There is more to a theater production than the memorized lines and choreographed scenes.
It takes a team of people behind the scenes to put together a production. Designers, stage managers and assistants all play key roles in putting a production together.
Shane Wellner | Rawr
Samantha Opdahl is a costume designer at the University of Idaho. Opdahl designed the costumes for “A Bright New Boise,” a play by Moscow-raised playwright Samuel Hunter.
She said it’s important to have different people specializing on certain aspects of the show so more attention can be spent on each project.
“There are directors that can do it all,” Opdahl said. “But sometimes it’s good to have someone to give full attention to the task and execute it as best as it can be.”
Since the production is a modern show, Opdahl said she purchased most of the costume pieces from Old Navy, Ross and Goodwill and altered the articles as needed.
She said her favorite article of clothing was a particular shirt, worn by Leroy in the show. Leroy is an edgy artist who makes controversial art and sometimes wears obscene shirts to shock people.
Opdahl and Jonathan Rau, the cast member that plays Leroy, got creative while making and designing the provocative shirt.
“The shirt says, ‘You will eat your children,'” Opdahl said. “There are baby faces on the back of the shirt.”
The clothing Leroy wears in the show portray his artistic rebellious nature — a key part of the show. Opdahl said she and her assistant, UI student Anita Packwood, spent a lot of time developing costumes to portray how the characters are supposed to be.
Jared Klingele, from UI, is the scenic designer for “A Bright New Boise.” He said one of the most challenging projects for the set was making the walls. They are a brick texture that gradually fades to black so the walls appear to merge into the black background.
Klingele said scenic design is important because it creates the world the actors live in.
“Without the scenic designers, we’d have actors in beautiful costumes in beautiful lights but everything else would be left to the imagination of the audience,” Klingele said. “It helps to have physical objects.”
He said designing a set is rewarding because so much time is spent watching it slowly come together.
“Seeing the finished product is amazing,” Klingele said. “During the design process, you can’t wait to see what it will look like full to scale.”
Klingele said it’s good to have different people all doing specific tasks because projects become more interesting with multiple views. With more people designing different aspects of the show, the process is more in-depth.
“You get more views this way,” he said. “There are more people to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of.”
More information:
“A Bright New Boise”
Hartung Theater
Oct. 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 11, 12, 19 at 2 p.m.
$15 General Admission
Alexia Neal can be reached at [email protected]