Liberty’s fall play, “Suite Surrender” has led director and theater teacher Melissa Gehrke to become more creative with her cast and crew. The limited number of roles, combined with a technical crew of primarily upperclassmen, has created limitations for the size of the production.
With a lack of room for cast, and a want to be involved however they could, many prospective Drama Club members applied for crew positions.
The number of people who signed up to join the costume crew was “something super crazy. It was somewhere in the 30 to 40 range,” Gehrke said. With this in mind, Gehrke was tasked with the struggle of establishing a select crew.
“Most of our core costume crew are seniors, so I felt like the seniors and upperclassmen deserved to have their roles on the crew,” Gehrke said. But with a crew of mostly seniors, she had to come up with a way for the underclassmen to gain experience and get involved with the theater program.
“I thought we could attempt a mentoring program that would train people to be the leaders and members of the crew when our upperclassmen graduate,” Gehrke said.
This program allows members of the current costume crew to train underclassmen in preparation for future shows. Apprentices are given opportunities to meet on varying days of the week, each “class” they attend teaching differing material.
Whether they want to pursue hair and makeup or costume construction, apprentices can gain the experience they need for the spring show, Oklahoma, as well as future productions.
“The most important people are everyone behind the stage. It’s not just the actors, it is all of the crew,” apprentice Sage Kennedy (11) said. “I’ve wanted to join the theater for a couple years now.”
The apprentices program allows members like Kennedy to ease into their work behind the scenes.
While the apprentices program will help current crew members greatly, Gehrke shared that this structure will be on “an as needed basis.” The unique nature of this show, having a small cast and a crew of upperclassmen has called for a response that reflects it. “Unless we have a huge influx of freshmen [next year], I think it’ll balance itself out,” Gehrke said.
For now, the apprentice program will help to create a successful and experienced crew for future productions, then will be pocketed away until it is needed again.
