The EVSC Summer Musical Company is in full costume beneath the styled lights, standing on the thrust stage, the bridge of the ship towering overhead.
This is the first tech rehearsal for The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Summer musical “Titanic: The Musical” on Monday.
They’re at University of Evansville’s Shanklin Theatre, and they have just a few more days to get everything ready for live shows.
Director Robert Hunt is directing them in real time. “Hold it, we gotta figure out striking this, please,” came his calm voice over the PA system. He’s referring to removing the tables and chairs form the stage in an orderly fashion between scenes.
Hunt said this is a brand new schedule for the summer musical.
“The expectation is that we were going to work for two weeks, you know,” he said. “Historically, it's been a seven or eight week process, but this year it's two weeks in and out.”
This is supposed to make the production schedule more realistic – based on a concentrated “summer stock” schedule.
And unlike in the past, many students are cross-trained between on and off-stage roles. Jocelyn Rogers, 16 a North High School rising Senior has an on-stage role, and a few off-stage ones.
“I'm an assistant stage manager, which means I'm getting a lot of work behind the scenes. So today I've been helping backstage,” she said.
She's wearing a headset, and marking stage locations for furniture with tape. “I'm also the voice captain, so as we've been rehearsing anything music related, students can come to me and I can help them with their vocal lines, just making sure everything sounds how we'd like it to be.”
Titanic: The Musical, follows the experience of the crew and the different classes of passengers. The production includes tech expertise from recent UE theatre graduates.
This includes Elijah Roberson, assistant sound designer removing tiny microphones from the actors backstage.
Titanic The Musical is the first for the re-formatted EVSC Summer Musical Company. Performances run Thursday June 11 through Sunday June 14.
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate