A Peek Behind the Scenes at Marin Shakespeare Company

For members of the audience at the Marin Shakespeare Company's summer season, the sets look like they were months in the making.

Hardly.

The work that goes into putting on the summer's three plays goes beyond designing sets, memorizing lines and endless rehearsals. Beginning about June 1, the company takes over its Forest Meadows Amphitheater home and turns it into a construction site. 

"When we come out, everything but the stage is gone," said Mark Robinson, technical director and scene designer. "We build the sets and theater every year."

It is hustle and bustle getting ready for the early July opening previews with carpentry and painting crews at work, while costumes are being designed and fitted.

This year a large replica of a pirate ship complete with a crow's nest dominates the stage. The ship is essential for the season's second offering of the pirate-themed, "The Taming of the Shrew," but adapting it to the opening, "Travesties" was a different story.

"The challenge was to justify a boat on the stage," Robinson said, adding the set includes a Swiss flag, a Zurich library scene and roosters. "All of these aspects on that stage have helped to justify it as a Dadaist setting for a very odd play."

Tom Stoppard's Tony-award winning play is a riff on Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," James Joyce's "Ulysses," Dada poetry and early 20th century politics. 

The boat will sail on through the season finale "Antony and Cleopatra," representing Rome to the set's main building's Egypt. 

Once the storage trailer that houses set materials off season is emptied, it becomes the actors' dressing room, complete with an outdoor seating "oasis" with a grill for barbecues. It's not luxurious but for the crew, it's home for the summer.

For schedule and ticket information, visit www.marinshakespeare.org.