The work behind "La Bohème"
"Go!" In response to the shouted command, a row of eight stage hands furiously pull on ropes carefully selected from the jungle of 52 seemingly identical choices. Three stories below, on either side of the massive stage in Indiana University Bloomington's Musical Arts Center, two rows of black curtains known as "legs" simultaneously drop into position.
Although the maneuver is only practice, it is one of the essential backstage preparations being made for the night's performance of the opera La Bohème.
Meanwhile, on the intricate set below, a single French horn echoes through the cavernous auditorium hall as more crew members work. Preparations include sweeping and mopping the stage, making sure marks on curtain ropes are still accurate (ropes can expand or contract based on changes in temperature and humidity), testing lights, setting-up props and generally checking to be certain that everything is exactly as it should be.
Soon, several instruments join the horn from the orchestra pit. All preparations -- from instrumentalists warming up to the set crew doing one last check -- need to be completed before the audience begins seating at 7:30 p.m. The only screen separating the audience from the stage is the scrim, which blocks neither sights nor sounds from the stage.
Although the finishing touches are small, they are the culmination of months of intense labor and long hours for the set crew. Preparations for La Bohème began eight months before in March 2007 when IU carpenters created set pieces based on drawings by C. David Higgins, professor of music at the IU Jacobs School of Music, and master scenic artist and set designer.
The pieces then were given to the IU painting crew, which then delivered the completed set to the stage crew for assembly on the first of October. This allowed a mere four weeks before dress rehearsals to complete the construction of a set so large that only one other theater -- the Metropolitan in New York City -- could stage it.
"It literally took right up to the last possible night to get everything completed," said set crew manager and IU student Amelia Williams. "We put in tons and tons of hours."
For four weeks, the crew worked day-in and day-out. The crew -- numbering in the mid-30's -- worked up to eight hours on weekdays and in six-hour shifts on weekends. The intense schedule allowed for only one day off -- a Saturday in the middle of October. The crew is comprised mostly of students from majors spanning the campus, including business, music, art and the sciences.
Students' work hours varied according to their schedules -- they are students first -- and although each worked consistently, their schedules paled in comparison to that of Alissia Lauer, assistant technical director. "She is honestly the hardest working person I know," said Williams of her boss.
Lauer's schedule is marked by the rotation of 60-, 70-, and 80-hour work weeks, usually in that order. And for some seasons --such as this one -- the time constraints demand that she work back-to-back 80-hour weeks. In addition to long weekends, she works her standard shift Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is then followed by rehearsal from 5:30 to 11 p.m.
"I have a hammock I set up in my office to take a half-hour nap sometimes," said Lauer laughing. "I've even threatened to sleep here before, but it hasn't come to that… yet."
The crew's task is further complicated by other responsibilities.
Students operate pulleys behind the scenes of IU Opera Theater's "La Bohème."
During the La Bohème construction period, the Musical Arts Center also was used for other shows and ceremonies. Throughout October, the crew both assembled and removed sets for the opera Susannah, the ballet Perspectives 1900's and the Indiana Governor's Arts Awards Ceremony. Their responsibilities on performance nights are relaxed compared to the preceding months.
After La Bohème's Marcello and Colline carry Musetta off-stage -- concluding the second act -- the crew upstairs quickly work the ropes to lower the curtains and scrim, blocking the stage from view and muffling the sounds of the crew setting-up for the third act.
With various sets positioned on a huge turn table, the one for the third act is rotated into position, and roughly a dozen crew members clad in black cross the stage ensuring everything is ready for when the curtain rises again. In the stage's soft blue glow the props are positioned, lighting prepared and crew hidden on-stage, ready to turn on humidifiers that produce the chimney's "smoke."
To the casual observer, it seems like an easy job. But in reality countless hours of hard work ensure that tasks on performance night are short and simple. A job well-done is marked by the audience never even realizing the crew is there. Yet they always are, and most students come back year after year to perform the invisible job.
According to Lauer, about five out of 40 students can't handle the work load in addition to their studies during a typical season, despite the long hours, and most return throughout their college careers. Only a few of them are theater students --some have never even set foot on a stage before -- but all take pride in their work.
"I can remember seeing the plans for the La Bohème set last spring, and now here it is," said IU student Justin Searle, one of the set crew employees. "It's rewarding to be able to see the fruits of your labor."
The next night, after the final performance, the crew will begin disassembling the set, remaining long after the audience and cast have left, working until 4 or 5 a.m. The set will be loaded into two trailers sitting at the loading dock behind the MAC for future use.
Three operas down, three to go.
