To put on an entire play in a month sounds like a huge feat to conquer, but the cast and crew of “Deathtrap” wasn’t scared of this challenge. Not only did they produce a play in the month of J-Term, they did it absolutely fabulously! The play Deathtrap is a complex story, full of twists and turns that would take any actor months to fully comprehend, but especially for the character of Clifford Anderson. Gavin Webb ’26 had to act within his role because his character is revealed to have double crossed the characters within the story.
“Me and the rest of the cast did all their character work within one to two weeks,” Webb said, in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
With this being a class, there was more time to work within the characters, but as he explained the process of the play, it appeared that all of the cast and crew ate, slept, and lived within their roles.
Rehearsals consisted of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. days, with actors and crew swapping in and out throughout the day, so that in the end it would result in 30 hour weeks. Crew would work throughout the day and then the actors would come in at about 3 p.m., unless they were helping the crew, when they would then come in earlier. This routine made it so that by the end of the first week, the actors were off book with the first act and running through it, before undergoing the same process with the second act. The crew by the end of the month had the whole box set completed. It was designed by set designer and Theater Technical Director Megan Riley.
By the end of January, the play was ready for tech week. All of the hard work, from set building to character work, was finally all culminating into a play that, as an avid theater-goer, was not only spectacular, but a breath of fresh air. I was amazed constantly throughout the play, from the stunt work that the actors accomplished, which was made possible because of a fight coordinator who was brought in. This choreography, plus the strategic placing of fake blood bottles around the stage, made the fear of murder evident in the play. I forgot about everything in my life as I sat watching the performances, and was so enticed and amazed that when the lights came up for intermission, I almost forgot I wasn’t in the play with all the characters. I thank the theater department for putting so much effort into this performance, and for bringing back this tradition of having J-Term plays after temporarily pausing it last year.
