Coming off two shows, one with an intricate set and one with barely any set at all, Bradley’s department of theatre arts and its stagecraft team have already had a dynamic year, and it’s only halfway done.
For Chad Lowell, assistant professor, theatrical designer and technical director, the time and effort spent building sets serves as a creative expression, not only with himself but also with others.
“I love the collaboration with fellow artists, that in theatre, one person is not making art, but it’s a group coming together” Lowell said. “I love working together because you can always come up with better ideas as a group.”
Of those connections are ones with students, who Lowell said are given opportunities to grow their set designing abilities in the theatre department as well as expressing their love for theatre within a community.
“I think that’s what draws most people to theatre,” Lowell said. “It’s important to me to engage my students and not just have them observe but get hands-on experience.”
For the students to get that experience, Lowell said there are different levels for everyone to work with the skills they have.
“[Students] normally begin with working in our shops, so we have an electric shop, a scenic shop and a costume shop,” Lowell said. “So [they] usually start there, then [they] work up to working on props or working on some paints. Then, the more advanced students get to assist me on the show … Eventually, I would love to have students actually designing shows.”
Throughout his years of theatrical designing, Lowell said his main love for stagecraft is through the art of storytelling.
“I like moving people, whether it’s a comedy and just having them forget their worries for two hours or if it’s some piece that has a deep meaning and really kind of [affects] society,” Lowell said.
To make the set as good as he can, Lowell said he has methods that connects him to each show he builds a set for.
“I spend a lot of time with the script, with the written word, and [I] really try to analyze and figure out why the playwright wrote this play,” Lowell said.
Despite the effort he puts toward each show, Lowell said he likes being a part of the crowd during opening night and being behind the scenes.
“Opening night is exciting, and what I love about being the designer is [that] I get to sit amongst the audience, and I get to observe and feel what they’re feeling,” Lowell said. “We’ve talked for months and months about how we want to affect and audience because, at the end of the day, we do this for the audience. We do it because we love it, but the purpose is to affect other humans in some capacity.”
Since he spends time analyzing what the message of each play is, Lowell said he wants to make sure the audience is picking up the message themselves.
“One of the things that we like to do in design and what our goal is in design is if we’re not noticed [by the audience], we’re doing our job well,” Lowell said. “When I walk out opening night and hear people talking, I hear them say, ‘Wow, that was a beautiful set.’ That doesn’t make me feel good because they missed the point; they missed the story.”
Once a show is finished, Lowell said the set is torn down to make way for the next show, which used to affect his emotions.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” Lowell said. “I think early on I got too emotionally attached to my work … There’s something nice about and therapeutic about, we call it strike, which is the tearing things down, about putting a show away and cleaning up and finishing up.”
Even with the inevitable end of a show, Lowell said he always looks forward to the next show.
“I think one of the ways you know you’ve found the right area is that it doesn’t feel like work,” Lowell said.