By BRINTON WILKINS
Brinton@newsroom.byu.edu
Sitting in the Harris Fine Art Center's five theaters and concert halls audience members have the opportunity to see BYU's performing talent.
Students dance, sing and act under the lights. But sitting quietly behind the scenes is a veritable army of designers, technicians and managers who have put in as much, if not more, time and effort than the performers into every production of the Department of Theatre and Media Arts. And they don't get nightly applause.
BYU theatrical productions require months, if not years, of pre-production work, said Bob Nelson, chair of the Department of Theatre and Media Arts. This involves costumes, set construction and budgeting.
'Planning can begin a year or two before opening night,' Nelson said.
Thousands of man-hours go into every production, even if the length of the show's run is only one weekend, Nelson said.
The theater season committee approves shows at least a year before the production begins, he said.
Once a script is approved, the director, dramaturge and designers can begin researching the play extensively, said Bryn Tweedy, 20, a junior from Annapolis, Md., majoring in theater studies.
The dramaturge's responsibility is solely to research historical and thematic aspects of the play, she said.
'And then you have to compile it into something so that the director and the production crew have something to work on,' Tweedy said.
After, and sometimes before, a show has been approved and researched, the play goes into pre-production work.
Budgets for costumes must be approved one-and-a-half years in advance, said Cathie McClellan, manager of the costume studio.
'Budgets for Fall Semester 2000 were due last September,' she said.
Four months before the show opens the costume designs must be approved by the director, said Jennifer Graff, 22, the costume designer for 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' and a senior from Woodbridge, Va., majoring in costume design and makeup.
Actually sewing the costumes takes a staff of five to six people working full-time, six to seven weeks, Graff said.
But costumes are only part of the mix. At the same time that costumes are begining to be designed, a crew of 50 to 60 carpenters, technicians and designers go to work building the set, said BYU's resident technical director, Randy Mugleston.
Four months before a show opens there are seven students who work full-time building the scenery in the shop before it is placed on stage, Mugleston said. Right now this group of students is building a rotating stage for 'Much Ado About Nothing,' which opens March 22.
Putting the built scenery on stage can take four weeks of constant work, he said.
Construction of the set and building the costumes has to be timed just right.
'The set has to be there before the costumes come up -- to see if the costumes snag on anything,' he said.
Even with all of the advance planning they still feel pinched for time, McClellan said.
'Our theater production program is our laboratory for the students,' he said.
This extensive laboratory work is important for the students, he said.
Even with all of the planning and consideration given each production, there are always a few people who are not pleased with BYU's productions, Nelson said.
'We do our work and present it publicly and hope that we will please most and know that we will offend some,' he said.