Six Feet Under the Stage

This story, I ventured below the stage to find the story of those who are heard but not seen. It was my first chance to be published in print and while writing I learned a lot about what words are actually important to the story and what can be cut. Often times, I found that musicians communicate better with the instruments that they do with words so I really had to rely on my interviewing tactics to get good quotes from those featured.

As a carnivorous plant onstage feeds off human blood, piano senior Sara Abdo, below the stage, quickly flips the page of her score with one hand as she lightly trills the keys with the other. Surrounded by fellow musicians, she and the pit orchestra create the songs of the musical.

The pit beneath the Meyer Hall stage is continuously filled with an ensemble of musicians. They're tasked with learning, practicing, and performing the songs for musical theatre productions, like the recent “Little Shop of Horrors.”

“It was one of my favorite experiences that I've had in school,” band senior Marie Reyes-Alvarez said. “Sitting under the pit, even though it's musty and sweaty and gross in there, it was just fun to be under the stage. I can be a part of something bigger than just one concert.”

In the Pits

In Meyer Hall, the pit is a small room underneath the stage hidden from the audience's view. Band sophomore Nihar Bhavsar, a clarinet player, joined the pit for “Little Shop of Horrors.” He expressed his concern for keeping in time under the stage, in the dim lighting, and wondered if “spiders” lurked in the corner.

“Everything's dark, and all we have is our stand lights to see the music,” Abdo said.

A short curtain conceals the stairs leading down into the pit. Musicians must crawl and duck until they reach the base of the staircase — they often do this with their instruments in hand. There was an elevator, but it has been broken for decades.

The bottom of the staircase opens into a slightly damp, hot room. The walls are filled with sound absorbers, and the paint on the floor is peeling, scattered with empty water bottles. A rolling cart holds the crinkled records for the school’s recent termite extermination.

Band senior Emily Breidenbaugh has played the flute in the pit for several productions and still remembers the first time she went into the pit her sophomore year and was scared, not expecting it to be as dark and small as it was.

The space has just enough room for all the players, instruments, and stands. When the curtains rise and the musical numbers begin, the only communication between the stage and the pit is a hole in the stage floor for the conductor to stick their head through.

“When they stomp or tap or jump onstage, it's rumbling,” Abdo said. “And when (the lid is) open, you can hear some voices depending on their mics being on,”

Abdo said because the pit feels like a “family” she would describe the space as cozy rather than cramped. They look past the room’s “gross” aspects and “make the best out of it.”

150 Hours

The cast and crew of a production spend hours rehearsing to put on a show, and those in the pit are no exception. Members of the pit get 100 to 150 volunteer hours depending on the show. There can be dozens of songs and musical transitions that the students need to learn in order to be prepared for the performance.

“It requires a lot of commitment,” Breidenbaugh said. “There's a lot of rehearsals. But in the end, it's totally worth it, and the rehearsals are needed in order to perfect everything.”

As they carpool to school, Breidenbaugh, Reyes-Alvarez, and band senior Shiri Ben-Israel often listen to the cast recording to understand the tone of each song; one of them usually starts to hum along to their part in the background.

“The music is basically the backbone of the musical,” Ben-Israel said. “It adds to the suspense. It adds the music behind the singing. It adds the general atmosphere of everything. It really drives the musical.”

The broadway scores used in shows were composed for professional musicians, so complex pieces can be difficult for the pit in the beginning. But by the second rehearsal, musical theatre teacher Charles Swan was snapping his fingers and dancing along.

“It was fun to see musicians working through some of the more difficult, more challenging passages and having to drill those,” Mr. Swan said. “And then, it was equally fun and more inspiring to see, you know, within an hour's time how they sounded like a Broadway orchestra, which is a testament to the talent here.”

Passing the Baton

In the past, former theatre teacher Andrew Gilbert led the pit orchestra; however, this year, the role fell to Abdo, who has been leading and organizing the pit along with Mr. Swan.

“Sara is the reason that any music is happening,” Mr. Swan said.

Abdo has been in the pit orchestra since her sophomore year, ever since her mom ran into the theatre dean Michelle Petrucci outside of school. When Petrucci found out Abdo was a piano major, she immediately asked if Abdo would be interested in pit orchestra. Abdo went on to play the piano for the production of “Crazy for You” and became the assistant musical director for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

“Sara could easily transition right now into any professional role in terms of music direction,” Mr. Swan said. “Frankly, she is far superior to some of the professionals I know that are making a living with that right now. So, she's been incredible and will be sorely missed when she graduates.”

When she leaves, Mr. Swan hopes an underclassmen will “rise to the occasion,” and the pit orchestra will continue to be an integral aspect of productions.

The Final Bow

Under the stage, musicians have to play without talking above a whisper. Microphones can pick up the drop of a drumstick or a loud cough and dispel the atmosphere of the musical. If there’s no mistakes, Ben-Israel said the audience often thinks “they are just a recording”.

“If they were playing a recording, it would feel very sterile,” Reyes-Alvarez said. “But because there's live music, you can feel it in the room. Instead of just focusing on the singers, you can also focus on what's in the background.”

Although the players are all listed in the playbill, they often do not receive audience recognition — the pit never gets a final bow.

“Honestly, I haven't really gotten much recognition, especially not being a theatre major,” Abdo said. “People do think it's a recording. But honestly, that's technically a compliment saying that it's good that it sounds like a recording. I don't mind it as much because I feel like I actually accomplished what I was supposed to be doing and made the cast sound good.”

During intermission or at the end of the musical, when the musicians get a break, the audience may catch glimpses of the pit members as they crawl out from under the stage and emerge from behind the curtain.

“Sometimes at the end of the show, when everyone's doing the bows, people will come up to the pit and look in,” Reyes-Alvarez said. “When they see you playing their music that is such an amazing feeling because you're like okay, finally getting some recognition.”

Despite the pit orchestra’s lack of recognition, noted by Abdo, it is nonetheless a uniting experience for the musicians.

“It's a different moment together, and we create this thing and then it goes away,” Mr. Swan said. “We get to have that shared experience in the dark, which hopefully teaches us how to live together in the lights.”