Putting on a show

In the Little Theatre’s newest production, there’s a killer barber on the loose, but putting together a unique and large-scale production like this wouldn’t be possible without a skilled and dedicated team.
Kathy Purdie, the technical director for Little Theatre’s production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” explained, “we have hundreds of hours in the set, seriously, we have people literally hand painting the back scene for 1846 old London.”
The set includes an insane asylum, the judge’s house, and a rotating cube, which features steps up to Sweeney Todd’s place and Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop. “It’s multi-purpose,” Purdie said of the rotating set piece. “It moves.”
“It was all designed and drawn out on a computer using SketchUp,” orchestra director Suzette Kuklok said. Kuklok’s husband, Mark, is the set designer for the production and put countless hours into conceiving and designing what is seen on stage.
By utilizing the computer software, Mark can demonstrate how the set will look to those who work on the production. “The beauty for anyone working on the show is that when he does that, he gets 3D pictures, and he can show you what it’s going to look like, and then when you’re blocking it, you have a better idea than in the old days,” music director Bev Cashman explained of Mark’s designs.
The play also features a 12-piece orchestra, which means the production will include live music rather than pre-recorded sections. “I’m spending the next few weeks with 12 of my best friends,” Suzette Kuklok said of the orchestra.
“This is very challenging music, the dissonance, and the rhythms,” LTO’s board president Mike Jensen opined of the music, which was written by renowned composer Stephen Sondheim.
Because of the challenge of the music being notoriously difficult, Cashman had some of the cast meet at a local church and practice there prior to production. “It’s amazing to go from nothing to production ready,” she said.
“There’s this one song, a reprisal that happens in the second act, and it has a quartet in it, and I’m very fortunate that I get to sing in it,” Kaitlin Baumann Hohenstein, who plays the Beggar Woman, said of one of the musical numbers. “It has a lot of important action taking place and a lot going on. It’s very well written, and it was very hard to get down. It almost seems like you get some sort of satisfaction by conquering the Sondheim music.”
In order to give the production that authentic Victorian London feel, there is also the matter of props. “If you have 18 people on stage and they’re all in the same establishment, then they should have 18 cups,” Gail Zollner, a prop gatherer for the play explained. “And sometimes there’s not something you have, so you just have to make it.”
“It’s very much a community effort with a production of this size, with music, and props, and so many people on stage, and to pull off the costumes,” Zollner said. “People have to change out of costume multiple times, and to keep track of all of that.”
With a cast of 33 people, and a crew of over 40, along with the 12-piece orchestra, as well as the box office people, and ushers, those involved in the production easily climbs to 100. “I think it will be the largest show of the year,” Purdie said of the large-scale production and all of the effort that goes into it.
“Owatonna and the surrounding area are such strong supporters of the Little Theatre,” Cashman said. “It wouldn’t be possible without that support.”
Although the story can seem bleak at a glance, there is both humor and pathos to the tale of Sweeney Todd. “He was sent away because the judge fell in love with his wife and spent at least 15 years in prison and was hoping to come home to his wife and daughter, and that didn’t happen, and so he was very angry,” Purdie said of the plot of the play.
“It starts off as a story of love, because he loves his wife, and he loves his daughter,” Cashman added concerning the play’s themes. “Then it becomes a story of how revenge eats him up and how it can eat people up.”
The play features a large cast of veterans and newcomers, including Kenneth Griswold, who plays the character of Adolfo Pirelli, a rival barber to the titular Todd. “We added bits and pieces, and started with costumes a couple weeks ago, because with a production like this you have to get up on stage and see what looks good,” Griswold said of adding costumes to the cast’s rehearsal regimen.
“I would say that my character is comic relief,” Griswold explained of his character. “In a play like this which has sort of dark, macabre elements, you got to have dark humor too. I think that’s what makes it tolerable. It’s very fun to play.”
Finding the right look for the costumes actors like Griswold wear also involved behind the scenes work. “We had to add rags to the costumes and make them look beat up,” costume designer Norma Louis said of getting the costumes ready for the dreary setting.
“Most of the costumes are from our collection,” she explained while adding that the production features a scene with masks made by Melanie Jackson, a new member of the costume staff. “The masks are gorgeous, they’re just works of art.”
It takes a lot of time and effort to get a production like this off the ground, but with a dedicated group of people from the community, the Little Theatre is able to take on any challenge. “It’s been fun for me, because I’m able to come in periodically and see it take shape and all come together,” board president Mike Jensen said of witnessing the growth of the play from the beginning to opening night.
“LTO definitely has a long history, this is our 53rd season, and those who came before us certainly paved the way and did some wonderful things and had a lot of foresight into the future,” Jensen explained of the theatre’s continued success. “We’re trying to do that as a board and continue that legacy into the future.”
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” will be showing on Feb. 21-23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Little Theatre of Owatonna. There will also be a Sunday matinee on Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.