The stage is set \u2013 almost. Performers fidget with zippers and buttons as they get into their costumes. Set designers assemble and arrange props as actors mutter lines to themselves to squeeze out one last rehearsal into a span of minutes. Theatre\u00a0techs flick through the color wheel as they simplify the night\u2019s technical operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Hedda Gabler<\/a>, the season opener for Nevada Conservatory Theatre\u2019s<\/a> 25th anniversary, audiences are transported back to Oslo, Norway, in the 1890s\u00a0and into the lives of people both familiar and not.\u00a0<\/p>\n The characters of the play, although removed from us by over a century of time, share similar struggles to those experienced, particularly when concerning gender roles. The titular character Hedda\u00a0grapples throughout the play\u00a0with both submitting to and defying the societal expectations of women.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very relevant today, most people think of it as a tragedy \u2014 and it is a tragedy \u2014 however, there are moments that are a little naughty, audacious, and funny. To me, it\u2019s very exciting, and thrilling to be the first offering in the new season,\u201d says theatre professor Norma Saldivar, who is directing this production.\u00a0<\/p>\n The NCT chose Hedda Gabler\u00a0\u2014 playing in the Black Box Theatre from Sept. 27-Oct. 19 \u2014\u00a0to build on its history of adapting classics for a modern audience.<\/p>\n \u201cA key goal for us was to celebrate and carry forward the legacy of what the NCT has accomplished. We\u2019ve done a lot of classic work \u2013 and it’s still in our mission to do classics \u2013 but we\u2019re looking to the future and infusing these works with innovation and imagination,\u201d says the theatre’s executive director Kirsten Brandt, who adapted the play from Henrik Ibsen\u2019s original work.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n MFA student and costume designer Hannah Prochaska makes adjustments to Hedda’s dress. (Shahab Zargari\/UNLV)<\/p>\n Dress to Express<\/p>\n Saldivar came to UNLV in 2017 after 20 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has directed numerous productions across the country and is an admirer of Ibsen\u2019s work. \u201cWhen you look at the entirety of his work you see a critique of the middle class,\u201d she says. \u201cThis [play] is written by a playwright who is not happy with the way society works. It\u2019s a powerful conversation about gender, but the male characters equally have these limits that make them do things and behave in ways that they maybe don\u2019t naturally feel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Costume designer Hannah Prochaska’s sketches for the characters in ‘Hedda Gabler.’<\/p>\n One clue about their motivations \u2014 both conscious and unconscious \u2014 lies in the costuming. For Hedda’s character, Saldivar sat down with costume designer Hannah Prochaska, an MFA student at UNLV, to discuss how the costumes can reflect the character\u2019s intentions, as well as how they see themselves in society.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m exploring the color, pattern, and texture of the costumes [for Hedda Gabler] to give clues to the interior world of the characters and their relationships with each other while staying close to a period 1890 silhouette,\u201d Prochaska says.<\/p>\n The details of Hedda\u2019s clothing \u2013 the way her dress is draped, the colors she\u2019s chosen, the height of the neckline \u2013 are all indications of who she is and how she feels about society. Prochaska, for example, gives her own signature nod to Hedda’s destructive passion by hiding a pair of\u00a0risqu\u00e9\u00a0stockings underneath a confining black mourning dress.<\/p>\n Through all the production choices \u2014 costuming, staging, lighting \u2014 Brandt hopes the audience connects with the characters and finds themes that are relevant to their own lives.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the curtain falls and the lights go up,\u201d Brandt says, \u201cI don\u2019t want the audience to say, \u2018all right, let’s go\u2019 and move on immediately. I want them to ask questions and have a conversation about what they just saw. I want them to arm wrestle the ideas presented to them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As it celebrates its 25th year, the theatre\u00a0will continue to be an important\u00a0vehicle for creating discussions around relevant and topical issues. By bringing a multitude of voices, perspectives, and stories to the stage, the Nevada Conservatory Theatre remains a space for viewers to see themselves and the world in a new way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hedda Gabler, like Ibsen\u2019s overall canon, displays a deep dissatisfaction with society, Saldivar notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n