A young woman moves across the stage wearing a cape, sparkly cowboy boots and overalls. She plays the strange, yet hopeful young boy Leaf Coneybear in the play “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
With no prior experience in theatre but having designed her own costumes, Ferris liberal arts sophomore Alexis Freeland was the designer of Leaf’s costume for this performance.
“I was trying not to make Leaf’s costume look too obnoxious, because it is beautiful and obnoxious as it is but I didn’t want it too out there. I still wanted it a tad bit cohesive,” Freeland said.
Freeland is one of many students who worked behind the scenes for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
Having previously been a backstage manager and working with props, Ferris psychology sophomore Emily Lewis worked for the first time as a stage manager for the play and worked with the props.
“Well, I make sure all of the actors are here, all the crew people are here. I make sure no one is dying. During shows I call all of the cues for lights, sound, backstage and on the flies—which is the curtains—and projections. So, basically, I’m doing everything but acting on stage. I make sure everything goes according to plan,” Lewis said.
Lewis has said that calling cues and making sure everything goes smoothly can be one of the most challenging aspects of her job as stage manager.
“I’m upstairs and if something goes wrong I want to go out and fix it but I can’t because I’m up there,” Lewis said.
Also working behind the scenes is Ferris psychology freshman Braden Wells, who is in charge of the lightboard. “It was challenging trying to figure out when to hit the cues and synchronize the cues with everyone else behind stage. Like, we had to go with spotlight and sound and everyone had to be lined up exactly and it doesn’t always happen,” Wells said.
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” was held Thursday, Nov. 2 through Sunday, Nov. 5 in the Williams Auditorium.