‘Urinetown’ run complete; strike begins March 5

Jeromy Stacy
March 6, 2018

As part of strike, Ben Ashton directs the UGC sign as other crew lower it from above on March 5. Photo by Jeromy Stacy

While the final curtain closed on “Urinetown” on March 2, the work just began for the crew to tear down each set piece crafted for the two week run. Weeks worth of work will only take 20 hours to completely dissemble, and to ensure safety and efficiency, the production crew began tearing down the set March 5.

“Building takes weeks, and I can’t even really fathom the number of man hours put into something toward the attention to detail for every little thing that goes up from planning out how to build it in the first place to getting the schematics, cutting all of the lumber, painting,” Emily Burns, assistant stage manager and newest shop assistant hire, said. “Strike for this show in particular is probably going to take 20 man hours. Strike just goes fast. The world has a natural sense to decline, so it’s easier to take things apart then to build them.”

Eric Koger, an associate professor of theater, said there is a process to striking the set that first ensures safety and then ensures that the crew can reuse as much material as possible in upcoming shows.

The first day of strike, the crew took down most the metal pieces of the set, and day two focused on taking apart walls, public amenity door and removed homasote.

The set that took weeks upon weeks to construct is completely torn to shreds within 20 man hours, and according to Burns, tearing apart the pieces she built here her favorite, including the concrete floor set.

“I ripped those out myself,” Burns said. “It felt wonderful. It’s the nature of strike you get everything up and you put all the work into the show, and I think there is something beautiful about that because you put all the work into a thing and then you get to take it apart and it’s a new canvas again.”

“We used to strike the whole set in one day, right after the last performance, but we found that it was too dangerous,” Eric Koger, associate professor of theater, said. “The stuff that is in the way needs to be out of the way first, so lighting will be step one. There’s lots of lighting cables and such all around. Then props will need to be removed quickly because they will be just small things that are in the way. If there is any electrical that’s run on the set, that needs to be extracted.”

According to Koger, the set was designed to go up and come down easily, but with so many people hanging around, it’s hard to delegate jobs out.

Ben Ashton, technical director and a senior in theater, said striking the set after the last show had too many potential risks.

“Staying late to knock all this out in four hours after the last matinee is really nice, but since we moved to the two shows per weekend system, it’s really hard to tear down a show on a Saturday night at 10 o’clock at night. When that would put us until 2 o’clock and maybe we get done. With this show, if we were to do that we’d be done by about 3 o’clock in the morning,” Ashton said.

Along with safety, cast and crew members left for a conference on March 6, which gave more reason to stretch out the workload instead of pushing to get it done all at once.

And Koger said as soon as the basic components of the “Urinetown” are dismantled, they have to get ready for the next show, the Festival of Student-Produced One-Act Plays that opens April 19.

“We will be moving toward resetting the basic things like the black legs, the masking, all the draperies that usually sit on stage, and maybe even turning the stage floor black,” Koger said.

Ashton said he expects strike to be uneventful.

“Usually this process goes pretty smooth. When it’s coming down, things tend to love to just tumble,” Ashton said. “It’s really nice.”

Additional reporting by Cortney Wood and Craig Tidmore.

DESIGNERS AND CREW HANDS

Stage manager: Katie Cagle
Assistant stage managers: Emily Burns and Ron Harle
Set designer: Eric Koger
Assistant set designer: Emily Osmon
Co-lighting designers and master electricians: Shae Dorsman and TréAuchana Miller-Wright
Properties designer: Addrian Gaut
Makeup designer: Christopher Cruz
Technical designer: Ben Ashton
Master carpenter: Joey McGinn
Assistant master carpenter: Seth Angelino
Costume studio manager: Kaylor Winter-Roach
House manager: Ronny Medina