Stage Crew Preps for ‘Three Musketeers’

Theatre is back this year, and the cast and crew are working on their first show of the year, “The Three Musketeers.”
“The Three Musketeers” is a tale that takes place mostly in France in the 1600s and is  full of adventure, comedy, romance and sword fighting.
Eric Paules is the technical director for stage crew this year and has been for several years.
“It’s a piece of classic literature adapted to the stage,” said Paules. “It’s a fun show- there’s sword fighting! It’s also a comedy. There’s action, there’s bottles being smashed over some of the actors heads, there’s a bit of swashbuckling sword play, and there’s a little bit of romance that’s COVID safe, of course. It’s gonna be a fun show!”

The theatre department held a stage crew orientation meeting last Sunday, Sept. 12.
The weekend meeting discussed what being a part of stage crew and costume crew entails.
Paules talked about topics suc

h as the dangers that come with being a part of stage crew, the set build schedule, dry and wet tech week, COVID-19 precautions, safety measures, the set design for the fall play and much more.
“We really have these meetings so that kids who are thinking about [joining stage crew] but don’t know exactly what it is can find out what it is about,” said Paules. “We spend a lot of time explaining what exactly theatre is, answering questions such as what is running crew and what is a lighting designer? What are props?”
Paules also explained how different crew is and how not many people really know what they are walking into at first.
“I think the reason I do that is because it’s a whole lot of unknown,” said Paules. “If you go out to the basketball team, you pretty much know what you’re going to be asked to do- you dribble the ball.”

The point of the meeting was to introduce new crew members to the basics of tech crew so that it will be a little less overwhelming on their first day of working with the stage crew.
Another part of this meeting was a tour of the stage and booth.
Students who attended got to see the backstage and the lightning booth to get an idea of what to expect.
Those who missed the meeting can still get involved by contacting either junior stage manager Lauren Paules or adviser Eric Paules.
L. Paules is very excited to get the crew up and running again this year.
Last year, the crew worked through the challenges of COVID-19, but this year the crew plans to start moving back to “normal.”
“I think last year was really hard because it wasn’t as social,” said L. Paules. “We had to stay away from others, and we had to work on our own individual projects. This year we get to work together again and have fun activities!”
The returning crew is excited to just get back to work and have fun with one another while preparing the shows.
Another returning member of the crew is junior Ali Insley.
Insley is this year’s props master which means that she gets to create and work with the props for the show.
Insley explained how exciting it is to be back and working with everyone again in a more normal environment.
“I’m most excited to be back with the entire crew, going full force,” said Insley. “Being able to put on shows and have a full audience again is really exciting.”
The crew is still openly looking for new members to work on the show this year.
No prior experience is needed to be a crew member, and there is also a vast variety of specific areas of crew to work in.
Some of these specific areas include set construction, lighting, sound, costume crew, props and running crew, meaning that there is a place for everyone.

For students who missed the meeting and still wish to get involved in stage crew this year,  it is not too late to join.