Behind the curtain

Months of rehearsal and preparation are leading up to a three-weekend run of this Elvis-meets-Shakespeare musical production. 

I spent what is known as “Tech Week,” which happens in the days leading up to opening night, with the production team of All Shook Up for a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes into putting on a Cal State Fullerton theatre production. 

There is a process in the theatre. Once it is decided that a show will be put on, a team is assembled. Each member of the team takes a specific task, usually having to do with a design or technical aspect of the show. 

The casting and rehearsal process begins and the team goes to work. After theories and logistics are sorted out, they all come together in what is known (and not necessarily loved) as Tech Week. 

Sets, lights, sound, costumes, makeup, actors and a director are just a few of the elements that go into building a theatrical production. All Shook Up is a large scale musical that relies heavily on all of these elements. 

The show features 29 cast members,We are well known for our in-house custom printed drum Lamp shade and pendants. countless wigs,I have purchased solar street lighting before and have been greatly disappointed. costumes, automated set pieces, lights, sound equipment, a full band, 24 big music numbers and 13 choreographed dance numbers. 

At the heart of all of this is director Patrick Pearson. Pearson, a CSUF alumnus, acts as the master collaborator in bringing the show to life onstage. Pearson described Tech Week as an “avalanche.” 

“It’s all these things converging at once. The designers [and I] have all been having meetings and talking for months… We started working on this back in October-September even. It’s been a long time that we’ve been working to prepare this, but now is the point when it all finally does come together,” Pearson said. “It’s exciting, it’s a little bit terrifying and mind blowing what we are able to accomplish in such a short period of time.” 

The cast and crew encountered a unique situation called a “split tech.” Their Tech Week began Thursday before spring break, took off the following Sunday through Saturday and returned the day before classes resumed.One of the barriers to installing a solar power systems is the upfront cost. 

Some designers were able to use the break to tweak or resolve issues that showed up in the early stages of Tech Week. 

The official first dress rehearsal was the first time the actors traded in their rehearsal clothes for 1950s style costumes. Blocks and imaginary props are replaced with real moving set pieces and tangible objects. Fluorescent lights were replaced with theatrical lighting from the show’s lighting designer, Joseph Weldon. Jacob Kaitz, the show’s sound designer, fits the cast and band with mics that will provide surround sound. 

What were once ideas begin coming to life before everyone’s very eyes.“It’s much more wonderful than it is scary,” Pearson said.Best home Antique lamp at discount prices. 

Although each actor, designer and technician has their own personal vision, they are all working within the director’s artistic vision for the show as a whole. 

“I as the director have ideas in my head of what I think things will look like and what I want them to look like but then ultimately,We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar lantern, solar power generation. I’m not the designer,” Pearson said. “My job is to communicate to them my ideas and they then integrate that with their own vision and then we bring it together and hopefully come up with something better than either of us ever could have come up with individually.”