by Kristen Leinbach, Dramaturg As the months have passed, it is hard to believe that "We're finally here!" The show is well underway and we are thoroughly enjoying bringing the 1950's Italy to BYU. After beginning back in March with auditions, having production meetings throughout the summer, holding rehearsals starting in August, The Light in the Piazza opened on November 15th and will run through December 7th. In order for us to bring The Light in the Piazza to life here on the Pardoe theatre, a lot of work has been done back stage. The week before the opening of the show we held Tech week in order to add the final elements and polish the performance. The Light in the Piazza is the first of BYU's productions to implement what is known as a ten out of twelve tech rehearsal. Instead of having a full week of tech rehearsals we had one day where we rehearse for ten out of twelve hours on the Saturday before we went into dress rehearsals, preview and then performances. The performers, technicians and designers worked tirelessly in order to perfect the performance before we opened on Nov. 15th. One of the most amazing aspects of theatre is watching as words are taken from a script, memorized, discussed in production meetings, rehearsed in rehearsal spaces, designed, built, polished and then come to life on the stage. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="259"] After production meetings we began with rehearsals [/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="346"] Then we added Hair, Makeup, and Costumes to capture the beautiful essence of the 1950's[/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="259"] Next we prepared the lighting and the projections[/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="346"] We also had a great time taking production photos![/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="530"] Finally we brought all of the elements together in Tech Week[/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432"] "The Light in the Piazza"[/caption] The most enjoyable part of this whole journey, was the opportunity to discover what really is the Light in the piazza. I believe that answer is different for each person who worked on the show and for all of those who will come to see the show. Working on The Light in the Piazza has been a challenging and a wonderful experience as we have come together as a cast and production team to bring a little Light to the theatre and to each of our lives.
