"I’m a mother, and sometimes a show is like a child to me. I do everything I can, but after the final dress rehearsal is done, my job is over."

A mother’s unconditional love is perhaps one of the few human emotions which surpasses in scope and depth the director’s love for the stage. So this comment was fitting coming from theater department chair and director Professor Betty Bernhard, whose production of Guys and Dolls opened Thursday. Bernhard has had nearly two and a half months to mother this production, and now the immensely popular and famously-exuberant play is on its own.

Daniel May I’m down on my knees. I’m begging you please. See my play.

The play, a culmination of the efforts of almost 75 cast and crew membersranks up there with Pomona/Pitzer team sports in terms of sheer demand, dedication, and time. Think about some of the extra curricular activities that you do at school. How much of your time do they take up? A couple of hours a week, maybe four or five? Add to that the hours you spend in class and on homework. After activities and schoolwork combined–not even taking into account your free time–imagine finding seventeen hours a week to rehearse for a theater production. Ever since the first month of school, that has been the schedule for the cast of Guys and Dolls.

Somewhat incredibly, the cast doesn’t seem to mind the extraordinary amounts of time they have had to devote to rehearsal. "I mean, it’s similar to the amount of time and effort you would spend on a sport in high school," explained cast member Andy Eberle ’03. "Yeah, it gets stressful but I’m looking forward to having lots of free time when the show is over." Like Bernhard, however, the cast and crew believe that time in the theatre is time very well spent; singing, dancing, and doing what they love to do.

What is even more remarkable than the time actors wholeheartedly invest in the rehearsals is that work on the show begins long before students even think about auditioning. "The theater department started all the legwork for the show back in April," explained Bernhard. "The research on the time period and the costume designs and all kinds of other planning have been worked on for seven months already. By the time school started, all we needed to get rolling was the casting,"

These seven months are essential, however, in order to master the colossal musical. "Guys and Dolls is such a big production," commented Professor Carol Davis, also a theater department member. Bernhard estimated that there at least 40 actors and singers, and as well as 25 people in the crew. Fortunately, "the cast is great," according to Bernhard. The production was born because "students wanted to do a musical, so we gave them the best and biggest Broadway musical we could find," said Davis. Indeed, the popularity and notoriety of such a well-known musical is bound to please a college audience, but even more important to the students is the opportunity to be a part of the musical they all know and love.

Auditions and callbacks took place during the first week of school, and rehearsals began soon after. Bernhard enlisted the help of a hired choreographer and musical director to perfect the varied elements of the musical. One of the most exciting aspects of a production like Guys and Dolls is also the most difficult; the multiple performative aspects must be perfected individually before they come together to form a cohesive show. "Anything that has singing, dancing, and dialogue is going to take a lot longer to rehearse than something that only has one of those elements. It’s really total theater." Bernhard went on to address the time spent: "we need the time not only to learn all of the elements, but also to put them all together and make them work." Students practiced for extensive amounts of time. Each rehearsal ran three or four hours each rehearsal, and were held five times a week. Crew members, those essential and perpetually-undervalued men and women in black, had equally time-consuming responsibilities. From tracking characters with a spotlight to helping with costume changes, they hold the elements of the show together.

Another group of performers who operate without costumes, makeup, and only minimal light is at work in Guys and Dolls. Shana Sklar ‘03 is a member of the hired orchestra for the show. Sklar describes intense three hour rehearsals once a week, and a program that evolved into bi-weekly practices with singers. "I know that a lot of the musicians, like myself, have spent a lot of their own time practicing the music," says Sklar. "It’s very rewarding, though, because now it’s finally all coming together. Before, the constumes, makeup, and music were all seperate." Sklar expressed only one disappointment when she spoke for the crew members: they never have a chance to see the entire play as a whole, since they’re doing their jobs while the magic onstage goes on. Everyone in Guys and Dolls might share that sentiment; and the ability to see the show from beginning to end is a luxury that we, as an audience, solely enjoy.

Students of the five colleges are getting excited for the fruit of all this labor. Clare Williamson ‘02 is really looking forward to seeing the musical. "I’ve seen Guys and Dolls done before, but I don’t really remember it too well. I’m excited about seeing some of my friends that have parts in it," she said. This anticipation, coupled with all of the hard work for the past few months, has helped to ease many last minute anxieties over the level of preparation for the play. "The overwhelming feeling of the cast is excitement. So far, we’ve been practicing with only a dozen or so outside people observing us. The only thing that is missing for us is the energy of the audience. Once we get that, everything will fall into place," explained Bernhard. "On opening night, it’s the audience that owns it. I’ll make comments and talk it over with my stage manager, but the production really takes on a life of its own."