The first show for the Allen Community College theatre crew this semester starts on Thursday, Oct. 12. The play will be at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center in Iola. The play, “She Loves Me,” is a Broadway musical that takes place in Hungary during the 1930s. Considering that this show is going to be a love story based in a perfumery, the set is designed to fit the story’s atmosphere.

Clifford Harris is a major part of the set building team. Harris works with the costume department and the theatre director to make sure the set corresponds with the atmosphere and story of the play. Harris stated that “since the play is based in Hungary in the 1930’s, I had to do my research on what the buildings looked like then and there.”

Harris has looked into other artistic details about the set such as the color scheme.

“Since the play takes place in a perfumery, I used different shades of rose colors to give the set an overall feminine look,” Harris explained. “When the Mission Improvable team had used the shop room, one of the members exclaimed promptly that the set looked like the Budapest Hotel. This gave Harris an overall feeling of pride because this was the exact look that he was striving for in his set design.”

Another member of the set building crew is Ian Malcolm. He said, “I always feel as if a stage is really important in setting the, well the setting. That being said I think we did very well this year on the set.”

As far as Malcolm’s past set building experiences, he said “This was the first time I worked on canvas backdrops, so it took a lot of precise painting and details, but this is definitely one of better sets I’ve gotten to make. I think it really captures that 1930s feeling.”

A lot of hard work has gone into the set of this production of “She Loves Me.” Based on the team’s responses and enthusiasm, a lot of passion was put into the set as well. The tech crew encourages the public to come and watch the play, as well as admire the setting in which it takes place.