Dayvion Gregory
Photography
The Mississippi University for Women’s Theatre Department recently partnered with the Golden Triangle Theater to put together a production of the musical “Godspell.”
The musical was performed on Oct. 24-26 at The W Black Box Theatre in Cromwell. The Theatre Department constructed the set for the musical at its Cromwell scene shop.
For this performance, David Carter, the chair of the Theatre Department, and Bronwyn Teague, an assistant professor in the Theatre Department, along with the students in the Theatre Department, constructed a set described as “In The Round.”
“It’s theatre-in-the-round, so the audience sits on all four sides,” Carter said.
The concept of “theater in the round” is simple; it is a stage where, no matter where a person sits in the audience, they can still see the performance from the center of the stage. However, even a stage with a simple layout could pose a challenge for performers and those creating the stage.
“When you’re doing stuff in the round, you have to keep in mind that there is no back wall,” Teague said. “You’ve got to be able to see everything from all directions. So, we don’t really have any flats up, there’s no walls, it’s just platforms.”
Flats are panels used for backdrops and walls during production. That meant that when “Godspell” was performed, the actors were in complete view the whole time while on stage, leaving no room for mistakes. The performers also had to make sure they performed in a way that helped give the production a sense of realism to help the audience feel more connected to the production since they were closer to the stage.
Stagecrafts students DJ McBeath and Alex Palmiter help with set building.
Photo by Emma Caroline Brown.
When setting up productions like “Godspell,” the Theatre Department must keep many things in mind during the construction process. However, it is usually difficult to pinpoint one universally difficult thing about making sets.
“Every set has a different challenge, so it’s hard to say this is the one thing that’s the hardest,” Teague said. When making sets that have different styles, concepts, and layouts, it can never be clear what is universally hard or easy. Some people working on the sets have mentioned small things, such as the integration of math and doing tasks such as drilling 3-inch screws into 2x4s. However, set making has always been different across the board, with a variety of aspects that all need to be factored in.
The cost of the materials, what materials are needed, the time needed to build the sets and how big a set is needed all vary with each production. But that is what must be done to make sets for productions such as “Godspell.”
During the process of making sets, all these aspects of style, concept, cost and materials needed to be addressed in some way when making the sets, including all the smaller challenges that come with it, but those aspects and challenges are partly what make it enjoyable for the Theatre Department.
“I enjoy figuring out the puzzle of it,” Teague said.
Then, when the puzzle is solved and all the aspects of the sets come together, it leads to a set that fits the script and helps elevate the performance from the actors and actresses.
Set creation and design have always been essential in making a good production. However, for students of the Theatre Department, like Dyjanae McBeath, a Theatre Education major, learning how to make sets will be helpful for her future in teaching theatre.
“I feel like if I know the certain traits of how to build sets, I can teach somebody else, and they can go do something that they want to do in life,” McBeath said.
For students and staff, set making, learning how to make sets and being able to have hands-on experience with different tools and methods of set making gave them skills that they can use in different areas in the future.