As the cast of “Pride & Prejudice” were warming up before they began their rehearsal on Nov. 19., scenic and lighting designer Andre Polo focused the spotlights onto the stage.

To bring this classic story to life, the crew members worked with scenic design, lighting, sound, costuming and stage management.

Director Kelly Herman brought in a crew member, Polo, as a scenic and lighting designer for the play. He also works full-time as a theatre shop foreman at California State University Dominguez Hills.

“With the scenic elements, there’s a lot of different transitions and the constant moving back and forth,” Polo said. “There’s even a lot of props to make sure we get the feel of the time period.”

Polo faced some challenges in capturing the actors’ faces with lighting and finding the right props for the 19th-century setting of the play.

“I’m trying to capture the actor’s faces while giving them a little bit of flavor,” he said. “As for the props from that time period, there’s just a few.”

Although the props for “Pride & Prejudice” were challenging for Polo, he was able to find some furniture for the play.

“We actually got some of our things like couches and chairs from South Coast Repertory in Orange County where I know the prop master so that was nice,” Polo said.

Lighting is all about making sure the light is all about the focus on stage, according to Polo.

“I want to make sure they have a plot that they can hang coming in to focus and to make sure all the lights are focused in the right direction,” he said.

Polo has worked with Herman on numerous projects. One of his favorites was “Romeo & Juliet”.

“I liked working with her on ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and we did a modern take and I wasn’t the designer,” he said. “I built it and it was fun to work with her and the sets were beautiful.”

While scenic and lighting are some of the more crucial factors in making a play, sound design also plays a significant role, which ECC alum Ian Liu took charge of.

“Joining the team, I got a copy of the script, and met with the director,” Liu said. “Getting a sense of her understanding the material and me trying to figure out where sound can enhance the theatrical experience.”

In the Campus Theatre, six speakers were used for the show. There were two left and right speakers – two behind the audience and another two behind the stage.

The play uses 19th-century style instrumentals from modern songs, including “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull, and “Dynamite” by BTS which are featured in the Netflix show “Bridgerton”.

“That was the goal of Kelly, our director,” Liu said. “The way I look at it is having something familiar with the audience that sets the mood and not out of a place.”

While sound is also an important factor in the play, having 19th-century costumes is another. That’s where costume instructor Kim DeShazo Wilkinson comes in.

Wilkinson is an ECC costume technician for the Center of the Arts. It wasn’t difficult for her to find the right accurate costumes because the script wasn’t 100% accurate to the specific time period.

“The nice thing about the script was that it wasn’t written to be historically accurate,” Wilkinson said. “We got a little more freedom with people wanting to see from ‘Bridgerton’ and reading the book.”

Most costumes were hand-made, used from their stock and bought and rented from Amazon, eBay and other online stores.

Wilkinson said she loves the theatre and it’s been a part of life from elementary school to now. Her favorite productions that she has worked on are “American Idiot,” “Man of La Mancha,” and “Hairspray.”

“I’ve done a lot of musicals and respond to most of them,” she said. “They’re bigger and harder, more work, but the payoff is good.”

To ensure everything functions well on stage, in addition to being the director’s right-hand man of the director is stage manager, Izzy Oros, a 19-year-old theatre major.

Oros’s job as a stage manager has been a very long process since the auditions in October and working with director Herman to get the actors to return for callbacks and who got cast.

“Stage management team checks who’s here to audition, fill out the form that they want to audition,” Oros said. “The director gives me notes to who they want back and I send it out to the actors to come back.”

Oros adds that during Tech, the director hands her the baton to take over to make sure everything goes well during tech day of rehearsal.

“I run the whole show because I have everything noted down, the stage management Bible we call it,” she said. “My responsibilities are to make sure to make sure all the cast and crew are on top of their things, and making sure everyone is healthy and okay.”

Oros loves doing theatre and has worked her way up from acting to doing crew work, including lighting and backstage costuming, to now stage manager.

“I got the gist of what’s going on around the crew and then I got assigned as stage manager,’’ Oros said. “I knew of the whole gist and what’s expected around the crew and been stage management for two years.”

Tickets are available for purchase in person at the Center for the Arts located near the Campus Theatre or on their website for $15 or $10 with a valid student ID.

Upcoming shows:

Dec. 6 and 7 at 8 p.m.

Dec. 8 at 3 p.m.