THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1980
Page 3
Theater crew work brings little limelight
‘Team effort’important behind the scenes of dinner theater production
election,
maldRti
— a Bui
e -Ci
by STACY ALEXANDER
Like a scene from Snow White, the “whistle while you
rork” atmosphere pervades the Rudder Center scene
shop where the stage crew is busily at work building the
sets for a coming production.
The banging of hammers on nails, the grinding of saws
>n wood, and the mingled scents of sawdust, glue and
ivet paint create an aura of hard, but creative toil in the
arge, garage-like room.
The crew of a theater production is its carpenters and
ists—its magicians. They build the sets, arrange and
jroduce the lighting and sound for a performance and
reate mystery and surprise with special effects.
The work of the crew is what makes an audience
believe,” and yet the crew members seldom get any
eal credit.
Leslie Rhorer, a junior physics major on the crew and
the cast of the coming dinner theater production of
You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Run-
reeledi ling,” said most members of a production at Texas A&M
he Presij University are not theater arts majors.
“There’s no prejudice on cast or crew between those
1 to fell dio do have majors in drama and those who do not,”
Ihorer said. “Both have the same chance at getting a
art or working on crew. ”
Bob Wenck, director of the production scheduled to
ranThursday-Saturday, said the set crew for one play in
J968 consisted of all business administration majors,
itmeni; f^gy built the revolving stage which has been used
ieveral times by the department and was recently re-
juiltto be used in “You Know ...,” he said.
Ginger Lewis, who recently changed majors from
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beater arts majors involved in the coming production,
ihe is on the crew, working as a paid student assistant,
)ut not in the cast.
111 She calls her vocation “art for money,” but actually,
orennaii s R e R as serious ambitions to do technical
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Lewis, who got her start in theater crew work last
spring in “Guys and Dolls” and “When Are You Coming
Back, Red Ryder?” said, like most crew members, she
had little formal training in crew work, but she likes to
be creative. Lewis and Rhorer agree that “anyone on
crew can be expected to do anything.”
The crew members said a variety of things motivate
them. Many crew members say the job is “expected” of
them.
“If you don’t make a role, you’re sort of expected to
help with the production,” Rhorer said, “and like me,
In one play, a phone failed to
ring and a quick-thinking actor
pretended to call his answering
service instead.
even if you get apart, crew work is still expected of you. ”
In the dinner theater production, the crew consists of
the 12 actors and about six extra helpers, Wenck said.
Another incentive for helping out only with the set,
sound or lighting is the time involved. It takes more
time to be a member of the cast than to help out on crew.
Actors rehearse scenes four to five hours each day and
must memorize lines and work on characterization.
Director Wenck said members of the crew can come
in any time they are free and work for a couple of hours.
There is always a crew head, another crew member or
the directors to explain what to do if someone is unfamil
iar with the job to be done.
Rhorer, who acted in high school, said he has headed
set crews, sound crews, and was in charge of special
effects for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” last fall.
“It’s fun and a chance to be a part of a play,” he said.
When asked about the lack of “glory” in crew work,
by SCOT K. MEYER
Battalion Staff
If you are a male between the ages
18 and 20, you probably already
know that Uncle Sam wants you.
What you probably didn’t know is
that, a couple of weeks ago, NBC’s
Today Show was also looking for 18 to
20 year-olds.
But there were no posters with a
g p'im looking Fred Silverman point-
Vfl ng and saying “I want you,” nor
*■■*■** ivere there slogans like “Join the few,
the proud, the peacocks!” There was
lot even a need to register at the
local post office.
(in hiBC did all of its recruiting over
r,., ^phone, in one morning. But they
ere only looking for two people.
The Today Show decided to stage
in est® i debate about the proposed reg
istration of 18- to 20-year-olds, using
two college students of the affected
villbeinl 8 rou P to §i ve one-minute pro
and con arguments.
Texas A&M came within five mi-
autes of being represented on the
show, Dr. Carolyn Adair, director of
ss devell student activities, said.
The University News Service had
llion ini' been contacted by NBC, and it cal-
ed Adair and asked her if she knew
larter S ®yone who could do the segment.
Adair called Alan York, a junior
i tooa oai biology major, and asked if he was
pr i m U interested in giving the pro argu
ment on the show. He would have
bad to be ready to leave in two hours.
He told her he could do it.
I was sitting here waiting for the
, with my suitcase out and ready
to be packed,” York said.
Although York had been found
and had agreed to do the segment
within five minutes, a Princeton
University student agreed to do the
I spot before UNS could get back to
the Today show people.
When asked whether not getting
to go was a let-down, York said: “kind
of — I wouldn’t have had to go to my
Poly Sci class the next day.”
York said the question to be de
bated was: “If you were called to
serve your country during a time of
war, would you go?”
York would go, “because I have
grown up in America and I believe in
American values. I would be willing
to fight for them,” he said.
“I worked in a vet hospital over the
summer, and the experience just
reinforced my beliefs,” York said. “I
would be willing to fight to see that
the next generation will have the
same oportunities, or better, that I
did.”
York said he was not in the Corps,
and he does not intend to enlist in
the military. York said he does not
believe in a peacetime draft, but he
supports draft registration.
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most crew members said they felt it was not that impor
tant to them.
Crew work, the members stress, is teamwork, and, as
in many team sports, it is the entire team effort that
creates recognition.
Most of the time, an audience will not notice the
technical part of a play unless something goes wrong.
Sometimes, actors have to cover up for technical mis
takes.
Rhorer told of an incident when, in one play, a phone
failed to ring and a quick-thinking actor pretended to
call his answering service instead. He also invented
several minutes of monologue to cover up the error.
Even with the pressures, hard work and mistakes,
technical work, like many creative jobs, “creeps into the
blood.”
Director Wenck and R. O’Valle, technical director for
“You Know ... , ” said that theater work, no matter what
it is, becomes addictive.
“We put on a play about every six weeks — whenever
we need a fix,” they said, laughing.
For crew members at Texas A&M, all the world is,
indeed, a stage. But its members are not only players —
some of them are crew members.
When Is Your Selling
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WHEN OVER 30,000 PEOPLE
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THE BATTALION
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