Student Blog: A Word On Working Backstage

If you are currently in an undergrad program for theatre, there's a decent chance that at some point in your college career you will be required to work backstage during a show in order to get credit for a class. At least among my circle of friends, the dreaded crew assignment is viewed very negatively- free labor for the theatre department that you pay to do with your tuition money under the guise of "experience." While it is easy to get annoyed at forced situations like these, the most recent crew assignment I had to complete allowed me to recognize the value of getting to work backstage, and has inspired me to look at future crew requirements more positively.

For the past two and a half weeks, I have been working backstage on the wardrobe crew for my university's production of Blood at the Root by Dominique Morrisseau. Before I tell you about the value I ultimately found in the experience, let me tell you why it would be very easy to view it with a negative outlook.

1. I had to join the crew for this show just three days after closing the opera I was in. Not only did this mean that I barely got any time to recover and catch up on some of my school work, but immediately going from performing in a show to working behind the scenes for a show gave me a weird sort of emotional whiplash, especially since I wanted to be onstage again.
2. Of all the shows I could've been assigned to work for this semester, this one had the longest run- seven days of tech and nine days of performances. Not only that, but of all the crews I could've been assigned to work on (wardrobe, deck, lighting, sound, etc.), wardrobe crew had the biggest time commitment. We were always the first crew called and the last ones to leave at the end of the night since we had to do laundry. So I was spending roughly 5 hours at the theatre each night for two whole weeks!
3. I enjoy being at the theatre, and the time commitment would not bother me so much... except for the fact that this all took place during the most stressful time of the school year, the last two weeks of classes when every single important project, paper, and anything else you could imagine is due. So I immediately knew going into this show that I would be pretty exhausted and burnt out by the end of the run from consecutive late nights of trying to finish my schoolwork after the performances.

Overall, I think it's easy to see why I was dreading this crew assignment. Not because of the experience of working backstage itself, but mostly because of how busy my schedule already was on top of such a time-consuming class requirement. However, so many people in the same situation as me had already been complaining about crew for weeks leading up to it, so I made my best attempt to go into the show with a positive, optimistic attitude despite the circumstances.

Disregarding the stress created by my already packed schedule, working on the wardrobe crew was a very valuable experience. Believe it or not, I actually went through a brief phase in high school where I wanted to become a Broadway dresser, as I envied the close relationships they got to develop with Broadway stars and found it admirable how instrumental their involvement was to the success of large scale productions. To finally have the opportunity to experience being a dresser was exciting, despite not wanting to pursue it professionally anymore. The show was full of fast, offstage quick changes, so I was constantly in the wings hanging up costumes and preparing for the next change on my dressing track. Amazingly, I was assigned to be the dresser for actors that I had previously worked alongside of in different shows, so it was wonderful to reconnect with them and do my part to allow them to shine on stage. My favorite job as a dresser was the nightly ritual of helping one of the actors look her best by clipping in her character's red hair extensions before every show. With almost all of the shows I've performed in, I've always been that girl who helps braid and style everyone's hair, so it was fulfilling to put these skills to use as part of an official responsibility.

The rest of my dresser duties consisted of taking inventory of all the costume pieces before and after the show, setting costumes during the show, taking note of any malfunctions or required repairs, and doing laundry at the end of the night. While some of this work was very tedious and time-consuming, the other members of the wardrobe crew and I developed more efficiency in our routine with each subsequent performance, eventually shaving almost an hour off of our original sign-out time. Though none of us were particularly excited about being there, we still put full effort into doing our respective jobs and helping each other out to make the work go faster. At the end of the run, our lovely wardrobe head told us that we were the best, most efficient crew she'd worked with that semester, a very sweet and validating statement. To me, this is one of the most valuable elements of being made to work on any backstage crew; it forces you to develop a strong sense of teamwork, dedication, and collaboration that will benefit you in all areas of life. Additionally, for theatre people who don't typically engage with the production world, the humbling experience of working backstage allows you to develop respect for those who devote their lives to working behind the scenes, a valuable sense of empathy that the performing arts world always needs more of.

The director of this production's guiding philosophy was that the show was brought to life by an "Ensemble with a capital E"--- a collaborative group that not only included the cast, but also the offstage crew. At our first crew watch rehearsal, he made sure that each crew member got to introduce themself, and he even facilitated a brief bonding exercise to familiarize everyone since we would be so intimately involved in each other's lives for the next two weeks. All throughout the run, the actors treated us with such genuine respect and gratitude, always thanking us for our help during the performances and the work we did before and afterwards. I'd like to think that some of this respect came not only from their embracing of the Ensemble philosophy, but also from the fact that many of them had been in our exact position before- required to work backstage as part of a class- and knew first hand how much work we had to put in. The kindness with which they treated us and the positive environment it fostered is a testament to the beautiful empathy developed from working on a crew. Every theatre person should do it at some point no matter what their primary specialization is, simply for the sake of building such a strong capacity for teamwork and such a deep respect for the work of others.

Besides pushing you to develop teamwork, technical skills, and an increased appreciation for production crews, working backstage can also actually be a great opportunity to learn more about other areas of theatre too, not just standard crew work. While you might be working for a specific department of production, allowing yourself to simply be present backstage, paying attention to all that is going on around you, and immersing yourself in all the collaborative elements of the show through observation can teach you so much about the art of live theatre and performance. Though I was only on the wardrobe crew, I feel like I actually ended up learning so much about acting while working on Blood at the Root. Being a dresser, I was around the performers all the time, whether hanging up costumes in their dressing rooms or helping them with quick changes in the wings. I was there when they would warm up vocally and prepare for the show, when they would prep for and debrief offstage after performing emotionally demanding scenes, and when they would come backstage at the end of the show and rave about how their performances went. The wardrobe crew was seated just offstage for the entire performance, so I got to listen to the show every night and experience how it developed from an acting standpoint as the run progressed. Simply being in the same space as these talented performers while they practiced their craft felt like such a privilege, and as an aspiring performer myself, I took it as an educational opportunity to observe the techniques they employed on and offstage that allowed them to consistently perform challenging material while maintaining their mental and physical well-being. When I worked on the deck crew for a dance show last year, I had a similar experience in regard to the art of stage management; being on headset during the show allowed me to learn so much about what a stage manager does to make live performance work logistically, and actually gave me the foundational knowledge to stage manage a student-led show myself a few months later. All of this to say, if you take the initiative to actively engage with the production you are working on and all the artistic processes happening around you, crew assignments can be extremely educational experiences in regards to almost all major elements of theatre.

In summary: yes, required crew assignments can be annoying and tedious because of how much time they eat up. Yes, it is so easy to complain about them. But next time you find yourself working backstage, I encourage you to view the experience as a valuable opportunity to become a more well-rounded practitioner of the arts and a more well-rounded person. While I am relieved to finally be done with my two and a half non-stop weeks of wardrobe crew duties, I am grateful for the new skills and knowledge I was been able to glean from the experience.