On February 8, music teacher Susan Benna and drama teacher Sarah Buttiens took 22 students to the Appell Center for the Performing Arts.

During this day-long program, students rotated through three workshops focused on careers and jobs in the theater that are behind the scenes.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Upon arrival, Appell Center personnel brought students into the auditorium and had a meet-and-greet with the President of the Appell Center and the three professionals who ran each workshop.

They held a question and answer session where they discussed their experiences in theater, some of their favorite productions, and their process of creating their art.

The first workshop was in Audio Engineering, where students learned about the importance of sound effects and created sound effects for a short skit.

They were also given the opportunity to work on a soundboard. Alumni Max Halterman led students in this workshop.

Junior Amari Hulsey stated that his favorite part of the experience was learning how to use a soundboard and that it was very fun learning cues to use the soundboard.

The next workshop was in Scenic Design. The students were taught different set pieces and stage design. Then they read the introductory scene to Hedda Gable and drew a scene based on the description.

Since the scene description was very detailed, the scenic professional encouraged the students to have multiple drafts of their stage designs.

Hulsey said, “I really liked drawing for the scenic design portion because it gave me time to figure out how it looked in my head.”

The final workshop was Costume Design, where students learned about the professional’s way of envisioning and then creating her costume designs.

Her initial step is to gather research about the time period or create a collage for the designs. She then thinks about the characters after reading the story to get a sense of who the character is, so she makes sure to include this in the clothes and looks of the character. Her last step is to create a sketch of each of the characters’ costumes.

After her presentation, she gave the students a short fairy tale to read, then encouraged them to create a collage of one of the character’s costumes.

Hulsey also stated that they enjoyed

costume designing because he liked making a collage for the short story they read. They stated that their collage was based around his character’s personality and what colors matched the character’s personality.