You sit in the auditorium unknowing to the chaos behind the curtain. Actors hustle and bustle as technicians mic them up and set the stage. The last layers of lipstick, hairspray, and mic tape go on as actors rush to their positions. The music plays, the curtain comes up, and the show begins without the audience ever seeing the mayhem that took place seconds before. Most people can probably say they’ve seen a play or two, but have you ever been behind the scenes of a production? I recently interviewed Abigail Televitckiy and Yael “El” Motamed, two cast members of the CHS9 Theatre’s Production Still Life With Iris, to get all the behind-the-scenes details of the show.
Still Life With Iris is a family-friendly fantasy written by Steven Dietz. The story follows the protagonist Iris as she tries to regain her recently stolen memory. With such a fantastical show, there is bound to be lots of work put into the development of these magical characters. Abigail and El play Grotto and Leaf Monitor respectively, and I can’t tell which character seems more interesting! Abigail described Grotto as an evil kidnapper and El’s character, the Leaf Monitor, is a character who “yells at children a lot.” With two relatively villainous characters, rehearsal gets pretty creative. When asked, one of Abigail’s favorite things about the rehearsal process is getting to develop and think about her character. Both El and Abigail spent a lot of time in rehearsals coming up with how they wanted to portray their characters on stage. After all, yelling at innocent little kids probably didn’t make anyone want to root for the Leaf Monitor, so El had to explore other techniques to make her character more likable.
Rehearsing for a show is very time-consuming, and any cast would make some great memories together. Aside from the acting itself, I wondered what El and Abigail’s favorite memories were so far. El talked a lot about liking to hang out backstage. The atmosphere is perfect for breaks from hard work, with a little room hidden from sight full of bright daylight from the windows. They both said it’s fun to talk to everyone backstage while other actors are working with the directors. It’s a tight space, so by the end of the show, everyone knows each other pretty well. Abigail even mentioned one thing she loves so much about being in theater is the close bonds she makes with her castmates. They spend a lot of time together, with actors being called into work every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. It’s expected that these actors form close relationships with one another, and will probably be sad when the show is over as they won’t get to see each other as often.
Although putting together this show was an overall pretty positive experience, there were still some negative moments. Rehearsals for a play are always hard work, you’re working for hours with few breaks, re-doing scenes over and over, and constantly having your work critiqued. I wanted to highlight every aspect of the process, so I asked Abigail and El what they didn’t like about rehearsals. One thing that bothered El was having to stay overtime. She did acknowledge that it wasn’t the biggest deal, it was just a cumbersome part of the process. Abigail mentioned how frustrated she got when she received the same critique over and over again, not at her director, but at herself. Actors are normally their own worst critics, so this was a hard thing for Abigail. When they blocked (when directors choreograph the movement of a scene) their set didn’t have the platforms, and they weren’t aware of where they would be. So it was a challenge later to rework their scenes after the platforms got put in. Even though they struggled, Abigail and El seemed to enjoy the experience!
After hours of hard work and dedication, their show was finally able to be seen! Abigail and El performed on March 28th, 29th, and 30th, and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the show!
