Playing a role away from the spotlight

Members of stage crew flit from one side of the stage to the other in darkness setting up microphones and plugging in amps, as a spotlight shines on the skit being performed on stage. The skit ends and the performers enter the stage, all of their equipment placed exactly as required.

The stage crew exists to make sure that everything runs smoothly during Spring Sing. With the groups focused on perfecting their performances, it falls to the stage crew to ensure that all the loose ends meet up.

After watching Spring Sing last year, Rachel Lea Fishman applied to stage crew because of the school unity she felt Spring Sing brought to campus.

“(Spring Sing is) one of those things where you get the chills and you really feel part of the school. And at a big university, it’s kind of hard to find that,” said Fishman, a third-year political science and communication studies student.

Delanie Melbon, a second-year psychology student, said her role is to act as a liaison between the performers and the professional lighting and sound crew. The performers tell the stage crew the equipment they will need onstage, and the stage crew relays that information to the professional crews.

Melbon said each act has equipment, such as a specific number of mics or their guitars, that must be on stage in its correct place by the time they step on stage.

Each stage crew member is responsible for a few different performers’ equipment requests. Melbon, who is assigned to Scattertones, HOOLIGAN Theatre Company and Aizehi & the Funkth Dimension, said sometimes the requests can be difficult to approve for safety reasons or because the professional sound crew may not have the type of equipment requested. Scattertones, for example, requested confetti, then glitter, then a fog machine; however, each item was rejected.

“I’ve been the bearer of bad news, unfortunately, for (Scattertones), but it’s all safety hazard stuff,” Melbon said.

The groups’ lighting preferences are solidified during the all-cast rehearsals, which have been taking place in Ackerman Grand Ballroom for the past two months. Yang said some acts have specific lighting cues, but more often they ask for a mood, color or feel.

Melbon said HOOLIGAN gave her a script containing their lighting cues two weeks in advance; however, she said it is up to her to define more precisely the lighting for some acts, since a mood is not always specific enough.

Once all of the lighting and equipment preferences have been approved to the groups’ satisfactions, stage crew makes sure each transition between acts runs smoothly, Yang said.

The stage crew enters, bringing all of the acts’ instruments and equipment as a Company skit is performed. Stage crew members, whose assigned acts are not performing next, help move the equipment onto the stage, which can be difficult with the bands, who have instruments like a harp and drum sets, Fishman said.

The stage crew has either a one-minute or a three-minute transition period to make sure the next act’s equipment is set up, depending on whether a skit or a video is being played.

Because of the seamlessness that is required of the show, with the performers walking on stage with little time for adjustments, the cast and stage crew are having four tech rehearsals and one dress rehearsal to prepare. Melbon said this is unusual for stage productions, which generally have one tech and one dress rehearsal.

Melbon said the stage crew helps everything run smoothly during the chaotic live performance. Having had experience with shows smaller than Spring Sing, Melbon expects the night of to be just as, if not more, hectic than the other shows she has worked on.

“The people in stage crew just love (Spring Sing) for what it is and love the performance of it and love the art of it,” Fishman said. “They just really want to be a part of it.”

Email Nyren at [email protected].