SOU Theatre students build preschool play “sets”

Students in Southern Oregon University’s Master of Theatre Studies (MoTS) program traded traditional theatrical scenery for imaginative play structures this summer, transforming their annual Stagecraft course into a hands-on project to benefit SOU’s preschool program.

MoTS students typically spend July learning the fundamentals of scenery construction by building platforms, flats, doorways and stairs. At the end of the course, the pieces are often dismantled, and their materials returned to the theater department’s supply shop.

But the students’ work from this summer will have a lasting home – and a new audience of enthusiastic young users.

The project began when Emily Thornber, a program assistant in the MoTS program, learned that the SOU preschool had lost a classroom stage used for dramatic play. The structure had deteriorated over time and was removed, leaving teachers without a space for that kind of imaginative activity.

“When Jane (Hickinbotham, the Stagecraft instructor) told us that the set students build usually gets deconstructed at the program’s end and the materials get reabsorbed back into the shop’s supplies, I started to think about how we could put what the students built to good use,” Thornber said.

After hearing about the preschool’s need, Thornber proposed that the graduate theater students build a replacement.

“I immediately thought, ‘hey! MoTS builds platforms every year – we could build them a stage; we could build them anything,’” she said.

Thornber shared the idea with Theatre Department faculty member Deborah Rosenberg and Jane Hickinbotham, the Stagecraft instructor, who were enthusiastic about the opportunity. The team met with the preschool’s three teachers to discuss their classroom needs, take measurements and determine what could be built within the course’s scope.

Hickinbotham then drafted and designed the structures, incorporating the students’ lessons in scenery construction into pieces intended for everyday play.

The resulting collection included a miniature tool bench equipped with tools and safety gear, a stone tower with a curved staircase and removable “dragonfire,” and an apothecary shop with a counter and bottles filled with potion-making materials.

The structures offer preschoolers opportunities to explore, imagine and create stories, while giving the graduate students a practical application for their technical theater skills. Hickinbotham said the project was rewarding because the students’ work would continue to benefit children long after the course ended.

“I feel like it was a good choice to create something that will be going on for a long time,” she said. “The teachers at the preschool were so excited to receive these wonderful play structures.”

As Stagecraft instructor, Hickinbotham said her teaching assistants and students did an excellent job adapting basic scenery construction techniques to create the play structures. The preschool teachers’ response underscored the project’s impact. Rae Prawitz, an SOU preschool teacher, said the children have been captivated by the new additions.

“Our preschoolers were in awe of the beautiful and exciting structures that the theater department made just for them!” Prawitz said.

She added that the project reflected the generosity and talent of the university community.

“Through their generosity, our students’ lives were, and continue to be, enriched,” she said. “We have never felt so loved!”