Crew brings Chekhov to life

The technical crew has been working for weeks before “Three Sisters” premieres on creating the setting for “Three Sisters.”

“I wanted the set to transport [the audience] to another place,” director Casey Biggs said. “The set makes magic in the theater but I wanted the set to support the play, not be the play.”

The set designer, Andrew Wallace, worked to make sure that the set accurately reflects early 20th century Russia. Building the set was a bit of a struggle for the production due to time and budget constraints. Every piece of wood available was used and the set design was kept simple.

Master carpenter Tim Jones oversaw the building of the set, often working on weekends to ensure that it would be ready. In a class called “stagecraft,” freshmen built much of the set, with Jones advising their work.

“One of the things I do for my job is to make sure that anything that breaks during rehearsal gets fixed by the next one,” Jones said. “Projects need to go well, and not be done twice. There is no time and nature for that.”

Biggs has been pleased with the results.

“I thought I was going to have to come up here and do a rough and tumble production,” he said, “When I came up to meet everybody, I was blown away at how thoroughly thought through the elements of the production were and that’s thrilling that people will come in here and have a true theatrical experience.”