By Shannon Silvia, Contributor
With the upcoming production of “Legally Blonde” just around the corner, the Manhattan College Players are working very hard to make sure they have all their lines down before opening night. However, the stage crew is doing all the hard work behind the scenes helping to bring life to the play.
Silvana Acierno, a freshman chemical engineer major at Manhattan College, can be found working as a scenic designer on the “Legally Blonde” set. Silvana’s job as scenic designer comes with strenuous hours of painting and sometime even helping build various parts of the set.
“I’m a scenic artist, and I basically paint, set design and [choose] different color schemes. I work with the director and we put together the different colors for the set and I help out with designs for the stage,” said Acierno.
Michael Kiely, a freshman physical education major, is also part of the hard work behind the scenes of the upcoming play. Kiely does more of the physical labor that comes with being a part of stage like building various aspects of the set.
“Personally, I build the sets with [my friend] Kirk. We follow the plans given to us by our director Marty and then we help Silvana paint,” said Kiely.
Both Kiely and Acierno worked on stage crew for plays in high school, which is where they both developed a passion for it. Their time in high school was so unforgettable that they decided to seek out an opportunity to continue their passion at Manhattan College.
“I actually did stage crew in high school my junior and senior year and I loved it so much… and I made some of my best friends there,” said Acierno.
Working on stage crew isn’t all fun and games. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make sure the set comes out the way that that the director has envisioned it. When you are on a time limit and have a small crew, it can make things even more difficult.
“There’s usually only three or four of us building the set at one time and painting it. So that’s stressful, there’s a lot for us to do but it gets done and we’ve gotten more help lately which is nice,” said Acierno.
Despite all the stress that comes with time management and hard physical labor, the two crew members agree there is an extremely rewarding feeling that comes with it. Especially when you are able to stand back and see the final outcome of all your hard work.
“When you step back after working hard for a couple weeks and you can actually see the set in front of you. You’re like, ‘wow I put that together,’ it’s kind of nice,” said Kiely.
“Legally Blonde” comes to Manhattan College Apr. 6 to 9 in Smith Auditorium.
“I’m so excited, I think it is going to be amazing! The cast put so much effort into it, we put so much effort into building it, it’s going to be a really good production,” said Acierno.