What Does Stagecraft Really Do?

By: Ella Carney

Students are hard at work preparing for the upcoming musical, Once Upon A Mattress making sure everything is looking good and fresh for the opening night on February 21st.

Students have been preparing for the show since the beginning of the school year and, “a lot of us are in the actual musical so it’s helping us know where everything goes, how set pieces are supposed to look like, and how big and wide the measurements should be for everything on stage,” says Alyssa ’20.

Stagecraft does everything from building sets for our own musical to helping other schools with their own sets as well. We do construction of all sorts we do wood, sewing, people do whatever is needed. We use a lot of work with the saws, glue guns, pretty much everything. says Viv Silvis, ’20.

Alyssa also stated that “stagecraft is fun, I like it. People always ask me, ‘isn’t stagecraft just building?’ And I always respond, ‘Yeah it is but for like plays, the musical, the one act coming up too. We do everything. We even help with the other schools too.’ ”

Many say that stagecraft is the “backbone of Once Upon A Mattress or any musical in general” Lots of people don’t know that Redwood stagecraft helps with Ridgeview’s musical which is Shrek, and sometimes they help with Mt. Whitney’s which is Willy Wonka this year. they even help out with Dancers Edge because Adrian, the choreographer for the musical is involved with the dance studio so they try to help with props and necessary backdrops. And this year they are helping out with a little bit of Green Acres which is Beauty and the Beast.

Some people may not know that it is not just this class period. Students come in during the 6th period a lot and use their own time to work on stuff so a lot of them are not in here just during the stagecraft class period to work on their projects. It takes a lot of time to get any project done.

All of the students can agree that the hard work and time put into the musical definitely pays off. Especially because they end up with a really pretty set says, Silvis.

Come and watch Once Upon A Mattress on February 21st and 22nd at 7 pm and February 23rd at 2 pm and 7 pm in the LJ Williams Theater, $10 admission for students and $12 for general admission. You do not want to miss it!