Designing Women
The Estrogen Power Behind Rochester Civic Theatre

By Michelle Saxton
Photography by Fagan Studios

Scene One: The curtain opens on a shabby, yet charming corner building on a busy street. Two women are sitting
on the front stoop chatting it up and enjoying the early May evening. The
audience gets its first glimpse of New Orleans, Rochester-style.

The two women are deep in conversation when Stanley Kowalski saunters up. He is rugged and good looking and, thanks to Marann Faget, resident costume designer for Rochester Civic Theatre, he’s dressed the part of a blue-collar street hunk from his too-tight T to his fabulously, just-right jeans.                  

Marann dresses him for success on stage. Mother Nature gets credit for his hunky demeanor.

Dressing the Divas and Dudes
In fact, Marann dresses all the characters, Stanley, Stella, Blanche, Steve and Eunice, to perfectly fit the role Tennessee Williams envisioned for them when he first penned A Streetcar Named Desire. Marann does her homework in “getting to know” the characters she’s outfitting.

Being the costume designer is much more than pulling something off the costume rack and calling it a day. “It’s about researching the parts so you understand the personalities of the characters. It’s having a vision of what the costumes will look like when they’re done. It’s about movement and how the outfits will look on the actors when they’re onstage. And it’s about doing a lot of laundry,”
she says.

Marann is just one of six women who work behind the scenes in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, just finishing its run in Rochester.

As the scene progress, Stanley stops in front of the building and hollers up to his wife, Stella. (Stella undoubtedly wonders why he can’t just come in the house to talk to her. But this is 1951 and Tennessee Williams didn’t build that kind of questioning into the original script.)

Imagine it, Build it, Move it, Move it, Move it
Stella walks down the front steps of the building on Elysian Fields Avenue to calmly greet Stanley. While the audience listens intently for what she’ll say to him, in another part of the theatre, resident scenic designer Sarah Aydlett considers the ease with which Stella descended the staircase. “The goal is not too steep, not too many steps, never slippery … something just right for graceful entrances,” says Sarah.
“I love the challenge of moving people within a certain timeframe. My challenge is in getting characters from place to place in the scene in a way that makes sense.”

The steps are just one of hundreds of pieces of the Streetcar set that volunteers put up, move around and tear down before, during and after the show. By final-curtain time, some 50 volunteers – who have been at the theatre night after night – are likely wishing they had been moving Sarah’s first version of the set, the miniature version that’s more apt to fit inside a shoebox. That’s how Sarah begins each set, with handcrafted, miniature versions of the eventual full-scale models.

Almost as quickly as Sarah imagines the scenes, Janet Roeder builds them. She is the “handyman” of the group and has been the veteran member of this woman-based workforce for the past 15 years. “I love getting dirty and doing what I need to do to get the job done. I love shopping for the supplies for the sets that Sarah creates. I handle all the technical aspects of the performance. I oversee the scene shop in building the scenes and I coordinate the volunteers to make sure we have enough backstage help for each performance.”

Janet’s official title lies somewhere between technical director, resident lighting designer and all-around go-to person for whatever questions need answering.

But her talents don’t end in the workshop; Janet also literally sheds light on what she’s crafted.

Lights and Literature
As each scene of Streetcar opens and closes, each mood, each moment, each memory is etched in light. Janet has a passion for creating the ebb and flow of each scene through the splash or subtlety of lighting accents. “As the lighting designer, I work closely with the director to determine how each scene should be illuminated … to tell the story through light. It’s an art form. I like to think that we all tell the same story, just in different ways,” she says.

True enough.

The storytelling continues during intermission. As audience members take a stretch break, they also take the opportunity to re-read the program handed out when they arrived at the theatre. They double-check their knowledge of A Streetcar Named Desire, remembering that Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh were the first televised Stanley and Stella, and they check to see if their friend’s niece is playing the part of Eunice. This is what they really want to know. Thanks to Mari Imaizumi the answer is in front of them in black and white.

Mari wrote the playbill and made sure there were enough copies to go around – approximately 1,500 for a show like Streetcar. She also took care of the advertising that piqued their interest enough to go see the show in the first place. Mari collected the bios from the actors so play goers could see who played the role of fading Southern belle, Blanche DuBois. And she wrote the press releases that appeared in the paper and took care of the announcement on the marquee out front. Without Mari, no one would have even known that Streetcar had come to Rochester.

“I went to school for economics and hated it. While going to school in Japan, I got involved with staffing the school festival and I loved that. From there, I worked in theatres in Japan doing behind-the-scenes work. I’ve been hooked ever since,” she says.

Setting the Stage
Mari’s spread-the-word persona is a dual effort with office manager Sinéad Chick. Without Sinéad, there would be nothing to put in those thousands of playbills Mari sprinkled around town. In addition to keeping the place running, Sinéad could be considered the starting and ending point for each show.

“In relation to the production, most of what I do happens before the show even begins and after the show ends. I make sure the production is available and the royalties and licensing issues are all dealt with close to a year in advance of the show.” She also ensures patrons have the information they need to continue their season memberships and book seats for the productions. With up to nine shows a year, Sinéad is always one step ahead of the rest of the workforce in making sure all loose ends are tidied up in order for the show to go on.

Sinéad keeps everything moving, and although it’s not always the most glamorous part, she makes sure the bills get paid and the lights stay on. Someone has to do it.

A Team Approach
Productions such as Streetcar require the concerted efforts of the team, yet highlight the individual talents of each member of the group. Members of this group complement each other in talents and sing high praise of their colleagues.

“Rochester Civic Theatre is a place where we can be ourselves while we help each other succeed in our overall goal of bringing the very best shows, the very best performances to the people of Rochester,” says Marann. “This theatre is filled with love.”