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<\/a>But the trick is getting it right. It\u2019s seemingly as easy as falling down a flight of stairs.<\/p>\n
Senior theater major Brooks Shatraw can attest. The Smithfield, Rhode Island<\/strong> resident plays actor Garry Lejeune, who plays Rogert Tramplemain in \u201cNothing On.\u201d In the third act, with the wheels coming completely off, Tramplemain tumbles down those stairs \u2013 14 steps in all \u2013 landing face- first at the bottom.<\/p>\n To perfect the fall, Shatraw worked with Max Ponticelli, a lecturer in the Theatre Department with an expertise in choregraphing fights and falls, breaking it down step by step. \u201cI have to miss one of the steps with my foot, then use the railing and then smack into the wall and then twirl down,\u201d says Shatraw. \u201cI have to look like I\u2019m out of control but still be in control so I don\u2019t hurt myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a dance,\u201d says director Chris Simpson. \u201cHe\u2019s had to isolate each move, link them in combos and then link them together fluidly to get all the way to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n And, of course, it had to be done without Shatraw breaking his neck. \u201cMy big thing with a show like this is safety,\u201d says Mary Grace Moran, assistant scenic designer. \u201cWe had to make sure the stairs were carpeted to cushion the fall a little bit and the banister was solid to support his weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Shatraw\u2019s plunge is just a small part of the physical comedy that produces many of the laughs. Actors rush about, running through slamming doors or up and down stairs, wrestling with axes or whisky bottles, and carrying each other about. And central is the scenery, designed by Jeff Modereger, resident scenic designer at the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n The set is massive \u2013 two stories, three sets of stairs, eight doors. For the pivotal second act, where audiences see the chaotic backstage infighting of \u201cNothing On,\u201d it actually pivots (thanks to three stagehands) \u2013 and again for the final act.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about as big a set as any show that has a single set,\u201d says Simpson, artistic director for The Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield, Rhode Island.<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s as big as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe show dictates what the set has to do because the comedy is very specific,\u201d says Modereger, who worked with Moran and 溏心vlog免费B站 resident tech director Jake Hegnauer to build the set. \u201cThe set is like a character. If it doesn\u2019t work, there is no humor.\u201d<\/p>\n Design for the set came from Modereger\u2019s plans for 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre\u2019s 1992 production of \u201cNoises Off.\u201d The drawings were still in the 溏心vlog免费B站 scene shop, and Hegnauer, then assistant tech director, had worked on the original set. Construction started in mid-October, but actors didn\u2019t get their first chance to rehearse on it until about two weeks ago.<\/p>\n Without the physical set, actors learned their blocking on a mock set of walls, doorways and stairs, drawn out in color-coded tape on the stage floor. \u201cWe spent two hours and took the ground plan and literally taped out every inch,\u201d says stage manager Alyssa Frederick, a senior theater major from Groveland, Massachusetts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hardest part was that there are two levels,\u201d said Kassabian, of Wakefield, Rhode Island,<\/strong> \u201cso some of the [taped] doors were in the same places as the doors on the second floor. We never remembered which doors to go through until we got the set.\u201d<\/p>\n When it was unveiled, the set became the rehearsal, said senior Danny Greene, of Easton, Massachusetts,<\/strong> who plays Frederick Fellowes\/Philip Brent. Simpson gave the ensemble cast of nine actors time to familiarize themselves with \u201cevery corner and danger.\u201d<\/p>\n With a set of two floors, eight doors and three staircases and a play that feeds off the actors\u2019 energy, some of the actors have had to do more than learn their characters, lines and blocking.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of us have been going to the gym more. We are literally dripping sweat, especially after the second act,\u201d says Kassabian, whose character executes a dash across the stage, up a set of stairs, and back across the second floor \u2013 carrying a cactus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second act you never stop,\u201d agrees Shatraw, who gets in a half-hour of cardio every day. \u201cI\u2019m running the entire time so I have to make sure I can get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n The second act, when backstage shenanigans and tugs-of-war overshadow what\u2019s going on onstage (off stage for the audience), is a \u201csignificant feat for an actor,\u201d says Simpson. \u201cIn all the plays I\u2019ve worked, it\u2019s one of the most demanding, when everyone in the ensemble is basically constantly onstage one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNoises Off\u201d runs Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and Dec. 6-8 with shows starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert E. Will Theatre at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, on the Kingston Campus. On Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, shows begin at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n