Lights, Stage, Action!

Students are the fuel that keeps Anne Simley Theatre running.

Words by Hanna Bubser | Photos by Sophie Warrick

Once you pass through the main doors of Anne Simley Theatre, you are transported to an area with so many working gears that it seems to live and breathe as a being entirely of its own. As impressive as it is, this theatre can’t run itself. There is an entire group of dedicated individuals who keep this machine running. Who are the great majority of these individuals? None other than a skilled group of Hamline students.

Anne Simley Theatre is under-appreciated by the general population of Hamline, and it shouldn’t be. The work these students are doing is not only important, but also pretty spectacular. What is the best way to shed some light on all of this? By going directly to the source (or, should I say, the sources): the shop managers. Through their enthusiastic leadership, they help fuel the energy that allows the theatre to keep producing shows year after year.

Shop managers are easily some of the busiest students on campus. They schedule work hours for staff as well as train and hire new team members. They also consistently attend meetings for the theatre department and above all supervise the students who work in the theatre. The managers become specialists in their field. Shop managers (with the help of department staff and faculty) are in charge of many areas including costuming, lighting, the scene shop (set construction), props, archives, media, and the box office.

Senior Holly Hepp is the Prop Shop manager. Her job requires a keen attention to detail.“

Often the set designer or director will be very hands-off in dictating what the finished props for the production will look like” she said. “I will be provided with lists of props a production needs and concept images as inspiration but from there the design of the props is usually largely up to me.”A

s a business student, Hepp is a great example of the variety of majors that can be found working in the theatre department. You do not have to be a theatre major to have a work study job there, help with a production, or even act in the plays and musicals. For people like Hepp, the theatre life is a welcome change from their studies.

Photo by Sophie Warrick

Noting that her favorite props to work on so far have been a battle axe used in this year’s She Kills Monsters and the bleeding knife for a production of Frankenstein, Hepp said,

My favorite part of working in the theatre is that it provides an experience that is a complete departure from the rest of my life at Hamline.

Hepp is just one example. There are countless stories of the trials and tribulations that go into an average day at Anne Simley Theatre. Sometimes, students are required to wear multiple hats. Senior Remi Remmey, a theatre arts and business management double major, has two distinct job titles: Assistant to the Production Manager (APM) and Facilities Manager. The APM works closely with the Production Manager and provides support where needed, such as budgeting, maintaining records, and labor hours.

“My freshman year there was a lot of miscommunication going on in the department,” Remmey said. “After interviewing all the shop managers at the time I created a job description that would assist the Department Chair and Technical Director [Bill Wallace] in his job.”

Photo by Sophie Warrick

After creating the job description, Remmey went through a formal interview and application process and interview. “So I basically created a job I ended up getting,” she said. "This role has been important to the department, so it will exist after I graduate in the spring."

The Facilities Manager oversees all of the rentals in Anne Simley Theatre. They ensure safety of the renters and the space, as well as make sure that contracts are being followed. “This job was an accident,” Remmey said of this particular role. “The previous Facilities Manager had to leave Hamline abruptly so Bill Wallace was like, ‘I trust you. Congratulations, you are the Facilities Manager now.’”

Even though it was another responsibility to add to her plate, Remmey was happy to do it, partially because of how much she enjoys working with Wallace, and also because of all the skills she has gained that can easily be applied to her degree.

I enjoy being challenged to find out-of-the-box solutions quickly for problems I didn’t know could exist.

Remmey continued, “I also love being able to see the entire picture. Because I have my hands in all the aspects of the production, I get to see how all the pieces of a show fit together.”

Maybe when you think about Hamline as an institution, you don’t see it as an art school. That’s because it’s not. But just because this university isn’t purely focused on the arts doesn’t mean that it can’t have a thriving artistic community. The theatre department is the exact embodiment of that. Students are able to major in theatre and get the proper training to enter the workforce after graduation with their degree. Or, students can choose to declare their major elsewhere and pursue theatre at Hamline as their side-passion.

Either way, the Anne Simley Theatre and its community provide a unique and valuable experience for all of its members. Each person involved seems to be working straight from their hearts. It is safe to say that we should be incredibly impressed with all the work these students do, and the imaginative space that they create. Stop by in-person sometime and see it all for yourself, or maybe even ask for a tour. You won’t regret it.