SETTING THE STAGE,
TELLING THE STORY
A look at the creativity behind UWCSEA theatre productions
You expect to see queues forming outside the studio each time the Drama department announces a call for auditions. Acting roles were traditionally popular in many of our productions over the years, but at UWCSEA East, there is now just as much interest in the directing and production roles and in the creative and collaborative effort that brings the story to life—including design and backstage elements.
UWCSEA East Drama encourages students to explore not just their passion, but their capacity to grow in roles that are new to them. Whether in costume or lighting design, students are urged to step beyond the stage and embrace the myriad of opportunities backstage. In doing so, they become integral contributors to the theatrical tapestry.
This year, there were just as many students signed up for offstage roles as those who auditioned. The sign-ups were open to both students enrolled in Drama classes and those who weren’t.
Behind the stage
The students need to understand the value that the Arts have in society, now more than ever, to make sense of our complicated world. The design elements are a large part of what creates the magic and enables deeper connections to be made for the audience. The costume, lighting and sound design are a significant part of the learning for our students. Students do not always want to perform and yet they are keen on being creative and having a voice in interpreting meaningful work. Many of our alumni, having participated in our department’s opportunities, have gone on to excel in directing, producing, stage managing, and technical theatre management, honing their design skills.
At the heart of the productions programme is the department’s desire to support the personal growth of students and enable them to reach their full potential in either an on-stage or off-stage role. Drama productions at UWCSEA put community first, and demand a collaborative approach working towards a common goal, delivering clear intentions and above all a message that centres on expressing the human condition.
The process starts in April with interviewing directors for the following year. The Drama Department encourages the students to explore culturally diverse scripts or recontextualised concepts that tell a range of global stories, to help them find a connection with our place in the world as well as ground them in a context that connects with our community and our UWC Mission.
This is the fourth year that UWCSEA East Drama is producing student-directed, designed and performed productions for the November Theatre programme in one festival. Official training programme for design roles in its student productions began in 2020. Students have the opportunity to upskill in the areas of lighting and sound, costume design and fabrication, hair and make-up as well as stage management. The first two weeks are spent in workshops and then once a week they receive guidance from the experts in the related field.
This year, there were just as many students signed up for offstage roles as those who auditioned. The sign-ups were open to both students enrolled in Drama classes and those who weren’t.
Lexie, Jamie, Yena, and Shayna are four students who’ve shared their experiences of working as production crew in costume, lighting and sound design, and stage management this year.
Each production is a culmination of four months of work for the student directors, designers and actors. The skills, knowledge and understanding built over time are extraordinary but what stands out the most is the strong sense of collaboration and community that is created each.
Lighting
“Last year I did sound design for Frankenstein and loved it so much that this year I'm doing lights for Jekyll and Hyde. I've always loved Drama, but being on stage isn't really for me. It was such an amazing experience being able to be part of something I loved but without having to be on stage. I was able to be a part of the design process and found myself sitting in rehearsals and looking at how I can bring the world to life with sound.
This year I have been learning about new software for lighting which is so helpful for my drama classes to have this knowledge. It's been really cool to play around with lighting and watch videos and resources to find out how much really goes into the designing process. First I had a read-through, then I read [the script] again myself and annotated the script and thought about ways I could make the scenery more realistic using lighting. I sat in rehearsals and saw the staging and how that would change the lights. I had a chat with my director and we talked about our ideas. I make edits and changes based on that.”
Sound
““I used to do theatre backstage in my last school but I didn’t have as much freedom. Here, the roles are counted as equally as the actors and focuses more on collaboration with the directors. I wanted to develop technical skills by looking at creative intentions. I really wanted to get more skills that I could take to university. I had watched a lot of productions in the past and I wanted to be a part of something like that. I work with the Audio Visual team, the directors and the Artist-in-Residence to brainstorm ideas and look at looping or other effects. Not having a script is definitely a challenge as this is a student-devised production. I am looking forward to the final show and I hope I can find the sounds to match the images being created.”
Costumes
“As I am planning to go into Fashion Design in university, I signed up to be a part of the Costumes team this year to build on my experience as well as learn the differences between the process of costume design and fashion design. Working in costumes this year has helped me understand the thorough process of costume designing and making that goes into a production. This included taking measurements, identifying characteristics of each character in the play and finding ways to incorporate these details into their costumes, tailoring existing garments in the inventory or making new garments from scratch, and finding ways to do this in a more sustainable way. Although this is a lot to navigate, it is definitely a worthwhile experience working with the costumes team.”
Stage management
“I picked the production role for the festival because of my passion for filmmaking and scriptwriting. I wanted to gain some experience in what this would be like in theatre. I feel like the production crew can sometimes be overlooked when the audience is shown the final pieces of work, so knowing that our school provides the opportunity to gain experience and value the crew off stage as well as the creative process surrounding production is quite nice. The most exciting part of being backstage, especially during student productions is how much autonomy and freedom we get to create our interpretation of the play.”
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