal arrangements. It is difficult to find a popular tune today that does not derive from such jazz icons as Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Thelonious Monk. Jazz is the great equalizer; for more than a hundred years, it has been the common ground between blacks and whites, me
Read more

Purely Pinteresque: The Elements of Pinter's Language

-
Image
By Taylor Steinbeck Most artists take years to establish their voice and style. This wasn’t the case for playwright Harold Pinter. His first West End play, The Birthday Party, showcases the elements of Pinter’s aesthetic that would later be evident throughout his 29 plays and 23 screenplays: the rhythm of colloquial language punctuated by pauses and silences, mysterious characters who rarely say what they mean, and the unsettling, yet witty juxtaposition of comedy and terror. Suspenseful and comical, familiar and foreign, disturbing and alluring, The Birthday Party is quintessential Pinter. Graphite drawing of Harold Pinter. By A.C.T. Senior Graphic Designer Brad Amorosino. Pinter is a playwright who uses the back-and-forth of everyday conversation to create conflict and shape power dynamics between characters. “My characters tend to use words not to express what they think or feel,” said Pinter in a 1995 speech, “but to disguise what they think or feel, to mask their actual
Read more