This translucency cube is among the student works in display in the exhibition “Backstage Tours."
An Emmitt Christian Gallery exhibition is offering a unique look at the productions of the 2024-25 Mainstage Series.
“Backstage Tours” opened April 3 in the gallery, which is the second floor of the Rockefeller Arts Center. The exhibition is free and open to the public and runs through April 16. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The exhibition features student costume, lighting, props and set pieces from the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series productions of “Legally Blonde,” “The Book Women,” “Alicia’s Lens,” and “Twelfth Night,” as well as the Hillman Opera production of “Cosi fan tutte,” and class projects from the Theatrical Production and Design B.F.A. program.
Czerton Lim, an associate professor of Scenic Design, said the exhibition offers an opportunity to “take a close look at the work that happens before the house lights dim and the show begins.”
The goal of the exhibition is to showcase the work that the students do behind the scenes to make these Fredonia productions “as artistically and technically exceptional as possible.”
The Fredonia Department of Theatre and Dance involves its students at every level of these productions. Its academic program is designed to “ready students to be active collaborators in the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series, training them in the skills needed to participate fully in the production work, from first-year students just beginning to learn all that goes into making a production, to third- and fourth-year students taking leadership positions as designers, stage managers, and technical supervisors. This combination of theoretical work in the classroom and practical application in the performance spaces uniquely prepares our students for the professional world.”
The exhibition offers a chance to see the work of these students up close. The department notes that these students are “brilliantly creative artists, excellent problem solvers, and skilled craftspeople.”
The goal of the exhibition is to allow gallery visitors to enjoy this sampling of student work, “both from the studios where they learn and hone those skills and from the productions where they apply and expand upon them in real and tangible ways.”
“Backstage Tours” is made possible with the assistance and support of the Fredonia Student Chapter of United States Institute for Theatre Technology and the Department of Visual Arts and New Media.
