Tech creates magical land for ‘Seussical’

By Shelby Townsend Staff Writer

When people think of musicals, what’s on stage comes to mind. But what most forget about is a critical part of making a production successful: Tech. When Seussical the Musical was performed, those watching were transported to lands imagined by Dr. Seuss and built by students.

“I think they would find it interesting just how much goes into it [Seussical] on the tech side to support the acting side,” tech director Courtney Neuwirth said. For this show, there was not one, but three stage managers. Junior Mark Johanson was head stage manager, with assistants freshman Maebeth Potter and sophomore Elizabeth Luck. The stage managers were in charge of calling cues for sound, lights, set and more. They also had a new challenge that came with this massive production – microphones.

“Almost every single rehearsal we had something go wrong with our mics,” Johanson said. “We had to make adjustments and try to figure it out, while I’m trying to do all of my other stuff in the middle of rehearsal.”

Of course, you can’t expect a show without costumes. This show called for out-of-the-box thinking, with the requirement of costumes that represent things from different worlds, which ranges from bird girls to Whos from Whoville.

Senior Cece Gonzalez, the head of costumes and makeup, came up with many unique pieces, including a special tail that grows for Gertrude McFuzz, who was played by junior Taylor Mattingly.

“You have to figure out an onstage transformation and also how to make her tail super long later,” said Gonzalez. “I ended up using boas and it had a pretty interesting look.”

One of the biggest parts of a show (literally), is the set. For Seussical, the set was a combination of two worlds – the Planet of Who and the Jungle of Nool. The way the characters traveled back and forth between worlds required the use of a rotating set. The set had many moving parts, including windows, bath tubs and even a field of clovers.

“Figuring out how to put a set in different spaces is one of the more challenging creative parts,” Neuwirth said, “Because you want to make sure you’re showing the right place but to have it function in the space as well.”