As the Theatre department readies itself for its second opening day this season, tech week for “33 Variations” is coming to an end. Night after night of perfecting lighting, cues, set transitions and costuming will come to fruition as audiences watch in the Branding Iron Theatre the cast and crew’s development of a unique and thought-provoking story written by playwright Moisés Kaufman.
“33 Variations” focuses on the story of a modern esteemed New York musicologist, Dr. Katherine Brandt, who is played by Maya Schultz, senior Theatre Performance major.
“While studying Beethoven, Katherine stumbles across something odd,” Schultz said. “She discovers that Beethoven was obsessed with Anton Diabelli’s Waltz, which was a mediocre piece from the early 19th century. Beethoven devoted the rest of his life to studying this waltz and writing 33 variations of it.”
Beethoven’s fascination with the waltz puzzles Dr. Brandt, so she travels to Germany to investigate the strange obsession. While there, tragedy befalls her and audiences see throughout the rest of the play a parallel between Beethoven and Katherine that expresses the nature of courage in the face of grim reality.
“It’s interesting to watch how the idea of hope through suffering is timeless,” Dakota Brown, sophomore Theatre Performance major, said. “There is a mutual understanding across the time barriers between Beethoven and Katherine for this reason.”
One distinctive aspect of the show is the presence of Dr. Denise Parr-Scanlin of WT’s music department, who will be onstage for the duration of the show and will play each of the 33 variations of Diabelli’s Waltz as they are written into the play.
“33 Variations” is only one of the shows put on by the Theatre department this season. Their first show was “The 39 Steps,” and following “33 Variations” will be “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”. Every show presents its own unique challenges to the cast and crew.
Schultz said, “This show is extremely technical, with so many cues to run through. Our next show, ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,’ has an amazing cast that I think will be up to the exceptionally challenging music in the show.”
The process behind each show’s presence in the season is determined by a collaboration of directors and students.
“We all get together in a big meeting, and the directors discuss what they may want for the next season,” Brown said. “Students give feedback and suggestions to the directors, but it is ultimately their decision what goes into the season.”
After the shows are chosen several months in advance, the audition process begins.
“We can see the script beforehand, and find monologues or music based on what the directors are looking for,” Schultz said. “The whole process is a little bit stressful, but fun.”
Next, the props, costumes, and sets are purchased or created by the Theatre department.
Stephen Crandall, Assistant Professor in the Theatre department, said, “We have a large prop and costume storage to pull from, and the sets are mostly constructed on-site in our scene shop. We have our scene shop foreman, our technical director, and an army of students and Theatre majors that work in the scene shop to get everything constructed.”
All of these elements combine in order to produce the impressive plays and musicals highlighted by WT’s own Theatre department.
In the past few years, WT’s Theatre department has made progress in several areas.
“We were recently granted national accreditation as a Theatre program,” Crandall said. “Our numbers of majors in this program have increased in the past few years, and we’ve even added a sixth faculty member to the program. Most of all, I think we are continuing to strive for excellence in our training and in the program itself.”
The effects of the program on its students make for a closely knit group of people.
Crandall said, “The most distinctive feature of this program is the collaborative environment in which we work.  As a faculty, we work together to create an encouraging and family sense among the students.”