I went behind the scenes at the Stratford Festival to watch a secret show that few ever get to see

Almost every day, dozens of Stratford stagehands pull off this tightly choreographed routine, tearing down one set and assembling another, all in less than three hours, so that two completely different shows can be performed on the same stage in a single day. It’s one of the unique quirks and traditions at repertory companies like Stratford, where up to four shows, each with their own designs and technical requirements, can run concurrently at the same venue. 

“The best part of the job is that almost every day is different,” said Scott Schmidt, a head carpenter with the festival, who spoke with me during a brief break in the changeover. “It’s always a ton of fun.” 

On the day I visited, Julie Fox’s seaswept set for “The Tempest” was being torn down to make way for Michael Gianfrancesco’s scenery for the musical “Guys and Dolls,” which was running that evening at 8 p.m. 

The two designs could not be more different. Whereas Fox’s set is anchored by a massive, rotating grotto on centre stage, marking Prospero’s cave on his magical island, Gianfrancesco’s designs evoke the sleazy world of 1950s New York City, filled with technicolour neon signs. Even the stage floors are different: While “The Tempest” uses a traditional floor, director Donna Feore’s musical calls for a semi-sprung surface to support her choreography. 

It takes a total of 21 stagehands to facilitate this particular changeover, and they function much like the cast of a regular show. Each has a specific role. Some are in charge of the sets. Others oversee props or the lighting. And each person on the team also has an alternate who, much like an understudy actor, fills in when they’re absent. 

The bulk of the work during the changeover is dedicated to disassembling and assembling the physical sets. 

Built in 1957 to replace the original tent venue, Stratford’s 1,800-seat Festival Theatre wasn’t initially designed to support shows with complex and hulking sets. In the early days of the festival, most productions were almost always presented on the theatre’s bare, wooden stage, with a simple balcony on the upstage wall. 

But as sets started to grow larger and larger, particularly with the introduction of musical theatre into the company’s repertoire, Stratford’s stagehands and technical directors have been forced to get creative. “It’s all like a puzzle of where everything goes backstage,” explained Gianfrancesco. 

One of the key challenges each season is getting everything to fit. A particularly tight backstage corridor just behind the stage means that all set pieces need to be broken down so that they measure no longer than nine feet in any direction. As a stagehand cheekily told me backstage during the changeover, the modus operandi of those working on the changeover is to “shove everything and anything wherever we can.” 

Indeed, every bit of space is used backstage. Small set pieces and props are stored in the hallways. In the dressing rooms, costumes are hoisted up on various pulley systems to offer actors more room. There are also three semi-trucks permanently docked backstage, offering more space for the stagehands to store set pieces that aren’t in use. 

While all that is happening, another changeover takes place high above the stage. There, Hilary Pitman, the alternate head of lighting on “Guys and Dolls,” is part of a small team tasked with adjusting the lights ahead of each performance. She alone changes anywhere between 50 to 60 light shutters so they’re all set for “Guys and Dolls” — all while strapped into a harness and gingerly navigating a network of catwalks located within the theatre’s rafters. 

“Each changeover presents its own challenges, but this one — ‘Guys and Dolls’ — is probably one of the most difficult because it has the most technical requirements,” said Pitman, who’s been with the company for a decade. “There’s just so much lighting in the show.”

It’s a similar case for William Malmo, the alternate head of props on “Guys and Dolls” who’s in charge of more than 500 individual pieces of props — from fake money and newspapers to handbags and lapel carnations. He’s responsible for ensuring that every prop is accounted for, properly labelled and at its pre-set location before the show. 

For him, Schmidt and Pitman, along with the other stagehands, executing the changeover smoothly comes down to practice. A lot of it. And what starts as a four-hour process is gradually cut down to three hours, then to two-and-a-half hours. 

“Before the start of performances in the spring, it’s insane,” said Fox. “We sometimes have to cut back on rehearsals because it takes so long to set up the set and also because the show before it is also running long. It just feels like an absolute catastrophe. But by the time we start performances, it’s like no problem at all. So, the incredible efficiencies that develop, just with people knowing exactly where to go and what to do, is always mind-boggling.” 

Even after performances begin, the stagehands continue to find new efficiencies. Just two weeks before my visit (and four months into the run of “Guys and Dolls”), Malmo found a new location to place a prop sign. “It’s all about making it easier for the actors,” he said. 

Yet even with all the repetition and practice, there are still times when things don’t go as planned. The day before my visit, a set of prop martini glasses in “Guys and Dolls” were broken and had to be brought downstairs to the festival’s prop shop for emergency repairs. It’s all part of the nature of live theatre. 

But when everything does go smoothly, the changeover into “Guys and Dolls” is completed by no later than 7 p.m., when the stage needs to be handed over to the actors for a mandatory fight call. By then, the theatre looks completely transformed from what it was just three hours earlier. The changeover is complete. And the stagehands exit in much the same way that they entered — no applause, no bows, just ready to welcome a new house of audiences. 

“The Tempest” runs until Oct. 24 and “Guys and Dolls” runs until Nov. 1 at the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St., Stratford, Ont. Visit stratfordfestival.ca for tickets and more information.