On August 31st, the Marian Catholic announced These Shining Lives as this year’s fall production.
For those unfamiliar with These Shining Lives, it is the story of four women living in the 1920’s who land what seems to be a dream job of painting watch faces. However, they soon discover their workplace is hiding a secret that threatens all of their lives. It is a powerful drama about friendship, corporate greed, and a fight for justice. If you are interested in seeing this story in action, come watch the play here in our theatre on October 23rd, 24th, or 25th.
I had the honor of assisting with the set building for this production. While there, I was able to speak with Ms. Hilger, the director of speech and theatre. She provided some incredible insight into what is going on behind the play and the set.
“Trying to choose a show is a complex process,” she shared when asked why she chose TSL. “We want to play to the strengths of our current students while choosing material that will challenge them to become stronger performers, stronger designers, and stronger builders. We are always trying to find a show that best showcases our students while still pushing them to grow further than they were at the start of the program.”
This same level of deep thought also went into the brainstorming process for the set. While we know that it must capture the setting of These Shining Lives, there are a surprising amount of unique touches that make each set unique to its own production, as well as practical considerations that make the set functional. In Ms. Hilger’s words:
“Anytime we’re designing a set, we start by reading the script and doing research on the history of the location and time period, and then working with our scenic designer Mr. Zach Gibson. And then it’s basically figuring out how we want the story to be told and how we can realistically do that on our stage. This story focuses a lot on clocks and time and watches because it’s taking place at the Radium Watch Factory. So we have to think about how we want to incorporate a factory setting while also showing the artistic design of clocks and time passing. [The play] also takes place in Tom and Catherine’s house—so, without changing the entire set, [we had to consider] how we change from the factory to being in their house within only a couple seconds.”
In these recent weeks leading up to the performances, the theatre team worked with the cast and other student volunteers to turn the set idea into reality. There were a ton of materials to work with, many of them recycled.
“We always try to reuse as much as we can,” noted Ms. Hilger. “For the first weekend that we were here, we just used what we had in our shop—platforms, lumber, paint—anything we could salvage.”
With these materials also came a series of tasks to be done, and the group took them all on. Some painted walls, planks, and furniture in industrial colors. Others cut wood and drilled them together to construct the large display of walls and platforms that will be showcased during the performances. Some climbed up ladders to install beautiful lights to border the stage.
Ultimately, the set did not only turn out to be a success, but we were also able to exercise teamwork in doing tasks that could not be done alone. Painting twenty six-foot-long planks may sound like a long and daunting task until you have five other people helping you. Personally, I had a wonderful time meeting new people, speaking with students I hadn’t known very well before, and being a part of such a large and rewarding project.
Getting to both supervise and work alongside the students, Ms. Hilger looks forward to the moment when the audience finally sees the set—both for them and for the students.
“The set is going to be really impressive, so when the audience says ‘oh my gosh, the set looks amazing,’ I am excited for the students who built it to be able to say ‘I did that’…that is such a cool accomplishment and such a cool moment to have the audience notice and know that you did the work to make that happen.”
It is my hope that you will be able to see both this set, as well as the performance of the talented actors who have done rehearsal after rehearsal to put on this production. See These Shining Lives on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of October!
*Some quotes have been mildly edited for the purpose of clarity