In 2025 comes the new BAHS Musical. But that’s not all . . .

With a newly appointed stage crew keeper, Mrs. Beth Damesimo, and many new stage crew members, these two stage crew veterans will fill you in on the behind-the-scenes deets.

For those who do not know, our musical this year is the Drowsy Chaperone, a musical full of laughs about a musical based in the 1920s (we know, how meta what does this mean).

Our wonderful stage is full of many twists and turns and hidden secrets that we want to share with you.

Have you ever wondered, what is up in the spot booth, how do the lights work, does the stage have magic elves moving the props?

Not only does the BAHS stage crew get to roam around the back rooms, crawl spaces, secret spaces of our school, crew members get paid to do it.

Although the pay is minimum wage, it is a bonus for being in on the fun.

Not only do crew members have the opportunity to discover an out-of-bounds aspect to the school, they get to live an IRL Glee production.

However, part of working behind the scenes also means working without recognition which might lead to one question: what does it feel like to be under-appreciated?

So with this story we hope to not only bring intrigue to the theater and inform but to appreciate our stage crew who works very hard to perfect the finished product of our glitzy shows.

So what does being on stage crew entail?

There are multiple things you can ask to do or be—assigned—to do backstage for the musical. Pulling ropes, moving stage sets, operating lights, and being in the spot booth are just some of the niche tasks that you can perform backstage.

We have been in this club since our freshman year, working tirelessly behind the scenes to help bring our musicals to life.

During our freshman year, when we first joined under Mrs. Susan Metelsky, the then seniors showed us the ropes (literally) of how stagehands worked. We were taught how to move risers, pull curtains, and use ladders to take soundboards down.

To summarize, we were given cues to pull ropes lifting and lowering set pieces. That’s it, really. But for our younger selves (who had never had a job) this was a very fun and enticing opportunity. We got to earn money while watching a free show knowing that our work ensured a great audience experience. It can’t get any better than that.

Our sophomore year we were trained on the light board (Genna more than me. I can barely operate the computer). And we programmed the lights for Newsies. During each performance, we cued the lights and made sure they fit the vibe for each scene.

Genna was trained on the light board by professional lighting techs twice on both the auditorium lighting rig and the little theater’s rig.

But other than watching Mr. Schlenke (I mean Mr. Pulitzer) perform opera during each run-through, changing the lighting for each scene was the very exciting task we were given during the 2022-2023 musical season.

Last year, we were split up in our stage crew endeavors. (I know, very sad. However, we could bug each other over our headsets, yes we get headsets. You may be able to hear me giggling in the back of the auditorium during shows, but don’t worry, I am a professional.)

But we were blessed with several new crew members last year who made up for splitting.

I was named Stage Manager for the 2023-24 musical season and Genna Light Lead.

We both had a lot of fun last year (except for when huge set pieces would run over feet) and are excited to (hopefully) do it all again this musical season.

In addition, as you may or may not know, Mrs. Beth Damesimo became the musical director after Mrs. Metelsky retired. Mrs. D. has been essential in helping our stage crew function and we are very happy to have her.

Mrs. D. said that the crew “bring all of the fun stuff, the costumes and acting, lights and sets and complete the show.”

Mrs. D. also reported that “[stage crew] did a great job last year and I want to build on that with new stage crew members and those with experience.”

Along with a newly appointed staff Stage Manager, our stage floor was recently refinished in a matte black (the prior color was a very damaged maroon) pictured below.

This year there are 19 total members of the stage crew of which 18 will help with the musical. Joining our “unsung heroes” (proclaimed Ms. Pilarski) are 10 new members out of the 19. That is almost twice as much as last year! We hope that even more join the crew next year especially since many of us are graduating seniors 😢.

In the words of Sami González, “I love Stage Crew!” (Shoutout to the 2023-24 Musical crew!)