This is a thing which we usually call “DDQ”, or Drama Department Quality. It’s not exactly something you would trust with your life. Nothing is built the way it should be so just plopping down onto a chair wouldn’t be the best idea. Just last spring during the play, “Football Theatre: First Down and Frankenstein to Go”, there was a door that was supposed to fall down after it was slammed shut. For the practices and first performance with the trick door, it came completely out of the frame, and had to be held up by one of the actresses until it came time for it to fall. Thinking we could make it work the way it was supposed to and not fall until the string was pulled, someone fixed it so it the pin didn’t come out of place so easy. During the last performance, the door didn’t fall at all. Instead, part of it fell off.
There are many more examples. In “Oklahoma”, the trees were styrofoam and broke very easily. In “Once Upon a Mattress”, the little stools used for the chorus to sit on were of varying sizes, and a few were very lopsided. One of these stools had to be rebuilt because it actually did fall apart when someone sat on it. Anything that is painted for performances can almost assuredly be guaranteed to have at least two or three coats of paint on it, and some in storage have more than ten layers from repeated use.
The sets aren’t the only thing that are DDQ. Another good example are the costumes. Some donated ones can be of a very good quality, however most that are made by the costume department aren’t exactly up to regular standards. It has to be realized that although sometimes we can get some very nice and talented people, like Marg Hood, to help us, most of us are amateurs when it comes to sewing. We know enough to make the costumes stay together for a few performances at least and make any repairs after that. With our two or three productions per performance, that is pretty much all we need.
You may think DDQ is something we’re kind of ashamed of, however that is far from the truth. By creating things in this way, we are saving both time and money which is crucial considering we only have about three months to put together a show, and all proceeds for the Drama Department come from tickets sales. In a community as small as Humboldt, we don’t need to be overly detailed. DDQ works just fine.
