In a little over a month Seussical will premier. Producing a musical is no small feat; more than 90 people work on the musical from start to finish. However, when November rolls around, we will only see 41 of these faces on stage. Now even if you aren’t great at math, you know that more than half of the people involved in the musical will not be on stage.

So here’s a behind-the-scenes, not on the actors, but the people whose work provides the technical expertise and craftsmanship that will give Seussical the whimsical and otherworldly feeling it will have.

During a work day for the tech crew, when I walked into the auditorium I was hit with the deafening sound of a drill, My eyes were immediately drawn to a group of people who were trying to solve a problem using fishing line. People were running around and I was reminded of the Whos bustling around getting ready for Christmas.

Maia Daly, a senior, is this year’s props master. This means she’s in charge of getting all the items that the actors will use. She’s had to find all sorts of
odd things including a fake cat that breathes and a full-sized bathtub. She has to get creative when finding props. “I went to my dad and I was like do you want to make me a tub? So that’s what I’m doing this weekend,” she explained.

Deep in a conversation with Daly, Emmalyn Muzzy ran up to ask a question about a stool. Muzzy, a junior, is in charge of costumes. When I asked what she was most excited about, her face lit up and excitedly explained her plans for taking old character shoes and using a tutorial she found on Facebook to create shoes for the Whos. Without hesitation she told me that the “moment when you just get to sit in the back and watch everyone up on the stage wearing all of the costumes that you picked out… and they’re dancing and singing and everything comes together in one moment, not just your hard work, but everyone’s hard work and it’s that one little moment that makes it all worthwhile.”

Jaynie Nelson, the face behind the aforementioned drill noises, is a junior. She was hard at work measuring and screwing in brackets, assembling the backdrop. She told me she loved working on crew because “It’s just being a part of it. It just brings me joy.” She just kept reiterating how being a part of crew was being a part of something bigger, a family. Her only regret with crew was not being on it every year.

These are just a few of the many people who put in countless hours behind the scenes. The amount of work they put in is incredible, and they are an integral part in making the musical what it is. If you want to come see the musical, to watch the actors, hear the songs, experience the live pit orchestra, be awed by the costumes, and be swept into another world by an artfully crafted set then get ready to buy your tickets for Seussical.

You can see Seussical November 17-19 at 7pm or November 20 at 1:30. Tickets will be available now at showtix4u.com.