Long before the curtain rises on opening night, a lot of advance preparation and hard work has been invested behind-the-scenes. Loading in the set can be an intense, exhausting and complicated process for all involved. Spotlights & Sightlines recently spoke with a few national touring Production Stage Managers, the people responsible for managing the entire load-in process, to get an idea of what it takes to bring a show to life.

Under normal circumstances, the load-in process for a theatrical production takes between one to three days with the crew working the entire day of the show’s opening. An exception is THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, a show which Production Stage Manager Amy Marsico calls “enormous.” Marsico explains that they send an advance crew to the next tour stop a week before opening to lay down the deck and cabling. In addition to full-time crew members that travel with the tour city-to-city, each show hires a local crew which is comprised of electricians, carpenters and people who are specifically hired to help load and unload the trucks. The local crew can range from 28 people for a smaller show and up to 57 or so for a large production.

A typical load-in challenge that shows must continually deal with is the access of freight trucks to the theatre. “What makes an easy loading situation or a hard loading situation depends on our access,” explains Marsico. “For example, if we’re in Chicago and it’s a really busy street with lots of traffic and there’s not a loading dock bay or it’s not in a good position then that might take longer. The longer it takes for us to load in the more expensive it is.” With a minimum of two trucks, and up to 20 sometimes, it can get costly very quickly. There’s also the possibility of a set piece breaking during travel or while being unloaded and sometimes only hours before the show begins. Paul Smith, Production Stage Manager for TWELVE ANGRY MEN, recalls when the jury room door, an integral piece of the one-set show, was broken during load-in. “The show is about these 12 people being in this (jury) room and not being able to leave so you can’t do it without a piece of glass in the window. When that door closes and locks those people are in that room.” Fortunately, one of the local crew members knew someone who could repair the glass so the glass maker drove to the theatre, picked up the door, repaired it with the same exact type of glass and returned it in three hours. “That show we did not have the lettering on the door but its how you work. You really hope that you’re dealing with great professionals who really can help solve problems,” Smith says.

Some larger productions require a team to visit the theatre months in advance to conduct a site survey and ensure it’s capable of accommodating the show and large set pieces. In THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, for instance, one of the key set pieces is the giant chandelier that is lifted from the stage to the ceiling at the beginning of the show where it will quickly drop from later on. “We have to check to make sure there is enough reinforcement in the ceiling to hold the chandelier because it weighs two tons,” explains Marsico. “We do a steel install quite frequently if we feel that the theatre cannot handle the weight.” WICKED also does advance surveys in each tour stop and according to First Assistant Stage Manager Amy Tepel, those surveys help make the load-in process much easier and have helped ensure the show has not had any horror stories to this point. “It’s incredibly smooth for as big a show as WICKED looks,” she says. “There are a lot of people working really hard to make it seem that smooth but we’ve been incredibly lucky.”

SWEENEY TODD begins its’ First National Tour this season and the show’s Production Stage Manager Newton Cole notes that cast size and orchestras can also lengthen the load-in process. “We don’t have a big cast like other shows,” he says. “We also don’t have to tour an orchestra because the concept of this show is the actors sing and play their own instruments. That also takes down some of the time that’s required for the load-in and load-out. It’s a small show but it’s really so effective.”

Even though Cole has yet to load in SWEENEY TODD on tour, he doesn’t anticipate that it will be too difficult. However, he does remember the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS tour that left an indelible impression. “The original plant that was designed to grow and eat the universe, it weighed 15,000 pounds,” he recalls laughing. “The first time we tried to load it into a theatre, it was so heavy that the platform that it was being moved on sank into the asphalt in the parking lot. The holes, I suspect, are still there.”

By: Beth Cox