Hi everyone!

The Creative Arts Department is putting on their very first performance of “Endgame” TONIGHT and I couldn’t be more excited! Endgame was written by playwright Samuel Beckett and tells the story of protagonist Hamm, who is living with his servant Clov, his father Nagg and his mother Nell in a world that is recovering from some type of apocalyptic disaster. The play is directed by David Girard and features not only a cast of incredibly talented Siena students, but a set that has been designed and worked on for months by Siena’s technical director Obidiah Savage and professional Broadway set designer Colin McIlvaine.  The light sequences have been constructed together by professional Greg Solomon, who has also worked with Broadway performances.

I was able to stop by the Beaudoin Theater yesterday to get a behind the scenes look at the set and the design behind it and I truly found the process absolutely fascinating.  I was involved with musicals all throughout high school, but in the performance sense.  I knew very little about the intricate details that must be incorporated into building a set and “teching a show” and hearing Greg, Colin, David and Mr. Savage speak about the time and effort that went into preparing for this performance was very impressive.  Greg, Colin and David have all worked on various performances of “Endgame” before and know the show from every angle.  They were able to point out on the physical set why objects have been placed in certain positions and their ideas just kept bouncing off of each other, like they had been friends their whole lives! They also LOVED Mr. Savage, who I have had the pleasure of meeting a few times! Mr. Savage is incredibly talented when it comes to the technical aspects of Siena’s performances and his expertise is one of the main aspects that makes the Creative Arts Department’s performances and concerts so successful. The set truly wasn’t like anything I have seen before, as a lot of sets in plays and musicals are very intricate and have a lot of moving parts.  This set is very simple and very structurally sound and only displays one room with a couple of other objects, including a tattered armchair.  However, Mr. Savage, Colin, David, and Greg emphasized in the presentation yesterday that the set is going to be vital to the understanding of the entire performance and I cannot wait to attend tonight!

Are you going to see “Endgame”? Have you ever seen the play, or performed in it before? Let me know in the comments below!

Julia (Student Intern)