Sadly, I have a handful of blurry iPhone photos (save for one or two) – but I learned a lot during our whirlwind backstage tour at Keller Auditorium. Let’s see what I can rattle off before they call me to my seat:
- The last time La Boheme was performed here in Portland was 2001; they’ve borrowed stage/scene elements from the San Diego production, while the promised colorful costumes came from Seattle.
- Scene changes take a mere 3 minutes between Acts 1 and 2, for example — but require 12 carpenters and 6 propmasters to pull it off. Intermissions will run 20 minutes, primarily to deal with the two different kinds of snow: dirty snow (which gets saved and reused to set the scene) and clean snow, which is amazingly soft and plastic-y.
- There are just under 20 children in tonight’s performance, and here’s the scoop — next year will be a ‘kid-heavy’ year, with auditions to commence next spring. When pressed, our tour guide refused to give any details, but I’m prepping my own kid Starting Right Now.
- This show is very prop-heavy, with the stove playing a pivotal role in Acts 1 and 4. There are several people appointed as stove-handlers and stove-watchers to make sure it does what it needs to do, when it needs to do it.
- And finally: keep your eyes on this. (Especially during Act 4, when I’ll be searching for my Kleenex that I didn’t bring…)
The pivotal stage element
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