This article was run in the Statesman today.
To see the video montage, or read the story go to http://www.usu-tube.com/pages/full_story/push?article-When+the+Demon+Barber+comes+to+Logan%20&id=4245381-When+the+Demon+Barber+comes+to+Logan&instance=features
When students are sitting in their cushioned theater chair watching the thrilling tale of “Sweeney Todd” unfold on stage before them, they are only seeing a small portion of the effort required to pull off a worth-seeing production.
“What you see (as an audience member) is only about 5 percent of what actually goes into the process,” said Anthony Eversole who plays Sweeney Todd in the USU’s rendition of the play.
The process of bringing “Sweeney Todd” to the Cache Valley community began last year when USU’s theatre arts department began coordinating and planning for the upcoming performance. Once plans were solidified, an announcement was made calling for auditions, which took place in late August, Eversole said.
Auditions
Kevin Doyle, the director of “Sweeney Todd,” said the turn out for auditions was incredible, with roughly 120 people showing up.
“We ended up auditioning for about 16 hours, which is three or four times more than I’ve ever done before, which showed us there was a real interest in the play, especially from the performers’ point of view,” he said.
The audition process consisted of a cold reading of the script and a song, which the individual auditioning could prepare in advance. Due to the demanding level of music required in the play, Doyle said he put a lot of emphasis on singing ability during auditions.
“Every single member of the cast from ensemble to the lead roles ... have to be really exceptional singers. Some people come to auditions and have a pretty voice, but they may not be ready for the complicated needs for a play like this,” he said.
Due to the vast number of people who auditioned, Doyle said he had to hold call backs – where the directors audition a select few individuals one last time. Doyle said call backs are necessary because it is not always easy during the first audition to choose who will fill each role best.
Eversole, who is an experienced singer and no stranger to the stage, said the audition process can be extremely nerve racking.
“For this profession, the audition is your job interview so you have to put your best face forward,” he said.
This year, theatre arts department collaborated closely with the music department, allowing a number of vocal majors the time to participate in “Sweeney Todd.” Eversole is one such student who said the audition process was much more challenging because he is a singer first and an actor second. As well, he is unfamiliar with the theatre department and had no idea what is competition would be.
However, Eversole also said the intense musical nature of “Sweeney Todd” made it much more conducive to the vocal students, and his experience in opera helped with the acting.
After everyone had the opportunity to audition, the directors collaborated and made final decisions on who would play what roles.
Rehearsals
After the audition process, the cast, which now consists of roughly 40 people, went straight into rehearsals.
Due to the intense musical needs of “Sweeney Todd,” the cast focused exclusively on music first, Doyle said.
“We spent about the first week and a half focusing solely on learning the music. This musical, its story and all the words are sung about 85 percent of the time over spoken, and I think it’s usually only about 60 percent of the time (during a musical),” he said.
Eversole said once the cast members had the music under their belts, they moved to basic blocking – a general outline of where everyone will be on stage during the performance.
Eversole said, “As a director, Kevin Doyle is an extremely flexible person to work with. He gives a basic framework of what he wants and allows the actors to make decisions from there.
“This is nice because there are a lot of directors who will say, ‘You’ll be here at this time and make this gesture.’ Kevin gives more framework and lets the actors work according to how they see their character.”
Although knowing where to stand may seem like an easy concept, Eversole said it is incredibly important. Once characters have blocked a scene, they can’t make any drastic changes. If they do, there is the possibility of disrupting the flow of the performance.
At this point in the rehearsal process, the performers are working on a blank stage with no props or set pieces. It was not until a week and a half before opening night that the performers were introduced to the stage the audience will see.
Eversole said although this is not uncommon, it can throw a wrench into a rehearsal process that has so far gone relatively smooth. Things like timing change drastically when all of a sudden there’s a flight of stairs to walk up.
It is for this reason cast members must be solid on their lines and music, he said.
“It’s important to really know you’re music and dialogue like the back of your hand because when you start sticking sets and props in there, you have a whole new set of things to think about, and if I’m trying to remember my lyrics while using a prop, I’m in trouble,” Eversole said.
However, props and large set pieces aren’t the only things that can road block a rehearsal process. Felicia Stehmeier, who plays Ms. Lovett, was unable to attend a weeks worth of rehearsals due to illness only a week and a half from opening night.
“I actually got swine flu,” she said. “I was missing all these rehearsals and there was nothing I could do about it. So for me, that was a challenge.”
Another challenge Stehmeier acknowledged was the amount of time required to be ready for a production like “Sweeney Todd” while trying to juggle a social life and school.
“Being a student and in such a demanding production is tough,” she said. “You have to make sure you have enough time for all of your homework and classes. You also have to give up a lot of social time, but to me, it’s worth it.”
Behind the scenes
Just as a show would be incomplete without great singers and talented performers, a musical cannot go on without the exhausted efforts of costume and makeup designers, stage crew, set builders, orchestra and a number of other critical roles.
One area of a production that thoroughly enhances the show is costume and makeup design, said Jared Rounds, assistant costume designer.
“The costume designer helps tell the story along with everything else,” he said. “A good costume describes who the character is and what they do.”
Rounds said the process of creating multiple costumes for a cast of more than 40 performers begins with extensive research. It is important to create a costume that will relay the appropriate time period, in addition to support the performer’s character, he said.
After research is done, the costume designer will collaborate with the director and finally sketch out what they think the performers should look like. Once a design is chosen, the costume designer and crew will begin building the costumes, which Rounds said takes a lot of man hours.
A role that requires a similar process is makeup design, said Molly Hill, the production’s makeup designer.
Hill said she underwent her own research, which included watching movies, such as Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” and “Gangs of New York,” to get ideas for makeup. It is important, she said, to keep in mind the dark nature of the show.
After the research was done, Hill began practicing on the performers to ensure each character was right on. Once she got the makeup down, she taught the performers how to do their own makeup for production nights.
While costume and makeup design are critical to a production, a large majority of the designers’ role is exerted preproduction. This is not the case with stage crew, said Susan Ballif, assistant stage manager.
It is the stage crew who ensures things run smoothly during the production.
“During a performance there are all sorts of things going on off stage,” she said. “Costume changes – which are crazy because often performers are changing underneath the audience’s seats and the side of the stage – props are going on and off, there’s scenery changes” and much more.
Ballif said she, as the assistant stage manager, is backstage at all times with a headset communicating with the stage manager, who sits in a booth behind the audience. If for some reason things are being held up backstage, Ballif can let the stage manager know, who in turn can hold cues in order to give Ballif the opportunity to fix the backstage problem.
The crew is also busy before and after performances, checking that every prop and stage piece is set for the next show, she said.
Overall, Ballif said working backstage is thrilling and rewarding.
Opening night to striking the set
With every line memorized, every prop placed and every set piece ready to go, “Sweeney Todd” opened Thursday, Oct. 22, to a near packed house.
Stehmeier said opening nights are filled with uncertainty and thus a little nerve racking. Although the cast has worked tirelessly to refine and perfect every movement, she said it’s always hard to tell what the audience’s reaction will be.
However, Stehmeier said she was pleasantly surprised opening night when she stood before an audience clearly enjoying the performance.
“During opening night we got a big standing ovation, which isn’t typical for an opening night,” she said.
And opening night was no fluke. Every performance filled nearly all the seats in the theater, with the exception of two nights, which filled every seat, Stehmeier said.
“Sweeney Todd” ran seven performances and closed Halloween night.
Following the last performance, at 10:30 p.m. on the dot, the cast and anyone available to help began striking the set, dismantling the elaborate moving pieces, hauling props and costumes down to the basement storage and painting the stage. In a matter of two and a half hours, Stehmeier said the stage was cleared. “Sweeney Todd” was over.
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