Audience members take their seats in velvet covered chairs at the Savoy Denver, ready to witness a poignant opening performance of Hope and Gravity by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC). The lights dim and actors rush on stage with lines memorized down to the smallest inflections, their every movement intentionally choreographed.
Behind the curtain, another performance is happening.
A stage manager calls cues from a booth as lighting technicians expertly angle spotlights overhead. Wardrobe designers prepare racks of costumes for quick changes that will transform actors into the characters they portray. The props team triple checks that each and every item is exactly where it should be, so when an actor reaches for the coffee mug or the coat rack, they hardly have to look to know it’s there.
All the while, director Josh Hartwell is watching from the front row, mentally taking notes on all the tweaks they will make during tomorrow’s rehearsal. As a playwright, director and actor, it’s no exaggeration to say Hartwell lives and breathes storytelling. His job is to get a play from page to stage as best as he possibly can with the materials and time at his disposal.
It’s not a job he can do by himself. When preparing a show like Hope and Gravity — a comedic, non-sequential play requiring five actors to portray nine characters in four distinct settings — the ideas, skills and coordination that comes from the rest of the cast and crew is essential.
“It’s such a collaboration,” Hartwell says. “There are directors who want to be always right and who want to have all the answers. I know I don’t have all the answers.”
Hartwell leans on BETC’s behind-the-scenes crew who make these live performances possible. To better understand their highly technical jobs and the magic they bring to the stage as contract employees working for various theater companies throughout the region, Boulder Weekly went behind the curtain to learn more about the delicate dance of bringing these works of art to life.
Wessie Simmons, stage manager
Wessie Simmons is as close to glue as a human can get. As a stage manager, Simmons is integral to a show’s success from the moment BETC decides to put on a performance.
A month before rehearsals begin, Simmons meets with the cast and crew to establish a vision for the show. From there, she works with the assistant stage manager to establish rehearsal plans, arrange costume fittings and communicate ideas to prop, sound and light crews.
Then the real work begins. Simmons is responsible for determining the flow and focus of rehearsals and scheduling time for actors to meet with artistic crew.
All the while, she is taking notes on every little change: If the director decides they need a different light scheme for a scene, Simmons communicates that change to the light, costume and prop departments, and to the actors who might need to make adjustments in kind. Without the CU Boulder theater alum, those essential tweaks could easily fall through the cracks.
“It’s all the day-to-day tasks of making sure the director is happy, making sure the actors are safe and happy, making sure the team who are not there are communicated with,” Simmons says. “It’s a matter of making sure all these different wheels run smoothly.”
When a show opens, the jobs of the director and artistic team are more or less done, aside from the occasional snafu. But the stage manager remains, up in the booth calling cues and ironing out wrinkles when a transition is delayed or music cuts too early.
Meanwhile, Simmons relies on the assistant stage manager to keep the chaos of the backstage functioning and move props and sets during scene transitions. Without each person being on top of their role, the show couldn’t function.
“No person is more important than anyone else,” Simmons says. “All these people are equally making this project happen — everyone is so important in the world of theater.”
Alexandra Ligh, costume designer
Hope and Gravity features five actors playing nine different characters. Alexandra Ligh has the monumental task of sourcing costumes that help the audience understand who each character is when the only physical change is the clothes they wear.
Ligh meets with the director on a given show to discuss design ideas and logistics, like quick-changes — from there, it’s up to her to find costumes that meet those needs.
The Austin, Texas, transplant who now lives in Longmont scours university theater departments, online stores and thrift shops for pieces that fit her designs and also physically fit the actors. During rehearsals, she sources feedback from the director and actors and makes necessary changes.
Plays set during historical time periods or in distinctive locations involve deep research to source accurate clothing. But designing for a play like Hope and Gravity, which takes place in a nondescript, modern-day American setting can be equally challenging in its open endedness.
“There’s just so many resources, there’s so much inspiration,” Ligh says. “There’s many ways that we could go with contemporary costumes, and everyone always has an opinion on what the costumes should look like, because it’s the current time period we’re all living in.”
The director is like the captain of the ship, and their vision is a major guide for Ligh’s decisions during the design process. But once costumes are finalized, she hands them off to the backstage crew who make sure they are organized and prepared for the actors before each show.
“They’re kind of the unseen people, literally behind the scenes,” Ligh says. “It’s very easy to see the actors and see the director and see the producer when you go to attend a show, but you might not always think about the people who are there working at night, on every performance.”
Katie Hopwood, props designer
A wine glass on a table might seem like a simple detail, but a prop designer has spent abundant time deciding exactly what kind of wine glass works best. It could be made of glass (risky!) or plastic (doesn’t clink!); it could be stemless, crystal clear or ornately decorated. The props designer may go through a dozen different wine glasses before finding the wine glass.
As a props designer, Katie Hopwood uses the script as a roadmap for what objects a show will need, but her imagination is a guiding force, too. As she and the director watch scenes come together, they often add or change props to help the story sing.
“Hope and Gravity is a comedy, so things aren’t exactly written in the script, but the director and I will have an idea of something we should do with the props to add comedic effect,” Hopwood says.
Each night after rehearsals, she reads the stage manager’s notes to see what adjustments might be needed for the show. Sometimes these are big changes, like an entirely new prop, or more subtle alterations, like a different size or color.
Actors rehearse with props, but Hopwood only sees the show in full during the design performance, when the artistic crew discusses how scenes look and pitch any last-minute ideas.
“Nothing’s solidified until there’s an audience,” she says. “I might pick something at the beginning, and then they’re like, ‘That’s not working for what we’re doing,’ and I have to find something different.”
Hopwood, who started with BETC in 2022, loves working on contemporary shows and getting to play around with a wide range of props, hearing other people’s thoughts on what suits a character or setting, and getting to flex her creativity — especially at BETC, where she says the cast and crew are highly invested in the success of each production.
“I work on a lot of BETC shows, and all the designers are always great to collaborate with,” Hopwood says. “Honestly, the Colorado theater community in general, I’ve had great experiences with.”
Erin Thibodaux, lighting designer
The stagelight shifts, a bright warmth floods the stage, and audience members find themselves clutching their chests at a heartfelt moment, overcome with the emotion of the scene.
When Erin Thibodaux lights a performance, she is thinking about exactly what angle, hue and tone will help tell the story. The size of shadows or timing of the lights can either pull the audience out of a moment — like if lights come up before a transition is done — or help the emotion of a scene hit them squarely in their feels.
The award-winning designer and Colorado native uses the script to note the show’s worldbuilding needs to guide her lighting decisions, but it’s only when tech rehearsals start that she can see the payoff. That leaves her with a short amount of time to make changes based on whether the light meshes with the sets, costumes and tone of each scene.
“It’s really important to work with the other designers to make sure you’re on the same page. For instance, I’m not picking a light color that clashes with the set or with the costumes,” Thibodaux says. “Oftentimes, there are collaborations where there are lights built into the set or built into props that need to light up, and then collaboration with the director to make sure I’m executing their vision.”
Once the show opens, Thibodaux hands over light controls to the stage manager and light board operator, and trusts that her designs are exactly what the show calls for.
“They help create the world the audience sees. They help create a world the actors can play in and live in,” Thibodaux says. “Having all these behind-the-scenes roles really helps bring the play to life in a way I don’t think a lot of people realize."