The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

www.slhspress.com

Student news website
of Seven Lakes High School
The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

The student news site of Seven Lakes High School

The Torch

The Secret Behind the Magic

The+Secret+Behind+the+Magic

 

A behind the scenes look on technicians jobs to make a show come together. Be sure to follow @beastvii on Snapchat for a live behind-the-scenes look at the show rehearsals and set building!

Stage Manager

Stage managers are the main supervisor of the entire production process. They keep track of attendance, make sure everyone is working and on task, carry out the directors wishes throughout the show, and make sure there are no complications during the run of the show.

Cynthia Cuarro

What do you love most about your job?

“What I love most about my position is being in charge of an organized chaos.”

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What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult part of being a stage manager would have to be scolding my crew if they do things they aren’t supposed to.”

Student Directors

A student director for a production is the person or multiple people that assist the director throughout the entire production in whatever they need, whether it’s organizing paperwork, taking attendance of those at rehearsals, taking notes over the rehearsal progress or taking charge when the director isn’t present.

Max Conway

What do you love most about your job?

“My favorite part about student directing is getting see the show slowly put together and get better and better.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult part about being a student director is keeping everything organized and making sure everyone is in the right place at the right time.”

Kyle Easter

What do you love most about your job?

“I love the simplicity of the job.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult aspect of it is sorting through several thousand papers.”

Madelyn Miessmer

What do you love most about your job?

“For me, what I love most is being able to see the process of putting together the acting part of the show because I’ve always been on tech. It’s great watching everyone develop their characters and learn their parts.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult thing is probably just keeping us with everything that’s going on. I tend to get a lot of questions about things I don’t entirely know so it turns into an adventure to find answers and make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

Props Master

The props master’s job is to read the script, then collect props used during a show, whether it be an apple the main character is eating, or a basket the extra walks with, based on what is written in the script They also buy and make objects to create a more lifelike set.

Julia Black

What do you love most about your job?

“The thing I love most about tech is how close I become with all of the crew. I love knowing that I can be a part of something bigger than myself.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“To me, the hardest aspect of my job is making tough decisions that could impact the way the show turns out.”

Master Carpenter

The master carpenter’s job is to make sure everything is running smoothly and safely during the building of the set for the show, this means finding measurements and figuring out how to build massive structures and set pieces while making sure they are safe for when the run of the show happens.

Jay Schneller

What do you love most about your job?

“I love getting to work with my hands and being able to look back at something that was just an idea and now it’s a real life structure. A few examples of things I’ve built are a wishing well, bed, picnic table, and podiums.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“I think each build there’s a new challenge and trying to figure out how to build this set piece and learning how to work and communicate with other people is the hardest part of the job.”

Fly Crew Chief

The fly crew chief is in charge of making sure all set pieces that are hanging from the ceiling like trees or backdrops are hung safely and securely. As well as executing all fly cues properly during performance while making sure everyone on stage is aware of any flying scenery.

Omar Garza

What do you love most about your job?

“What I love most is being able to contribute towards completing the scenery during performances.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult aspect is not messing up during a live performance.”

Head Costumes Mistress

The head costumes mistress’ job is to read the script, analyze the characters, and figure out what they would wear that would accurately represent them.

Kyrstin Inman

What do you love most about your job?

“I love costumes because it gives me the ability to be creative and put myself in the minds of characters to figure out how they’d dress.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The hardest part of my job would probably be making sure my vision aligns with the directors and trying to figure out how to make the costumes look the best they could be on a tight budget.”

Publicity Crew Head

The publicity crew head is responsible for designing the show posters which are spread around community and school, making shirts that have the show information on them, putting advertisement boards in front of the school, flyers, program covers, and creating a Snapchat account where they showcase the students’ preparation efforts for the show.

Jeff Schulte

What do you love most about your job?

“This is my second time to be the publicity crew head. I love the position because it allows me to apply my creativity and love of photoshop to attract large audiences and create a memorable experience for everyone involved while working at my own pace and socializing with other crew members. My favorite part of the job, by far, is the final push of distributing posters and flyers, while watching the seats fill up on the ticket website. My sophomore year I was able to pull in two full house audiences, and this year I hope to surpass that, as we’re doing a show everyone is familiar with.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The hardest part of publicity crew is dealing with all the details; counting t-shirt sales, spelling out cast and crew names, copying down legal statements for the bottom of the poster, and so on. It’s just stressful to know that you could mess up and let some people down – even if you triple check, things just slip by.”

Sound Engineer

Sound engineers deal with everything regarding sound, from handling microphones to running the soundboard that controls music and any sounds the production needs.

Victoria Esquivel

What do you love most about your job?

“I love constantly learning and going out of my comfort zone to make things sound the best that they can.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“It’s tough to deal with the technology but I love the problem solving that comes with it.”

Lighting Designer/Master Electrician

The lighting designer and master electrician’s job is to take the 100+ lights in our theatre, hang them, and then program them to create different lighting looks for each scene in order to set the mood and emphasize the show’s plot.

Claudia Brown

What do you love most about your job?

“My job gives me a lot of freedom to create, which is one of the reasons I love it so much.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“People often differ in what feelings or emotions they associate with different colors, so the most challenging aspect is probably using colors in a way to ensure that everyone will interpret the looks I create to evoke the same emotion.”

Video Crew Chief

The video crew chief’s job during the show is to work in the video booth and control which cameras are focused on different parts of the stage for Studio VII’s archival copy video of the performance.

Nikki Barboza

What do you love most about your job?

“I love seeing all the pieces coming together. Looking at a completed set that so much time and effort went into is amazing. You’re just like ‘I helped make that!’”

What’s the most difficult aspect of your job?

“The most difficult part is probably trying to balance theatre with school work. Making time for homework at the end of a long tech rehearsal isn’t always easy.”