Local Volunteers Help with Props for 2023 Productions
By Liz Armstrong
Over the last couple of weeks, around 15 local volunteers came to the Utah Shakespeare Festival to assist in set design and props for the 2023 productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Greenshow.
Working closely with Properties Director Ben Hohman, Assistant Properties Director Marielle Boneau, and Assistant Guest Services Manager Kris Bahr, these generous volunteers glued over 700 trim rosettes for the mossy forest walls in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On other days, they helped build prop fairies for Appalachian Night of The Greenshow.
“Quite often we have an idea from a director or designer that is beyond the scope of the labor we have allotted to us, but the idea is such a good one that we want to find a way to make it happen,” Hohman said.
These volunteers were the answer! Hohman estimated that nearly 300 hours of volunteer labor went into making the rosettes for the set, while 100 hours went into the making of over 200 small fairies. These fairies will be given out over the course of the season to some of the younger guests during the Appalachian Greenshow.
“We have an amazing group of volunteers who are always willing to pitch in and help out with any aspect of the Festival,” Hohman said gratefully. “We sent out a call and they answered in droves!” Since it has been three years since volunteers gathered to help due to pandemic restrictions, it was a welcome group.
“We cannot express enough gratitude to these unsung heroes,” Bahr lovingly expressed. They were Myra Nelson, Jeannie Rowe, Jim Shammot, Jayne Banks, Sherry Price, Shari Tagney, Linda Tagney, Michelle Decker, Bev Mudd, Jim Mudd, Marva Huntington, Mindy Kropf, Lynn Rogers, and Marilyn Smith.
Hohman expressed that these two projects simply would not have happened if not for the amazing, talented, and dedicated local volunteers who are always ready and willing to help the Festival.
“We are so grateful that they stepped up and allowed both of these productions to have a more complete design due to their efforts,” Hohman said.
To see the hard work that goes into set and prop design, visit bard.org to purchase tickets to this 2023 season.
