Producing a Play: The Making of Clue
A styled wig and cosmetics backstage in the makeup/dressing room.
Lights, Camera, Action!™ GCTC (Good Counsel Theatre Company) has been a part of our school for many years. This year’s Clue has promised to be fantastic from the start, and now that you’ve seen it, here’s some insight into how much it takes to bring the production to life. I interviewed people from all parts of the play during tech week, including set, makeup and costumes, props, actors, and sound and lighting. So come check out the magic behind the scenes!
When asked about a typical “Work Day,” most crews answered that they worked for 2-3 hours a day, mainly two days a week. Some groups, such as actors, props, and set, started preparing only a few weeks after school started. Others, such as the sound crew, can only work while everything is rehearsed during tech week. To all crews balancing school work and clubs/sports during tech week, I salute you! For those unaware, crews go to school for a typical day, then do preparations and rehearsals from 3:30 to 9:00! And they do that for a whole week! Although, the final production definitely makes it worth it.
SET:
Building the sets for Clue is a two-part process. One group is in charge of constructing the set, while another is responsible for painting everything. To find out the basics of creating the set, I sat down with Ms. Spring-Frank, the stagecraft teacher.
Q: What do you do in stagecraft?”
Ms. Spring-Frank: “As the stagecraft teacher, I teach people the fundamentals of technical theater. And with the application, we go over all technical elements, all production materials, so everyone has a base understanding of how things work, how the theater industry works, and how tools and materials are used.”
Q: How do you make sets for the plays, and where do you get your materials?
Ms. Spring-Frank: “As the scenic designer and technical director, I design the show, go through and figure out what materials I need and in what quantities. I create designs, create elevations, create draftings, so that way I can give it to my carpenters, and then they’re able to build it.”
*Building is done in stagecraft class and after school by the stagecraft crew.
Q: Who decides how the paint job will look, and how does it get done?
Ms. Spring-Frank: “Those all fall under me, and we have a paint mentor, Blake Mihm, and he’s been absolutely wonderful. He comes in a couple times a week and works with students about the process. One thing that I’m really proud of is the Dining Room. I think that turned out really, really nice.”
Q: How do you develop designs, and how long does it take?
Ms. Spring-Frank: “To make the designs, I read through the play, and I get some base ideas, and then I do a little bit of research on colors and techniques of what I think I want it to look like. Going on Pinterest, creating a board, then presenting it to your director and your team. Then going from there is just’ what materials do we need, how are we getting them?”
“To think of the ideas, maybe a couple days, and then for me, 8 am to 7 pm, since the beginning of September, six days a week.”
Q: How did you get into theater?
Ms. Spring Frank: “I’ve been in it my entire life. I would go to the theaters with my dad, he is also a performing arts director, but he also had my job as well, which included designing and building sets for my high school theater for probably ten years. I’ve been building pretty much since I was eight years old and been doing theater my entire life. I went to college and did it all through college and got my design tech degree from Western Michigan University.”
PROPS:
Down the secret staircase in the athletic hallway, lies the prop shop and costume headquarters with every kind of material for every kind of prop you could need, from fake food to lead pipes and candlesticks, to telephone mannequins and a lava lamp chandelier.
Mrs. Rosemary Celia Pompa, the props mentor, showed me around the prop shop and furniture storage. The props crew works with Ms. Spring-Frank, since she designs the set. For materials, Insulation is often used to make things such as fake food. It’s sculpted and painted to look like bread. Other props are made out of plastic, cardboard, foam, or canvas. Mrs. Pompa has been with GCTC since 2008, before the PAC was built, and GC rented the Olney theater to put on plays. Next, I was taken to the furniture room, which is filled to the brim with chairs, sofas, and even the odd popcorn machine. Mrs. Pompa explained that they are reused, donated, and bought at thrift sales, on eBay, or yard sales.
“A lot of things are handmade; other things are ordered. We do a lot of thrift shopping. A lot of these things are donated, and we keep things that we think we can use; we use as much as we can all the time.” – Mrs. Pompa.
SOUND/LIGHTING:
John Godman ’25 and Ryan Bykowski ’25, sound and lighting crew, respectively, each told me how their crews prepare for the show.
Q: What do you do in lighting/Sound?
Ryan Bykowski ‘25: “We make sure [the lights] are the right color, if we want frost or not, if we want, like, shutters in a way, and then a week later, tech week happens, and we run through the show. So all tech week is for us is just running through the show with lights, fixing them, changing them, etc.”
John Godman ‘25: “We are responsible for the mic-ing, any acoustic, and any audio cues. Sound effects, music, and general actor vocal boosting.
Q: Why did you decide to do Lighting/Sound?
Ryan Bykowski ‘25: “Back in 8th grade, we did Lion King, and it was very fun. Last year, I was a follow spot, and it was a lot of fun, so I did it again.” (spotlights that follow actors as they move onstage)
John Godman ‘25: “I have been doing sound engineering for a very long time, my dad was a musician, and he taught me. I’ve been doing engineering and electrical stuff forever. I really kinda fell into sound. GCTC, we’re really a cult; we’re really close. I think we’re one of the cult-iest theater companies out there. It’s like people say, it’s a giant family; it really is. Everyone has suffered and ran together. Ragtime was excellent. And, Clue is going to be a great show.”
-When asked, John said his favorite show that he worked on was Ragtime.
Q: How do you set all of the equipment up?
John Godman ‘25: We program [sound cues] into our computer, which we run automatically. We have our sound cue operator, who is called by the stage manager, who calls the cues. They make sure that everything is running correctly. We also have a stage tracks operator who runs the music and the person who is mixing the show. They make sure that each microphone is on at the right time, all the levels are balanced, and everything sounds right.”
Ryan BYkowski ‘25: “2-3 weeks before the show, we hang the lights on the catwalks or stage, and then we have lighter calls where we focus them to get them where we want them.”
DIRECTOR/DESIGNERS:
Of course, none of our crews can bring our plays to life without our designers and directors. They come up with the “big picture” for our plays.
Mrs. Pozderac has directed Ragtime and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Q: What’s your favorite part of the process?
Mrs. Pozderac: “Always, my favorite thing when you’re watching the show is watching it come together and knowing how sweaty and floppy it is in the beginning and then how it becomes this, like, tight, well-oiled machine in the end. Also, when the actors just start having fun and the crew is there, and everyone just starts really functioning well together.”
Q: What helps inspire the plays?
Mrs. Pozderac: “The genre, a little inspiration from the movie, but also definitely the actors themselves inspire me. What they bring to it is sort of like the characters coming to life.”
*Scripts are bought from a licensing company. Clue is the most produced play in high schools right now.
Q: What is a director?
Mrs. Pozderac: “The director is in charge of the overall vision and concept, and getting actors prepared for the show and getting the crew, sort of in place. There are a lot of adult mentors who are in charge of designing each thing, and I’m in charge of the overall conceptual umbrella. The ‘Big vision’.”
*The director also takes notes during rehearsals and decides on changes to any part of the play.
ACTORS:
What’s a play without the actors? Here’s an interview with Charles Cobb ‘25, (Wadsworth/Butler) and James Williams ‘23, (Col. Mustard)
Q: Why do you enjoy acting?
Charles Cobb ‘25: “For me, acting is a form of expression, you know, that you can’t just find anywhere else. You become a different person and at the same time use aspects of yourself that you wouldn’t normally use.”
James William ‘23: “Acting has made me my most comfortable version of myself. I feel like when I’m acting, when I’m onstage, it’s just when I’m playing a different character I’m most myself. I did it young, I think that’s always been very interesting to me I love it, I love doing it at Good Counsel.”
Q: What are your thoughts on all the makeup, costumes, and preparation?
James William ‘23: “Let me tell you, I can never complain about my costume, my costume is really amazing, I love my costume for the show. I’d like to thank (costume mentor) personally, I’d like to thank the academy, I’d like to thank my mom, my dad, and my grandma. I’d like to thank my pet fish, Sucker, I’d like to thank everyone, just, beautiful, beautiful costumes.”
Charles Cobb ‘25: “I don’t have an academy to thank, but I would like to thank the costume crew for putting them together, I think our costumes are wonderful. I love mine especially, I love my gloves, they’re very butler-like. Big thumbs up to everybody in the costume crew.”
Q: How long are rehearsals, and when do they start?
Charles Cobb ‘25: “We’re usually here from about 3:20 to 5:45 everyday, and that’s Monday through Thursday. We have Friday off. We started, like, a week or two after school started. But, it’s a fun process, especially when everyone comes together to make something wonderful.”
MAKEUP:
Before their appearance on stage, the actors put on their fabulous costumes and get their hair and makeup done. Here’s an interview with some of the makeup artists, Oliver Scholl ’24, Nealah Malmstrom ’25, and Camilla Aliaga ’24.
Q: What made you want to do makeup for GCTC?
Oliver Scholl ‘24: “We all did theater in middle school, and so we’ve kinda stuck with it since then. I don’t like being on the stage, it’s very overwhelming for me, and I really enjoy doing makeup stuff so, the pieces kinda fit together.”
Camilla Aliaga ‘24: “For me, I loved being onstage, it was really fun, but I found that just being behind the scenes was more for me than being onstage, and I’ve been doing makeup for, like, six years now, so, that’s why I’m doing makeup.”
Q: Describe your job?
Nealah Malmstrom ‘25: “Each actor has a kit, they bring their own makeup, and we have the designs that Ollie and Camila came up with.”
Camilla Aliaga ‘24: *showing pictures of the actors on the wall with sticky notes and doodles on them* “This is the plan, and we follow the plan, and then the guys are usually really annoying because they never listen, and then we go SIT! and then they SIT.”
Nealah Malmstrom ‘25:” We do makeup first, then the wig.”
Q: Do you work with the costume design crew for accessories?
Oliver Scholl ‘24: “So basically they say, this hat is for this character, and okay, we need to figure out something to do that is not gonna interfere with the idea for the hat”
Q: how long does it take to do a cast’s makeup?
Nealah Malmstrom ‘25: “It takes 40 minutes, but it’s supposed to take 30 minutes, so we do it in 30 minutes.”
COSTUMES:
Q: What do you do?
“Right now we’re all working on different things like adding snaps, doing hems, so people who are working on the show are called wardrobe crew, so making sure every detail of the costume is right for each person. It’s a little bit different from preparing the costumes ahead of time.”
Edward ‘Teddy’ Byrdy (’23): “I’m currently working on Mr. Green’s costume; these are his pants.”
Q: How are costumes made?
Some costumes are bought, most are reused and altered for size and/or appearance. Sometimes the crew makes costumes from scratch; for example, in last year’s Ragtime, two dresses were made by hand, one being the “girl on the swing’s” dress. Hats and accessories are part of the props department, not the costume department.
Inspiration comes from the movie, game, and Pinterest.
What are the crew and cast members’ favorite scenes in Clue?
Camilla Aliaga ‘24: “When Sebastian says it’s like, the pursuit of happiness or whatever, and they’re like all killing each other, and he’s like, “It’s the pursuit of happiness.”
Oliver Scholl ‘24: “The ‘Singing Telegram Girl Death’ It’s the funniest thing ever, it’s so good. That’s my favorite thing ever.”
Nealah Malmstrom ‘25: “The homosexual part where it’s like, Mr. Green was a homosexual, and Col. Mustard goes, *stomps on the ground* (everyone in the room says in sync) ‘Not me!’ and they all kinda look at him, and they’re like, ‘what’ and he’s like, (all in sync again) ‘you asked, who is a homosexual, and I said, NOT me!’ and it’s just genuinely funny.”
John Godman ‘25: “My favorite scene is the ending wraparound scene, where Wadsworth recounts the entire show. It’s a long one, but it’s such a great scene with a lot of good gags in it.” “And the library gag, I don’t care if it’s a stupid gag it’s funny.”
Ryan Bykowski ‘25: “You have to see it to understand it, but, ‘Do you canoe?’.”
Edward “Teddy” Byrdy ‘23: “The scene where Mrs. Peacock yells, ‘MURDER? I hate murder!’ that scene.”
James Williams ‘23: “My favorite part is when Charles dies.”
Charles Cobb ‘25: “Imma have to say my favorite part is when I die. Because, I get to just lie there, and it’s just amazing.”
Mrs. Pozderac: “My favorite part is when you found out Mr. Green is actually a CIA agent, and all the stuff he’s doing in the part where he’s pulling out the evidence, and he suddenly goes from just being a shy old man to being really confident. It’s a really fun transition to watch the actors wrestle with.
Ms. Spring-Frank: “Honestly, I think my favorite part is when the singing telegram girl gets shot, she just falls like a sack of potatoes and it’s so funny to me, she does a really good job. My other favorite point is the evidence board, because I think that’s one of the coolest things that happens in the show. I love how it’s just flipping around magically.”
