The on-stage cast of Running Dog Productions’s “Mamma Mia!” showcased their talent by portraying the fun, upbeat, and recognizable aspects of the show. However, they were not the only students responsible for the success of the musical.
The “Mamma Mia!” technical crew worked non-stop from the beginning of rehearsals in January to the end of strike to make the show run smoothly and take the audience’s breath away. Now that the curtains have closed, it is time to shine a spotlight on all of the workers running Donna’s Taverna.
Building a full-scale Greek-style taverna complete with a life sized pier, turn-table rooms, and a transportable tiki bar is no easy task. However, the Construction Team, led by Eamon Dunne and Christian Mahmud, built the set in under three months. The team was able to take simple lumber and transform it into an entire immersive atmosphere. The set for “Mamma Mia!” was the perfect backdrop for every song and scene that took place in the beautifully built home.
“I’d say my favorite part of the process was our ‘Lego day’ where we got to assemble everything we’d been preparing over the past two months into one massive set,” junior Eamon Dunne said.
The set would be missing its Mediterranean aesthetic without the Set, Painting, and Design Crew (SPAD), led by Lila Lecount, Valentina Smith, and Sophia Lieberman. These students worked tirelessly to make the audience feel as though they had taken a boat to Greece when observing the set. From covering all of the set pieces with spackle to give a stucco effect to decorating the pier with a life preserver that says “Dream Baby Dream” in Greek. Big to small, each detail that the SPAD crew included made a large difference to the stunning set.
“We spent almost every tech day spackling and trying to make that ‘old’ and ‘ancient Greek’ design,” senior Valentina Smith said. “We would freak out sometimes because we knew that the set was going to be huge, and we thought we weren’t going to have time to paint or do any other designs but we nailed it!”
The Run Crew, led by Kyle Beshore and Kylie Jackson, is integral to the transportation of set pieces onto the stage at the proper scene cues. For “Mamma Mia!”, this included moving the transportable tiki bar for the song “Does Your Mother Know?,” setting up 12 chairs for the wedding scene, and picking up fake euros off stage after the song “Money, Money, Money.” Without the Run Crew, the set would be unable to change with the plot of the production.
“[My favorite part of the musical] is working with the different crews and all the actors to make all the different scene changes look good.” senior Kyle Beshore said.
Without the Lighting Crew lead by Julia Quezada and Adyansh Das, the hard work of the Construction Team and the SPAD Crew would not be seen as this crew is in charge of shining light on the set and the actors. This year in particular, the Lighting Crew had the difficult job of lighting a pier that jutted out from the stage. In order to illuminate this set piece, the crew had to hang lights from a lighting tree, which was no easy task and required extensive problem solving from the crew.
“We have to thoroughly plan where lights are hung, what degree of light we’re putting up, and what colors we want those lights based on the set and blocking,” junior Julia Quezada said.
Additionally, this RDP show presented some new challenges for the Sound Crew, such as ensuring that the ensemble would be heard on almost every single song, even though they would be singing from backstage the majority of the time. Crew heads Graham Reynolds and Kennedy Gilbert solved this problem excellently by creating a makeshift room backstage complete with a standing mic, piano, monitor, and speaker. This room allowed the Sound Crew to balance the ensemble’s vocals live while also feeding the orchestra’s music to the ensemble to keep everything in time.
This creative solution is the perfect example of how important the tech crew is to all of the Running Dog Productions’ shows.
“My favorite part of doing sound for this musical was getting to collaborate with a lot of people to build and design the booth,” junior Graham Reynolds said. “I also enjoyed getting to record and make the ocean sounds that helped to create an atmosphere in the auditorium.”
