Witness Uganda

I had the pleasure of working on the run crew for American Repertory Theater's recent production of Witness Uganda, a new musical relating the story of an aid worker with the Uganda Project.

Working on this show was great. Not only was it a memorable production in terms of music and quality, it promoted a very profound cause. Watching it night after night, I was amazed I didn't get tired of it, as we often do when working for months on the same show. I was very pleased my parents and relatives were able to come see it.

My title during the show was stagehand, but I also ran the follow spotlight for several big moments (to add another spotlight to the dedicated one). This meant a lot of pulling ropes and moving scenery, and then traveling through the building to get to the catwalks above the audience. It was pretty crazy, but we took steps to ensure everyone's safety during the run-- my own included. I certainly am in good shape now!

The set was pretty interesting for this show. We only used the area downstage of the proscenium, effectively making the stage much smaller and more intimate. The band was on platforms stage right. The main scenic element was a simple wood deck that rose and inclined to represent a hill (and various other things, sometimes). The scene shop used the "pit elevators" built into the theater to control this, and built a motor for the tilt part. It required two people to operate, and eyes onstage to make sure nothing and no one was under it. There were also projections on a huge screen/scrim setup, black masking that covered the screen horizontally and vertically, a few wood-and-steel, rustic scenery pieces that tracked on from the sides or were brought on by hand, and some dramatic, gauzy fabrics that moved across the stage as well. There were a lot of props in the show. Spanning between New York and Africa, there were a fair amount of culture shock elements to communicate, and the props and costumes really made that emphasis clear.

I'm hoping to continue working with the run crew at A.R.T. on their upcoming shows, Tempest and Finding Neverland. I made a lot of great friends between the crew, cast, and the Harvard Institute students involved. It certainly doesn't hurt to have a steady job for a few months during a show run-- right now I'm back to freelancing between Emerson and a few other places. Fingers crossed for the future!