For “All Shook Up,” the Elvis-inspired musical performed in Titan Theater Nov. 14-17, student leaders were given creative freedom to develop the moveable and reversible sets, including a ‘50s diner with a soda counter and a jukebox, and a fairground featuring a “Tunnel of Love” and a giant carousel horse.
Senior stage manager Sydney Brooks explained the reason this musical called for a non-static set.
“We thought it would be easier and come across better if we did two different sides instead of trying to make both the town and the fairground into the same set,” Brooks said.
According to senior Loghan Lawson, who played sidekick and unrequited love interest Dennis, the lively set was designed with the characters’ perspectives in mind.
“A lot of the characters in the show, they’re very ‘charactery,’ they’re not normal people. I think that plays into how the set was designed with … crazy colors and just like different angles,” Lawson said.
While the students were under the supervision of director Mary Dickson, senior Anika Roddy felt she was able to maintain creative freedom as she led her group to build The Garage.
“A lot of times Dickson, in the beginning, cares a lot about how kind of the whole look of everything is.Then by the end of it, you can kind of just do things, and she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I actually like that,’” Roddy explained. “She puts a lot of trust into the students.”
After the set designs were all planned, it was Lawson’s job to oversee their construction as Shop Foreman.
“I feel like I’m more of a realistic person,” Lawson said, “so when it comes to measurements, angles and just figuring out how to make that drawing into real life, that’s where I come in best.”
The sets were mostly constructed by Dickson’s Theater Tech class.
“We have to sit down and design each different piece of the set, each building, each wall, everything,” Lawson said.
Tech students always undergo a safety and informational Powerpoint presentation on the tools they need to use, but a majority of the training comes from experience and upperclassmen passing down their knowledge.
“A lot of it is: You’re getting basics down, but then there’s building over and over and you learn a lot,” Lawson explained.
“When it comes to the big tools, like the circular saw or the jigsaw, … someone who knows how to do it helps the person with that and teaches them how to do it,” Lawson said.
According to senior Tyson Johnson, who played the Elvis-like character Chad and led the Museum and Tunnel of Love set design groups, the bigger set meant even those not in the tech class were needed.
“Painting had to be really all-hands-on-deck for getting it done and making it look like it is the 1950’s,” Johnson said.
The production’s system of incorporating student leadership encouraged more efficiency and cooperation.
“I feel like everyone seriously has been pulling all of their weight, like there’s been so many different leaders of different groups,” Lawson said as the performance nights neared. “That has just made it a lot easier for stuff to get built, especially when we have a lot to build.”
While time-consuming, getting the props up for practice allowed for enhanced performances.
“Once we actually got all the set up that we could use, then we started making acting choices with what’s in the world around us, not just being on stage,” Johnson said.
The set design also made a difference for the characters’ personas.
“The set pieces are so unique and they’re so very cartoony. I guess you could say that it makes you want to act cartoony in a way, because the characters really are just supposed to be crazy and like super big characters,” said Lawson, who stood out for his antics as Dennis. “When it comes to the set being big, too, it really amplifies everything.”
Senior Violet Larsen, who played sultry love interest and museum director Miss Sandra, was able to use the surrounding set to make scenes more fun.
Larsen’s favorite scene was with character Natalie, played by real-life friend Sophia Bartlett, also a senior. Bartlett’s character was dressed as a man going by the name of “Ed” in order to get close to Chad. Instead, Ed was sent on an errand to win the love of Miss Sandra for Chad.
“It was fun to do this scene with Sophia … getting to do silly scenes like that is much more fun when it’s done with a close friend,” Larsen said.
Bartlett was also able to make use of the scenes to help her performance.
“I have to pretend to be a boy, I didn’t want to cross the line of pretending to be too good, but I didn’t want to be bad either, because she’s supposed to be kind of awkward,” Bartlett said. “Natalie isn’t supposed to be good at being a boy.”
To enhance her character, Bartlett also used other actors as inspiration.
“I watched how Tyson acted a lot as Chad and tried to embody that but like add more of my awkward Natalie side,” Bartlett said.
Utilizing other actors and the set, ‘All Shook Up’ was able to come to life.
“I thought about my movement a lot and where I would be going and how I would be able to act and move around the set so that I would have enough space to do what I wanted to do,” Johnson said.
