6
Echo Friday, April 28, 2017
Accents present challenges Actors learn British dialect for spring play Abby Intveld slpecho.com
A
“
IN-DEPTH
s senior Manegbe Eben practices complicated tongue twisters, she said she feels self-conscious of her newly learned British accent. “I’ve been making a fool of myself and just talking in the accent all the time. Basically I’m engaging myself in the accent as much as I can,” Eben said. According to theater director Jodi Hatzenbeller, this year’s spring play is “Sense and Sensibility,” “Sense and Sen- which is an adaptation of Jane sibility” Austen’s novel showtimes of the same name. Where: High School Since the Auditorium play takes place in late 18th cenWhen: 7 p.m. April 28- tury England, 29 and 2 p.m. April 30 Hatzenbeller said a learned Cost: $7 for students and polished and seniors and $10 British accent is for adults. required from all student actors. Infographic Dani Orloff Hatzenbeller Source Jodi said she has Hatzenbeller chosen productions in the past
that require accents, such as last year’s spring play, “12 Angry Jurors.” “Throughout the years we have sprinkled accents in where individuals have them. But since everybody is doing the same accent this year, we’re going to really have to focus on fine tuning and making it dead accurate,” Hatzenbeller said. According to Hatzenbeller, actors were given a set of seven educational tapes they were required to listen to in order to help them learn and improve their accent. “I gave them a series of lessons that explain specific nuances of the British accent, like dropping the ‘r’s’ and where to focus the sound in their mouth,” Hatzenbeller said. Eben said she learned about the differences between British and American accents through listening and working through the lessons. “Unlike American accents where it’s in the back of the mouth and words are wider, the (British) accent is forward in the mouth,” Eben said. “There’s also a lot of expression in the way they speak.” Junior Thomas Bryant said pitch gliding is the hardest part about the accent for him. “In the British accent there’s this thing called a pitch glide where you emphasize a certain word by changing your pitch and that’s the hardest thing to learn,” Bryant said. Bryant said maintaining the British accent throughout the whole show is challenging. “Mid-scene I’ll be rehearsing, and I’ll realize I’m not in accent anymore, and then I’ll shift back to British and everything about my characterization shifts as well. It’s very difficult,” Bryant said. Despite having few rehearsals using the accents, Hatzenbeller said she sees improvements in students. “I’m starting to hear more and more accuracy and confidence in the students’ accents,” Hatzenbeller said. The theater will present “Sense and Sensibility at 7 p.m. April 28 and 29 and at 2 p.m. April 30 in the High School Theater.
When I saw the poster in the hallway it looked so professional. It looks really good and I was really impressed. Ellie Kent, sophomore
Photo Hanna Schechter
Spotlight: Junior Jake Henry works the lighting at a dress rehearsal April 26 for the school play. Performances will be held in the high school auditorium April 28-30.
Theater crew builds set on wheels Moving pieces create smooth scene transitions Yonit Krebs yonitkrebs@slpecho.com
S
ophomore Ayanna Nathan said as a painter she focused on the backdrop in her fifth time as a crew member. According to Nathan, the crew’s responsibilities include building, creating costumes and cleaning the Auditorium. “We make sure the stage and Auditorium (are) clean and costumes crew makes all the costumes and fit them,” Nathan said. “We build all the furniture that you see mainly besides the couches and beds.” Tech director Don Romain said there are two differ-
ent ways the crew approac production. “Sometimes it’s buildin did with the window fram ing existing things that we Artistic director Jodi H ration from other product a play based on the Jane A set pieces on wheels to inc scene to the next. “I thought ‘that’s a rea show constantly active an quick,’” Hatzenbeller said According to Hatzenbe around six to eight weeks Hatzenbeller said limited a groups using the facility in work on the set. “Usually in the first cou construction, sometimes w set piece done so that we c beller said. “The week bef which add another layer t the costumes and the acto
“
I am going to the play because I have friends in it and I usually go to the show because I think that they’re fun to watch.
IN-DEPTH
Echo Friday, April 28, 2017
Izzy Kanne, freshman
7
Tea party: The actors pan out on stage while rehearsing the spring play “Sense and Sensibility.” Photo Stuart Monicatti
Junior enjoys working behindthe-scenes
Jake Henry finds passion for theater Eleanor Kline-Olson eleanorkline-olson@slpecho.com
J
unior Jake Henry said his interest in joining the light crew became relevant after not being cast as a character in a show his freshman year. While skeptical at first, Henry said he now appreciates his experience working
ches building set pieces for the
ng things from scratch like we me, (and) sometimes it’s modifye have,” Romain said. Hatzenbeller said she drew inspitions of “Sense and Sensibility,” Austen novel, to put all of the crease the show’s flow from one
ally clever way of keeping the nd making transitions really d. eller, the crew and actors had to prepare for the show. auditorium space for various nfringes on the crew’s time to
uple of weeks we’ll start we prioritize getting a certain can use it in practice,” Hatzenfore we add sound and lights, to the show, and we start using ors actually wear them for
with the theater light crew. “I (joined the light crew) because I wasn’t cast (in the show) and I was really bitter. I wanted to make sure I was apart of theater no matter what,” Henry said. “I ended up really liking (the light crew) because it is really cool.” Henry said he has been a part of the light crew since freshman year. “I have been running lights for about a year and half right now, and I have been on light crew since the spring show of my freshman year,” Henry said. Henry said he has a lot of preparation to do before the show can complete a run through. “I have to make sure all of the lights are clean and working before we can run the show because we need all of the lights we can have because we don’t have a lot of
rehearsal.” Junior costumes crew member Zoe Weinmann said with this particular production, the costumes crew has more work cut out for them because they will be sewing costumes themselves. “Hatzenbeller will tell us what she’s looking for, if we’re making something from scratch, and sometimes she’ll give us fabric to work with too, and then we kind of choose which pattern will look best for each character,” Weinmann said. Hatzenbeller said she works mainly with the costumes crew, advising with designs and ideas. “Once we cast actors then the costumes crew looks at the characters and the actors playing them and then they discuss things like color for symbolism but also something like maybe that actor looks really bad in that color,” Hatzenbeller said. Nathan said during the weeks before opening night the crew spends large amounts of time working to build and perfect the set and costumes. “(The crew does) so much work. We spend a lot of late nights (at the high school) and several times I’ve been here till almost midnight working so the next day I could come back and do more work,” Nathan said.
lights,” Henry said. According to theater program director Jodi Hatzenbeller, the light and sound crews work together to polish the show on tech day. “It is particularly (stressful) on tech day, which is the day where we bring (the show) all together. The cast is on stage, and Jake (Henry), Devin (Raynor) and I are back at the booth conferring with Don, the tech director,” Hatzenbeller said. Henry said the crew members, who run the lights, must participate in an informational training session before practices can begin for the spring play. “(Informational training is) teaching people how to clean lights, run maintenance, aim lights and how to use a board, so recording and cues,” Henry said. “(Training also teaches) what to do when
you are really stressed out on tech day.” According to Hatzenbeller, tech day puts pressure on the cast and crew, who finalize the show’s blocking and lighting before being ready to perform. “We decide we need this for this scene or this for that scene, and it’s a very stressful day because that’s when all those decisions get made,” Hatzenbeller said. “We sort of have to fine tune to make it look right.” Henry said working with the light crew proves a fun job, but can be demanding at times. “Tech day is stressful because it’s when we have three separate entities coming together for the first time during the show,” Henry said. “We have lights and sound starting to interact with the actors and the set and a lot of the time there are differences in vision which can be conflicting.”
Photo Emma Kempf
Nailed it: Cast and crew member, junior Thomas Bryant, works on building the set of the spring play April 14. The set was built with wheels to make scene transitions easier.