At CHS, theatre is taken very seriously. From their award-winning Matilda Musical in 2022 to their state-of-the-art equipment, Cabot Theatre is one of the hardest working groups of people on campus.
This year, Cabot Theatre decided that Mary Poppins was the Fall musical, To See the Stars was the One-Act, and Seussical would be the Spring show. Though Mary Poppins and To See the Stars have had their stardom, Seussical has yet to be seen on the stage. Students are amped to see the work and talent that goes into this show starting later this March.
However, musicals don’t just appear out of thin air. Hard work and hours are required for the audience and the actors to enjoy them. One of the things that has to be perfect is the set.
Cabot Theatre’s Technical Director, Courtney Shepard, taught and instructed students to make these breathtaking sets.
“I auditioned for my high school play Alice in Wonderland and I did not get a part,” Shepard said. “I was told that I could work on the set and work in the lobby as a house manager. My big project in the shop was to make the mushroom for the mouse in Alice in Wonderland, and that’s how I fell in love with technical theatre. That was the very first time that I felt like I belonged somewhere.”
Shepard has trained a team of talented, brilliant students and teachers to help create these musicals from the ground up. One of the things they must figure out is what shows to do every single year.
“We decided to do Seussical as the spring show as a partnership for the final Walk for Wheezy event,” Shepard said. “Seussical was one of Eloise Owen’s final shows with Cabot Theatre, and this is our way to honor what would have been her senior year of high school.”
Planning a set can be hard, especially without the right tools. Shepard however was very professional in that area as well.
“First, I read the script for fun, and then I start reading the script to dig into all of those different locations and because there are so many locations I have to pick and choose what we are going to build,” Shepard said. “I will start working in a design software called Vector Works to put everything from the drawings I made into actual, buildable, technical drawings. Once it’s a technical drawing, then we can give those to the students to get the set built and up.”
This wasn’t just Shepard’s team of teachers working on the set. It’s students who took Technical Theatre 1, 2, or 3. These students worked on the set with their peers to make sure it looked spotless for the audience.
“Students in the advanced technical theatre II and III classes spend time designing the set at the end of the fall semester, and then we break the set down into smaller chunks to keep ourselves on track,” Shepard said. “When we get behind, we schedule Saturday work calls.”
The set is just now being built. School shows will run from March 3rd to 7th, and public shows from March 7th to 9th. Though lots of work still needs to be done, Shepard cannot wait for the outcome of this project.
“Whenever I see the set with all the lights and the actors on stage, I just sit back and I’m proud. I’m proud that my students came together to complete this. Once the show gets going, I just sit back and watch the students take over. This is the best part of my job because ultimately that is what I want to do. I want to teach kids to be able to do things on their own and to take responsibility for it with little input or help from me,” Shepard said.
