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Behind the scenes:
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The Boise State University Theatre Arts Department will perform “You Can’t Take it With You” Nov. 15-17. The play opened on the stage in New York in December 1936 and won the Pulitzer Prize for comedy.
The opening performance is the final product, a culmination of the effort gone into the production.
“Beyond the initial planning stage, we have set design, costume design, makeup, lighting, acting and directing, which all must be coordinated to come together for the final production,” Technical Director for the Theatre Arts Department Mike Beltzell said. “It takes a lot of dedicated effort to pull off a successful performance.”
For this production, all elements must come together efficiently. Ann Haste, the director and costume designer, said the play is being rehearsed at the Morrison Center but will be seen at the Special Events Center in the Student Union Building.
“It is a big challenge to rehearse in one place and then move everything to another,” Haste said.
The rehearsals have been going on since October. When the move is made there will only be time for two rehearsals with all the scenery, sound and lighting.
“Everyone has to make adjustments, especially the actors,” Haste said.
Some props are made on campus by the technical crew and some are loaned from the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.
Stage Manager Bill Titus handles all the things pertaining to the stage. He shows up first, unlocks the door and oversees everything until quitting time. He is the last one to leave. He has a family, a profession and is a full-time student. This stage manager must be dedicated to his craft.
Titus said the hardest part of his job is “being mean to all my friends. I have to be an authority figure and they’re my friends here, fellow students. It’s real tough.”
As for understudies (actors who stand by in case an actor needs to be replaced) the department doesn’t use any. Haste said that once, during the summer in Moscow, Idaho, an actor was injured in a bike accident, which left him in a body cast.
“The stage manager filled in for him,” Haste said. “The audience was informed before the play that the stage manager would be doing it with ’script in hand’ and [the audience was] very supportive and enthusiastic about it. They cheered him on.”
According to Haste, improvisation is the one big difference between film and live theatre.
“With film it’s always exactly the same. With live performances, anything can happen.”
Ann Klautsch is Boise State’s dialect consultant. There are two roles in “You Can’t Take It With You” requiring Russian accents.
She also helps actors with voice projection. In dress rehearsals, all of these elements are put to the test.
Daniel Runion runs sound engineering. Prior to rehearsals, he reads the script and decides which background sounds will best fit the play. Runion is also responsible for timing. Some sounds come directly from the stage and others are added by speakers.
Actors have different approaches to memorizing lines. But just how, exactly, does an actor remember complicated dialogue or long strings of words?
Kyle Barrow, an actor in “You Can’t Take It With You,” shed some light on this.
“For me, I call it muscle-memory: I try to connect the dialogue with action … what’s happening on the stage at the moment. I try to think in blocks, and be aware of the other actors and what they are doing. When I don’t, it doesn’t work,” Barrow said.
According to Richard Klautsch, dean of the Theatre Arts Department, there will be a “special Guest Artist in the role of Grandpa: Glen Hughes, who is one of Boise’s most highly regarded actors.”
Tickets for BSU’s production may be obtained at the info desk in the SUB, at any Select-a-Seat outlet, and at the ticket office at the Morrison Center.
Those interested are welcome to visit www.theatre.boisestate.edu or call 426-3957 for more information.
KERMIT HALE AND SAM ROBISON
CULTURE WRITERS
