A ten foot tall monster, live instruments, and a dust storm will take the stage in two and a half months when Summer Creek Playhouse competes their competition play Storm in the Barn at UIL.
Although the theatre department has had a tiring first semester with two shows under their belt, competition season is a critical time of year for the directors as well as dedicated actors and technicians in the department.
For this year’s UIL show, SC Playhouse will be performing the play Storm in the Barn. This show follows the storyline of the unique challenges characters face in the 1940’s dust bowl in Kansas.
When casting, blocking, and bringing Storm in the Barn to life, it is important the directors, cast and crew members remember the overall objective UIL shows: to impress the judges, in order to advance to the next round of UIL. While most theatre performances are catered towards the audience, a UIL show is artistically shaped to impress three judges watching the performance.
“UIL’s a totally different realm, it’s a totally different world, assistant director Jillian Johnson said. “We have to sometimes retrain our brains and retrain student’s brains to understand that yes, we want to work hard, and put on the best show, and have a good time, but at the end of the day this one is not for the audience. It’s for the judges.”
With this in mind, the directors chose Storm in the Barn, a play composed of many unique artistic elements the directors hope the judges will like.
“I really like Storm in the Barn because I really like the different elements we have to bring to it,” said director Thomas Dalton. “You’ve got this huge Storm King feature that you’ve got to come up with and figure out how it’s going to look…I like the characters in it, I think it’s well written. I like the idea that we have the opportunity to make [our] own music so we’ll be creating music for this show.”
In addition to the script and characters, Dalton likes the educational aspect associated with the setting in this show.
“People are going to have to learn about the dust bowl, and what it was, and how bad it was, and what people went through,” Dalton said. “I like that there’s a learning element to it. It’s not ‘just a show’. There’s research to be done.”
The research Dalton is referring to extends to the setting and historical context of the show. However, Dalton discusses the importance of the actors researching not just the history of the show, but the depths of the character they portray.
“There’s an evolution that occurs when you are directing something,” Dalton said. “When the show starts off, you know more than anybody involved. Right now, for this show, I know more about these characters than they have, because it just got cast. I’m thinking about the set, the sound of it, the look of it, the lights.. I know more than everybody else. As you rehearse, that should change. The actors should begin to know more about the show, to know more about the characters, and be able to explain things to you where you start learning from them.”
The actors are not the only individuals who will be hard at work in this production. The setting of a 1940’s dust bowl adds many layers of difficulty for technical director Mason Cargile, and the student technicians involved in the show.
UIL rules, and the limitations of performing a show onstage create the technical challenge of making the set appear like an actual dust bowl without throwing dust around on stage.
“Right now we’re throwing around several different ideas, like it (the dust) comes from the ensemble and some of the work they do, verses sound effects and using cloth to show wind,” technical director Mason Cargile said.
Additionally, a ten foot tall monster needs to be created. Cargile plans to teach an actor to learn how to walk on painter stilts and create a big puppet head and arms for other actors to control onstage as the monster walks.
Although there are numerous challenges the cast, crew, and directors of Storm in the Barn will face, the hardworking cast, persistent crew and dedicated directors will all do their part in making this show a success.
