Big Fish: “Larger than Life!”

A behind the scenes look at what it takes to put on a show at Woodford Theatre

Kennedy Johnson, Staff Reporter|September 21, 2017

The cast in their final pose of one of the scenes (Image Source: Kennedy Johnson)

In the upcoming month, Woodford Theatre will be putting on the musical production, Big Fish. Big Fish is the story of a broken father-son relationship, in which father (Edward Bloom), has always told fascinating stories throughout his son’s (William Bloom) life, but as William grows up, he begins to think his father never actually told a true story. When Edward gets sick and is on his deathbed, William travels to see him and discover the truth behind his Dad’s stories. Throughout this musical, there are multiple points in the story where flashbacks take place.

Pictured: Vanessa Becker Weig (back), Jordan Guffey, Jeni Benavidas, and Alyssa Sturgil (Photo by Kennedy Johnson)

When most people go to see a Woodford Theatre show, they probably don’t think about the work that goes into putting on a full-length show and how many people are actually involved in the production, both onstage and off. To start, this show has around 14 people on the production team. Though this number does not seem very high, imagine having to collaborate with that many people about how to put on a full-length show. The hard work starts to pay off during the first week of October, as the cast goes into tech week. Tech week is the week before opening night, and this is when things really come together. The actors start using mics, makeup, costumes, and the musicians come in, and the lights finally hit the stage. The production team and cast members are usually at the theatre until 10 p.m. The cast and crew for Big Fish are dedicating a lot of time and energy to this production, and the hard work is not over yet. The cast recently started working on their circus characters, and they have a lot in store for you from snake charmers to stilt walkers.

This show is full of many familiar faces from other productions, but Big Fish has two familiar faces from Woodford County High School: junior, Bella Wolfe and senior, Makenna Henehan. Both Bella and Makenna are very busy students, as Makenna is gearing up for college and Bella is currently in what is said to be the hardest grade in school and taking AP classes. “I’m called to rehearsal six days a week, but still called on Sundays for a different rehearsal. Some nights I’m up till 12 or 12:30 in the morning doing schoolwork,” Bella said. Both Bella and Makenna are called to the theatre seven days a week.