 | This Week’s Author Olivia Cox This week’s MAMMA MIA! update is written by Junior Olivia Cox. This year, Olivia is a member of ITS Troupe #5623 and holds the Assistant Stage Manager technical crew position for this season’s production of MAMMA MIA! |
Last week was eight of MAMMA MIA! rehearsals! This was our first Act I/Act II week, taking time each day to carefully go over each scene in each act, one at a time.
Monday and Wednesday were days spent on Act I and Tuesday and Thursday were spent on Act II. Monday’s rehearsal was the first time that the show had been run in order, so it was time for our crews to start their processes! Even though we had the opportunity to work through teaser scenes last week, the scenes in the full show are not in the same order. This week was the first chance that our cast and crews had gotten to work on how the show will be by opening night. By Tuesday, after one complete run of each act, our stage crew had time to work on their transitions, light crew was able to program in the rest of their lighting cues for Act I, and even experiment with some new lighting designs, as well as sound crew being able to get all of their mic and choir cues in.
Wednesday and Thursday rehearsals were spent fine tuning certain notes we had made prior in the week. We spent longer on each scene, instead of looking at the big picture, starting to focus on the smaller details, such as the measure the actors enter on, and the direction an actor may look during a scene. Crew had a foundation under their belts, and were able to start working on perfecting their parts too. Light crew and sound crew, focused mainly on the timing of their cues, when to come in and when to go out, while stage crew mainly focused on getting their transitions to be quicker and more efficient. Our conductor and vocal coach, Mr. Rob Hutchinson, was also working right alongside our Sound Head, Eva Spindler, to get our backstage harmonies sounding great.
For both my sophomore and junior year, I have been given the opportunity to work alongside our amazing stage manager, Tyler McFadden, and work with our amazing stage crew, as our Assistant Stage Manager also known as our Stage Crew Head. This will be my last year in this position, because next year I will be taking on the challenge of replacing Tyler who is a senior this year. My job right now is to organize the cues of all stage crew members, and work with Tyler to organize most cues and crews that are down on the stage. I’m so happy that I’ve been given the opportunity to continue my role in GSTD, and am excited to see what next year brings.