After the reopening of the auditorium last year, Venice is now offering an official Stage Design class.
In a production that includes fairies, a tree with one thousand leaves, and a donkey head, the stage crew is building a fantastical set for the production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
English teacher Bianca Andrews is teaching stage design and educates students about the fundamentals of stagecraft and jobs within the theater.
“We really needed this class in order to create the world of the play that goes around the actors,” she said.
Prior to the reopening of the auditorium, actors and students in the seventh period Theater class were the ones who built sets and created costumes. The class is taught in Room 2 in the auditorium and students construct sets in Room 1.
“There wasn’t really time, effort, or money dedicated solely to making that happen, but now that we have the auditorium open, we have this large space that we get to fill,” she said.
Being a mix of an art, theater, and shop class, students learn how to build sets, platforms, create costumes, props, scenic paintings, and use different power tools.
“There’s so many people that either really love to build something or think that they couldn’t,” Andrews said.
“Giving people the confidence to work safely with tools is really fun–to watch people figure things out, put them together, and have built or made something that’s beautiful.”
Junior Corazon Liams joined stage design due to her interest in media and marketing.
“Everyone’s kind of a big community here,” said Iiams. “We can transform our ideas into reality with the stage.”
The stage design class also helps highlight careers that students may be able to pursue in the future. For example, Linda Patterson, a costume designer who works in Hollywood, is going to help students sew and design costumes. The crew is designing Roman armor, fairy wings, corsets, and dresses.
“I love costumes,” said junior Zoe Alarcon. “I would love to design costumes for characters in the play.”
Alarcon first became interested in theater after seeing a high school production in elementary school. “It really fascinated me and made me want to get into theater,” she said.
Sophomore Estrella Robles has been passionate about theater since she was young.
“When I was little, my aunties would take me a lot to the theater,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to help out with different plays.”
Students visualize costumes, set designs, and use the internet to create concept art.
Junior Ira Greenberg is interested in voice acting as a career and enjoys the behind-the-scenes aspects of stage crew.
“You know that you’re a part of this big thing,” he said. “You know that you’re contributing and helping bring out the creative joys of all these people, including ourselves, and putting it out on a stage for everyone to see.”
