Leaning against her desk, drama instructor and all school play director Gleason Bauer points to a wall layered with photos and images, many from the Great Depression, that depicts the desperate, poor, and industrial atmosphere that this year’s all-school musical, Urinetown, hopes to portray.

The play is about “a world in which the right to pee for free has been taken away,” Bauer said.  It explores environmental destruction, corporation of natural resources, and the idea of “easy fixes,” she said.

Bauer hopes her wall of photographs will help the actors become informed about their characters and the overall look of the show.

“Theater is three-dimensional – words are limited.  It’s a lot easier for the girls to have images earlier, before costumes and sets show them the world of the play,” Bauer said.

Amanda ’11, who plays one of the rich townspeople, said that the images helped drive in the message of the show, especially by showing her things that were beyond her own experience.

“You wouldn’t really think of a public urinal in the middle of Hancock Park,” Amanda explained.  The images helped her get a grip on the message of the show, she said.

The play is timely, dealing with economic despair and environmental destruction, although it takes place in no specific time.  Bauer believes Urinetown is especially relevant while Marlborough concentrates on becoming eco-friendly.
“I chose the play because I was interested in doing something that both

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Hidden beneath two large platforms, Alejandra ’09 and Catherine ’09 use impact wrenches, 3/8 drills, and open-ended box wrenches to connect the two pieces, while Amanda ’11 and Rose  ’10 attach legs to another wooden platform.

By the time the all-school play, Urinetown, debuts, the new technical theater class, composed of four students and drama instructor Doug Lowry, will have built 75% of the set, an unprecedented feat at the school.

Drama instructors Tom Quaintance and Anne Scarbrough had the idea of a class that would teach students about technical theater, said Lowry, who was interested in teaching the class. Although students have been involved in Guild, the school’s technical theater club, this is the first course that allows students to focus only on technical theater.  

“It’s a very hands-on experience rather than a lot of lecture series. We discuss it as we go, but then they get the opportunity to do what they’ve discussed in an actual, practical arena,” Lowry said.

Students enrolled in the class will learn about lighting, set construction, scene painting, and then cuing and the actual running of the show, Lowry said. Currently,

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