8A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY MARCH 5, 2009
LIFE BEHIND THE SCENES
Designers fine-tune performance details
BY JENNIFER TORLINE
jtorline@kansan.com
Life behind the scenes of a University Theatre production begins months before the curtain rises on opening night.
The backstage workers for University Theatre's production of the 1960s satirical musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" are no exception, and all too often they go unnoticed.
The costume, scenic and lighting designers, among others, began meeting and planning with show director Mechele Leon last April, months before Friday's opening night performance.
"It's been a great collaborative
process," Leon, assistant professor of theatre and film, said. "I worked with them, and they worked with me to develop the plans."
Here's a look at three students who work behind the scenes for "How to Succeed."
Edited by Andrew Wiebe
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
WHAT: University Theatre performs the satirical musical based on the 1960s
(212) 850-3920 on sunrise
WHERE: Crafton-Pevere Theatre in Murphy Hall
WHEN: The musical opened on Friday and performances continue at 7:30 p.m. today and Friday, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
COSTUME AND MAKEUP DESIGNER
WHERE: Carolina Keyway High School COST: $10 students, $17 KU faculty and staff, $18 adults. Tickets are on sale at all KU ticket offices.
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Caleb Stroman, College Station, Texas graduate student, is the costume and makeup designer of the spring musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Stroman designed many costumes, including this dress that the character Helen wears during a scene where five girls have on the same dress.
Tvler Wauoh/KANSAN
"How to Succeed" takes place in 1961. Stroman said it was difficult finding business attire that fit the time period, though he ultimately based some of his costumes on research and the television show "Mad Men."
Although some of the suits in the play are vintage, other suits and dresses had to be made from
It's the little details that can make Stroman's job challenging.
Caleb Stroman's job as costume and makeup designer began last April, when he received the script for "How to Succeed." Since he finished his 20 costume designs in early December, Stroman, College Station, Texas, graduate student, has been picking out fabrics, working with the University Theatre's costume shop to create the costumes and making sure each actor's and actress' costumes fit just right, even down to the hem length.
"You don't think about those tiny details when you're putting it on paper because everything can work on paper and you have no budget on paper," Stroman said.
scratch or modified from other costumes.
Stroman said he enjoyed designing because he preferred being backstage, and he liked helping the actors and actresses finalize their characters after they put on their costumes.
Dress rehearsals and opening night are the busiest time for Stroman, who must help his crew with wigs and makeup for the actors while answering questions about colors of nail polish, fixing broken belts and making sure the actors' hair has the fight 1960s "swoop."
"They usually have their character fleshed out," Stroman said. "But once they put on that suit, that's when they're like 'Here it is. That's the tiny link that I've been missing."
"I'd never see all the costumes, let alone all onstage with the brilliant lights and the set with all the colors," he said. "It was exciting to see everything together."
Despite the hectic production period, Stroman said he felt rewarded when he saw the finished product at last week's dress rehearsals.
Tyler Waugh/KANSAN
Ann Sitzman, Prairie Village Senior, is the lighting designer for the spring musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." This is the lighting of the song "The Secretary Is Not a Toy."
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Tammy Keiser, Blue Spring, Mo., graduate student, is the scenic designer of the spring musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Keiser said that many of her cutouts were inspired by the TV show "Mad Men."
SCENIC DESIGNER
Ann Sitzman has spent more than three years designing lights for University Theatre, and "How to Succeed" is her fifth production.
Aftertaking with Leon, the director, about her vision for "How to Succeed," Sitzman, Prairie Village senior, began planning based on the costumes and set design.
She spent more than six weeks.
"It's like manipulating the mood in a way you don't normally get to."
than six weeks hanging, focusing and choosing all the colors for the lights.
Sitzman said her primary challenge was working lights into the large set. She wrote the lighting cues for the production based on the script and developed plans for what lights should turn on and in what color.
During the course of the musical, Sitzman has built in 175 lighting cues and sequences, and she said she was pleased with the final product.
ANN SITZMAN
Lighting designer
Sitzman said the hardest part of being
lighting design including placing second at January's Kennedy Center American College Theater regional festival for her lighting design in last season's "The Bald Soprano"
Sitzman has won awards for her
the lighting designer was successfully collaborating with the other designers to unify all aspects of the show.
"It's like manipulating the mood in a way you don't usually get to," Sitzman said. "I'm watching the show and fixing it the way I want in order to make it successful."
Keiser, Blue Spring, Mo., graduate student, wanted the set to have a game-board feel because of the musical's story line. She painted the set in a boxed style of painting, based on Mondrian, an artist who worked close to the musical's time period.
A game board, cookie cutters and the work of artist Piet Mondrian $ ^{a,b} $
Though Keiser did not use the same bright colors that Mondayrian preferred, she said the duller shades of blue, purple and gray that she chose expressed the rigidness of the 1960s business world.
Keiser has received several awards for her costume and scenic designs, and she has been involved in more than 100 shows in community theater programs and at the University.
She said she enjoyed designing for musicals such as "How to Succeed" because they aren't limited by reality.
Flet Monkman an inspired Tammy Keiser's set design for "How to Succeed."
"I wanted the prison look because the people are stuck here," she said. "I painted it flatly because it's a flat, Wonder-Bread world."
"The cubicles were important to keep the idea of the office going while all the other fun stuff was going on in the front of it," Keiser said.
The University Theatre's scene shop built the set in less than three weeks because the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall was being used for other shows.
complete with cubicles.
"Musicals always need to have more flash and pizzazz and color than real life because it's not real so you get to bump it up," Keiser said. "They're fun to do because you have no reality to worry about."
Keiser also included life-size "cookie-cutter" figures of people within the set.
Using steel beams, she designed a two-story high office building,
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