Despite small staff, MAC still creates quality productions

Jim Lile, production manager for the Jacobs School of Music, has organized and supervised four years worth of sets in his career at IU, but his job is far from ho-hum.

Armed with a bachelor’s degree in theater from Iowa State and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama in technical design and production management, Lile has spent the past four years at IU building set after set for the IU Opera & Ballet Theater.
In his time here, Lile said the most remarkable set was from “La Boheme” in 2007. Lile said every set could rotate 360 degrees and had more than 100 performers in costume.

“We were able to seamlessly transition from a small garret with two singers on stage to the streets of Paris with 100 singers on stage in full view of the audience,” Lile said. “It was a style of production that very few professional companies would even attempt.”

When the Metropolitan Opera does that same transition during its “La Boheme,” they must bring in the main curtain, take a short pause, shift the scenery without the audience watching and then open the curtain to continue the act, Lile said.

“Our production was quite astonishing, and our patrons still talk about it,” Lile said.
Although Lile’s favorite and most remarkable set was that of “La Boheme,” he said, every set is unique and offers them many challenges to solve.

For example, “La Traviata,” this fall’s first opera at the Musical Arts Center, challenged the production staff because mirrors cover the walls and doors, and intricate chandeliers hang from the ceilings.

Along with the difficulty of supplying and mounting the mirrors and sparkling chandeliers, the production staff, which includes student employees, must face the task of carefully orchestrating the lighting, painting the sets and preparing the props.

“We have a very small full-time staff here at the MAC, so we rely on student employees a lot to get the operas up and running,” Lile said. “The students are a big force.”

Students get paid for their work, but creating and running the technical side of the sets involves many hours of hard work, Lile said.

“When we are in technical rehearsals, we will often work 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and the performances every Friday and Saturday night,” he said. “Our schedule requires us to work on several productions at the same time.”

The full-time staff and students are currently working on touching up the set of “La Traviata,” while preparing sets and costumes for the set of “Le Cendrillon” and painting the backdrops for “The Most Happy Fella.”

Interested students should look out for a table at the Welcome Week job fairs from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. Friday to learn more about applying for work in set production, Lile said.