Well, isn't this fancy?

Look at it coming out on stage after jaws.

Beautiful.

Set onto the set.

It is beautiful here.

This is a really cool set.

We're at South Bend Civic Theater.

I had my new friend Jordan with me.

You are in the ensemble for this beautiful cast.

Should have been you.

Yes, it's the name of it.

And you guys are opening this weekend.

Yes we are.

That is so exciting.

But we've got to see, I mean, this can you get an expanded version of this?

This is just beautiful.

I know we're going to dive in deeper to the set, but we've got to talk about the show.

Yes.

I haven't heard of this before.

I want to know all about it because it is a musical, correct?

Yes it is, that is correct.

Okay.

It's very fast paced, funny, musical.

It follows two families coming together from different worlds for a wedding, which I feel like is common.

Yes.

So we have a Jewish family and a non-Jewish family.

Okay.

And, you know, all the shenanigans ensue.

In-Laws that don't necessarily get along, there's, you know, the wedding is off and then it's on and then it's off for various reasons.

Oh, interesting.

So there's some back and forth.

So we're not going to give it away today.

Right.

Do they actually get married or not.

But you can tell me after this.

Yes I can tell you afterwards I am not one who likes to wait, right?

No, I don't blame you.

I need to know.

But that's really cool that you have the opportunity to kind of go back and forth.

And I think a lot of people can kind of relate to this too.

What kind of experiences have you had that maybe you're pulling from within this?

Yeah.

I have had my own wedding.

Oh, I'm sure that it's kind of interesting to have that perspective.

But honestly, I think just the fun of it all and trying to stay in the moment, and taking things as they come, as kind of what we do.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, this is a second story shot, which, yes, I've ever seen this before on this stage here.

Maybe it's been a while.

Yeah.

I feel like there's a lot of expansiveness now.

These doors you can actually go through.

Right.

This is not just for show.

You will be coming in and out of these doors to.

Yes.

Most of them.

Yes.

So how does that work with the fast pace?

Within the storyline?

Yes.

So there's a lot of a lot of rehearsing and it's almost like it's kind of own choreography, making sure people are going the right way because there's staircases back there that you'll probably get a glimpse of.

Okay.

But yeah, just making sure that you're going out the right door at the right time, and then somebody else has come in at the right time, making sure you're leaving pathways backstage for people to be running around quickly.

And of course, backstage is dark.

Yes, it is quite dark.

We do have some lighting back there, but I know if you're like in the other room, then we know it was supposed to happen.

Okay.

Totally supposed to happen.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now the show itself.

I know it's Thursday right now.

You guys are actually doing your soft opening to.

So it starts at 730.

If you're watching this right now, I'm going to head over to the show real quick.

That's really cool.

But you guys do something special before the start of every show that you put on top.

That's about that.

Yeah.

So it's the pay what you can preview.

It is the Thursday of opening weekend for every show, and basically it's an opportunity to make the show more accessible for people that might not be able to afford, a regular ticket.

So every Thursday, it's kind of like a final dress rehearsal, but we treat it as a normal show, and show must go on.

Yes, it must go on.

And you just pay what you can to get in to see the show and you can enjoy it that way.

I love it.

Now we're opening this weekend.

When does it go through?

It goes through May 10th.

So Mother's Day, Mother's Day.

So yes.

So this is a great opportunity to bring your mom or your mother's.

Yes, yes.

Maybe get some ideas or if you're planning a wedding, maybe yes, you could see all that could go right and could go wrong.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Now did everything go well in your personal wedding?

Yes.

It was a little hot.

We had a mishap with the cake, but we all know that.

Yes.

Okay.

But it tasted the same and everybody loved it.

So I had an in-law who hit my car and the party.

Oh, no.

That's my story.

That kind of relates to this.

Yes.

There's definitely some in-law tension in this.

That's fun to watch.

Okay, okay.

So, you know, be on good terms with your family.

Yes, yes.

Perhaps you'll see how it whether it turns out well or not too.

So okay.

So tell us what it's been like working with the cast.

It has been a blast.

We all get along really well.

Again, it's a very fast paced show, so we rely on each other to, have each other's backs.

It's very important in a show like this.

And we just, we love having fun on and off stage.

And I think that's what makes another thing that makes the show so great.

I love it.

I love it when we don't look inside these doors because this is beautiful.

Yes, I need to be on the set in this.

I know we came out of the doors to start, but this is pretty special here.

So yes.

So if you open one it's up.

So I don't need to hear right now.

What can free helpful for us to and we're, you know opening closing things quickly right.

Oh now we're in the foyer.

Yes.

And we can we can go right out there.

Come right back.

Now, this is pretty cool because we're actually heading backstage now.

And I have my friend over here who's actually working on the set.

We're going to dive into a little bit of that, but I see him over there.

There we go.

Hi.

Oh, hello.

Can we can we come in?

Yes, of course, of course.

Okay.

This is.

I have not been back here in quite some time.

There's a lot of woodworking going on.

Yes there is.

This is all you.

You are so talented.

I have watched you over the years.

I've been.

Thank you.

Civic theater.

Since I was.

Oh, God.

It's been almost 20 years.

Oh my gosh.

Yes.

I've watched your sets over the years.

Oh.

Thank you.

And this is really a top notch one.

Oh thank you.

Yeah.

This is a this is one of our bigger ones in recent memory.

Two story set.

Lots of doors, lots of staircases.

Lots of a couple of hidden magic tricks that will show if you come to the show.

Yeah.

So it's a it was a really fun build.

It's a really detailed build.

It's it's very big.

OSHA standards.

No comment.

Okay.

It is.

I was actually in Jordan before, too.

Have you guys ever built a second story in the set?

Oh, yes.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, we we do it.

We don't do it super often.

And it is definitely, you know, thinking of safety.

It is a real consideration when you build something, you know, walls on a one story set are going to be pretty flimsy and pretty basic.

Yeah.

You will build to the, to the occasion.

So if there's, if it's a fast and there's a lot of door slamming and all that, then you have to build those things stronger.

If there's a second story, we have to take it very seriously.

The actors need to be safe.

They need to be confident in what they're doing.

So this is actually built very much like a second story on a real house, I love that.

Can we go peek at it?

Yeah, a little bit too.

And I see you over here.

You've been working on the build designed to.

Yeah.

How long does that take you?

To think this through?

This is the director, right?

Our scenic designer, Jeff Rybak.

Does all the initial drawings and all the initial design.

And so he comes up with all of those ideas, he'll give us those concepts and like that drawing on the top, and then, and then we will go and create construction drawings to say how we'll actually build those things.

Okay.

And this was a conflict of interest at times that it's always a negotiation.

Absolutely.

This, set had some compromises because of fitting all the things we needed into the space.

This set is based on the Broadway design, and Broadway has a much bigger stage than we have.

So they're also always moving like you have to.

They're traveling Broadway touring.

Right.

You know, those sets are very flexible, too.

Yeah, but we had to be able to fit all this in.

And so when you look backstage, the staircases are all very tight and everything's close together.

And we had to figure out a way to get all those things to fit.

So that's always a negotiation with the director, the designer and the construction crew to get all of that worked out.

And that's so you can navigate through it.

Right.

All right.

Let's go take a peek.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because it's very cool to see behind the scenes.

I know this is not something that people in our audience always get to see, unless you're up here on the stage, which I always encourage people to get involved with your local theaters.

But looking back here, I can see multiple staircases, right?

You know, this is kind of like they're pieced together a little bit, right?

These staircases are from a previous show.

We've used these a bunch of times.

They're actually on wheels.

We can roll them around so we store them downstairs, and then we can roll them in for a show like this, when we need something either on stage or backstage, like it is in this case.

But then the staircases behind those staircases were built for this show.

Okay, so how do we get through it?

Well, if you want to, we can go up the main staircase.

We could come down the other one.

Whatever.

There's so many staircases here.

I need a map.

The easy way would just be to go up one of these.

See?

All right, we're going to go up the steps.

I'll meet you guys up here, but make sure you come watch the show.

Maybe you'll see me up at the top.

There we go.

All right.

So right out to the front.

Oh, there's more staircases.

Yes.

Yep.

There's the additional staircases that go down the other way.

So.

So, yeah, the the the balcony here leads back to these two staircases that go down either side.

These are visible by the audience through the doorways that open up.

Okay.

So that's and so this gives us an idea when an actor goes off and through the stairs, they're then they're coming up to the rooms upstairs.

But then the backstage cases, the audience has no idea those exist.

That's just a way for the actors to get to different spots.

Part of the theater magic, right?

Exactly, exactly.

So.

So it gives you a little bit of, you know, there's a lot of movement in this show.

There's a lot of action.

Yes.

And I have not watched it from backstage yet.

I bet that's entertaining.

Well, I hope everyone comes out to see this show.

It opens tonight.

Or actually it opens tomorrow.

Soft opening tonight with the final dress rehearsal coming for the next couple of weekends.

So make sure you get your tixs with South Bend Civic Theater.