The Observer

Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: News

Senior Brad Hughes' production of "West Side Story" opened Thursday, Oct. 29. Hughes, who is also studying for his M.S in electrical engineering, has been invovled in musical theatre since he was in high school. [Click to enlarge]

Bradley Hughes, a senior electrical engineering major, meshes his love of mechanics with his love for the arts. In his latest creative endeavor, Hughes has taken on the role of director for the Case Footlighters production of "West Side Story", which opened Thursday, Oct. 29.

Gianela Diaz-Gaines : So what made you get involved with the Case Footlighters?

Bradley Hughes: I'd always done musical theater in high school. I'd always done sound and light, mainly light. I came to Case in the Fall and I had a lot of extra time on my hands. I went and saw Reefer Madness, which was Case Footlighters' production at the time. I was immediately surprised at how professional it was for a school sponsored thing. You could get a budget of $35,000 for each performance, but I saw Reefer and was like, Wow this is actually entertaining. I really enjoyed it. The reviews were good. There were a couple of technical areas that I thought the Footlighters could improve in: so I approached the Footlighters and asked them if I could apply some of my previous technical theater experience to the Footlighters, and they said, "Absolutely, come on down." And I ended up being the light and sound tech for Beauty and the Beast.

GG: Cool, so how much work is actually put into these productions?

BH: So there's several facets of a production, and the Footlighters run it all. We go from audition the first weekend before classes start to rehearsals pretty much every day of the week except Friday. We had rehearsal Monday through Thursday and including Saturday day rehearsal. We have a choreographer to teach the dances. I'm the director so I have to go do the walk-through of the show. We have a vocal coach to teach everybody the music. We have a pit conductor: it's an undergraduate that conducts the orchestra. We have a technical director that designs and builds the sets. We have a stage manager who buys all the props. We have a costumer who buys all the costumes and has the artistic vision for the costumes. We have a house manager who is just in charge of setting up a house, selling tickets, and advertises the show. The public relations person has to make a show program. So there are all of these diverse facets. All of the Footlighters are undergraduates, completely random, with different majors. I am an engineering major, and I'm directing a show.

Continued...

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