Off Comm

After the whirlwind of Sunday productions came the most bittersweet moment of every theatre season -- disassembling the set and saying goodbye to the company.

Set take-down, or strike, was a two day process. After the Sunday shows, the staff said goodbye to all of the Players that finished a full month of theatre workshops and rehearsals that led to their final shows. Afterwards, a team stayed to take down all "soft" products, such as curtains. An hour later, I came in with a separate team to do light strike, which included taking out all of the light gels (gels are color films that give color to lights), recoil all of the extra cable, and put away all of the lights that we had used during our time at Footlight.

Part two of strike happened on Monday - the entire company was called to clean out the theatre of anything related to our show, including all of the set, costumes, and props. When strike was finished, we said our goodbyes and staff headed home.

I left Indiana on Tuesday, where I took my flight out of Pittsburgh back to Chicago. There aren't words to fully encapsulate my time at this internship, this mentorship, with such a great team that was focused on health, organization, and communication. I look forward to keeping in touch with many of my newfound colleagues, some of which hail from New York, Delaware, Wisconsin, and Connecticut.

My adventures aren't over as I begin a new school year, my final one, at Eureka College and move on to graduation. As previously mentioned, future projects will include my senior capstone production of Sweeney Todd and my Senior Recital. This blog will continue to be updated, so readers, feel free to check out this website at any time. The gallery holds more photos from my experience.

I'd like to thank the Sandifer Program at EC, my mentors Brian and Rachel, and my family for supporting me on this journey. As I say at the end of the show when I depart the stage and take off my headset, "Bella off-comm."