Backstage Crew POV: The Women of Brewster Place

posted by Rachel Swan

Normally, I serve as Arena's Production Associate—I coordinate our visiting artists' travel and housing needs, facilitate their contracts, etc. Due to various factors, I'm helping out on the run crew of The Women of Brewster Place and I have to say it's amazing and I'm lucky to be able to help out! Largely, I'm stationed stage-right (when you're sitting in the house, looking at the stage, I'd be on the left) and work with the table that rolls on and off to the alcove far downstage (closest to the audience). The cast brings the table on and off stage, but I'm always there to hand off or catch it so they can make to their next entrance or costume change (there's a lot of costumes and tons of shoes!). It's while waiting for the table to be brought off stage that I get to view snippets of the show from a perspective that no one else has. For instance, during "Sing Billy," I get to watch Marva Hicks straight on as she and Tina Fabrique sing one of my favorite songs. The relationship between those two women is almost tangible, and it's just powerful; it reminds me of my dearest friends and how we've helped each other through rough times. Also, at the end of "Dumbass," I'm standing directly in front of the speaker that Cora Lee's children's voices comes through. I've finally stopped jumping when the first voice comes out!

For the end of Act I, I'm off stage left to help fly out the vines for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and then I stay there through "This Ain't a Prayer"—and that's another one of my favorites! Because the walls are all off stage, meaning they're tucked into the wings, I can't really see much, but listening to the profound words sends tingles up and down my spine. Tina's pure ferocity and the other women form this beautiful tableau of voices pushing past pain and suffering. If you've seen the show, you have to know what I'm talking about!

A little trick that I don't think many people catch onto from the house is that we disassemble the table to move it from the downstage right alcove up to one of the wings and actually attach it to one of the rolling walls for the last scene in Mattie's (Tina Fabrique's) apartment when Etta Mae (Marva Hicks) comes in and Mattie hands over her basil money. Yup, we actually take two of the legs off of the table, hoist it up-through a doorway and up some stairs and screw it into one of the walls!