TheatreMcLean will put on Volume of Smoke from Thursday, November 16 through Sunday November 19.

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“The play is about the 1811 Richmond theater fire which kick started the second great awakening, and how it affected the people of Richmond,” said senior Ellie Hall, who is one of the heads of costume.

The costume crew worked on designs, and had to get creative with ways to use each piece to show the effects of the fire throughout the play.

“First we had to design the costumes as a costume crew, we discussed details and colors [and] our costume crew made all the costumes or found places to borrow from or found pieces in our loft,” Hall said. “Then we had to distress many of the costumes as many of the characters survived or died in the fire so we had to make them look burned, [and] we did this by tearing up costumes and painting them.”

The costume department also had to make more than the usual number of costumes.

“Probably the biggest challenge for us was how many costumes we had to make. All dresses except two and all vests and accessories were made by us,” Hall said. “1811 is a very particular time period so we didn’t have much already in our storage and we couldn’t borrow many costumes since we would have to destroy them.”

After working on the production since the first weeks of school, it has proved to be an opportunity for aspects of the theater company to show their skills and imagination.

“I’m excited to see all of our work put together,” senior Havi Carillo-Klein said. That is the gratifying part about tech, because you have visions at the beginning of the process and you can see them executed once tech week starts.”

The absence of the theater department’s director proved the perseverance and determination that the entire crew have towards making the show a great one.

“Our director had to leave suddenly for about two weeks for a family emergency, so we still had to run without him and keep up due to limited time,” Carillo-Klein said. “We had limited materials and a huge time crunch but we made it in the end.”

Putting together a show takes a lot of effort from everyone involved. Though there were some unforeseen circumstances, they pulled it together and are ready to put on a good show

“I’m looking forward to seeing everything come together onstage,” Hall said. “Everyone’s done an amazing job in their own areas and it’s going to be incredible all together.”