{"id":167869,"date":"2025-03-05T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=167869"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:57:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T19:57:40","slug":"multitalented-stage-manager-for-the-seagull-sophie-hafter-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/05\/multitalented-stage-manager-for-the-seagull-sophie-hafter-25\/","title":{"rendered":"As the multitalented stage manager for \u2018The Seagull,\u2019 Sophie Hafter \u201925 barks up the right trees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even though it\u2019s winter, a new stand of birches has appeared on campus. But unlike their arboreal neighbors on Alumni Walk, these trees aren\u2019t rooted in soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, within the warmth of Schaeffer Theatre, they rise from boards, held in place by ropes threaded through their hollow interiors and affixed to fly rails high above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clever cardboard and paper recreations are the handiwork of Sophie Hafter \u201925, a theater major from New York City, the stage manager for the Bates production of The Seagull, <\/em>Anton Chekhov\u2019s classic tale about a gathering of artists, lovers, and dreamers at a Russian country estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ophie
Amidst the real birch trees on Alumni Walk, Sophie Hafter \u201925, a theater major from New York City, holds one of her own birches, created as part of her work as stage manager for The Seagull<\/em>. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hafter’s work on the play is part of her senior thesis in theater stage management, and it’s all-encompassing. During rehearsals, she’s onstage setting up props one moment, and perched in the sound booth above the theater the next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between collaborating with guest director Joshua N Hsu<\/a> to notate blocking and running sound effects, she briefly disappears into the carpentry shop below the theater to fulfill another of her many responsibilities: the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birches are key part of the set that has been designed by Associate Professor of Theater Christine McDowell and Kerrigan Anuszewski \u201925, a double major in economics and theater from Winthrop, Maine, whose work on the play\u2019s scenic design is part of her own thesis work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When McDowell was in graduate school at Yale, she had the opporunity to travel through rural Russia, where she saw for herself how clusters of birches interrupted immense, rolling fields. The trees, often depicted in Chekhov productions, have long been symbolic of Russian culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On stage, the realism of the white birches stands out starkly against the dark undertones of The Seagull.<\/em> Without branches and with their tops intentionally obscured, the tree trunks subtly evoke both the natural and the surreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sophie
Sophie Hafter and Kendall Jones ’25, a member of the set crew from Plymouth, N.H., move a section of birch trunk from a staging area among the Schaeffer Theatre seats to the floor, where Hafter applies the final touches. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted something that reminded one of birch trees, but that felt a little more abstract,\u201d McDowell says. \u201cThere’s a certain amount of romanticism in this play, and we didn’t want it to be hyperrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In working with set designers McDowell and Anuszewski, Hsu seeks to explore the tension between reality and distortion. “I wanted to respect the realism that is often associated with this play, but also offer a pathway into the more avant-garde,” says Hsu, who is at Bates as part of the Learning Associates program<\/a>. “And so there are layers to this production that are not typical to The Seagull<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Striated patterns painted across the stage and a mountainous backdrop \u2014 designed in the colorful, phantasmic style of children\u2019s illustrator Ivan Bilibin \u2014 enhance the suspension of disbelief, drawing the audience into the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe live in a world of CGI, but theater is never CGI, and I don’t believe in trying to lean into that idea of photorealism theater,\u201d McDowell says. \u201cPeople are more interested in something that feels evocative or magical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sophie
Sophie Hafter splashes paint onto long sections of paper to create the distinctive dark lines of a birch tree, known as lenticels. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To \u201cgrow\u201d each tree, Hafter started with three cardboard tubes connected to make a 20-foot trunk, with the middle tube cut to fit snugly inside the other two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took me a while to figure out how to get them to connect,\u201d Hafter says. \u201cI cut one of them all the way down the middle and curled it into itself so that it became thinner to fit into the other two.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a piece of real bark from one of the many birch trees on campus resting nearby as a loose guide, Hafter dampened a large sheet of paper and base-painted it white. She then flicked black, white, and yellow paint onto the paper, using a dry brush to move the colors around and mimic a birch\u2019s texture and colorings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sophie
In a final step of creating birch trees for the set of The Seagull, Hafter rolls the painted paper onto cardboard rolls. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the paper was dry, Hafter affixed the \u201cbark\u201d around the cardboard rolls, and the tree was complete. She repeated each step \u2014 with help from Technical Director of Theater and Dance Justin Moriarty, engineering major Melinda Kostrinsky \u201926 of Miami, Fla., and economics major Rohini Kandasamy \u201927 of Neshanic Station, N.J. \u2014 until she had 12 trees. At times, the carpentry shop below the theater rivaled an arboretum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of trial and error, but I think they look pretty good,\u201d Hafter says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hafter has training in scenic arts \u2014 the art of crafting scenery, props, and backdrops for theatrical productions. She learned how to create textures like the faux bark while studying abroad at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, England. She spent both semesters of her junior year studying scenic arts at the performing arts school 12 miles outside of central London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the pond, Hafter put her hands to work learning the basics of carpentry, welding, sewing, and painting. She tackled mixed-media projects, including an ornate crown of wires and beading modeled after a Chinese wedding crown, a 3-foot loafer shoe made from polystyrene, and a miniature door scaled down from a door she measured at Oxford University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"person
Hafter leaps over a section of paper while working on the birch trees in the Schaeffer Theatre carpentry shop. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hafter and peers also welded a 20-foot-wide turntable \u2014 a revolving stage platform \u2014 with a central divider so that different sets could be built on each side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her time abroad and at Bates, Hafter has sharpened skills that build upon interests she\u2019s had since childhood. Growing up in New York City, Hafter had many friends who loved to act, but she was quiet and had stage fright. In middle school, her art teacher introduced her to set design and fabrication, and Hafter quickly took to the art and \u201cthe magic of theater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she grew in her craft and worked alongside other energetic, talented thespians, Hafter became more confident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing around those kinds of people has really helped bring me out of my shell and learn to not care as much about how I’m perceived in not just theater, but in life,\u201d Hafter says. \u201cThe people in theater have very interesting perspectives on life, and I appreciate it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her work as The Seagull<\/em>\u2019s stage manager, Hafter is writing a two-part paper to fulfill her thesis, for which Associate Professor of Theater Courtney Smith is her advisor. The first part of the document will explain the ins and outs of stage management and the critical role of the job, while the second part of the thesis will discuss the importance of diversity and representation in theater productions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sophie
Theater is compelling, says Hafter, because “it doesn’t have to be real. It can still be telling a story that has a moral at the end, but can be this happy, crazy thing.\u201d (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For this latter portion, Hafter will draw from her own experience, the existing literature, and interviews with diverse people who have worked as stage managers, a role historically held by white women. She hopes to exhibit the power of theater as a means for bringing about social change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheater and art in general, whether it’s performance or visual, is such an important tool for activism and making people aware of other experiences that they might not know about,\u201d Hafter says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theater in particular, she says, has the unique ability to merge the outrageous with the serious for an entertaining lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the spectacle of theater,\u201d Hafter says. \u201cIt doesn’t have to be real. It can still be telling a story that has a moral at the end, but can be this happy, crazy thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s winter, but birch trees have sprouted in Schaeffer Theatre \u2014 crafted by stage manager Sophie Hafter ’25, whose scenic artistry helps “The Seagull” glide between realism and the avant-garde.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1827,"featured_media":167879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,133],"tags":[11312,10921],"class_list":["post-167869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-creativity","tag-christine-mcdowell","tag-schaeffer-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167869"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167995,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167869\/revisions\/167995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}