Director Ulbrich on 'You Can't Take it With You'

Director Tom Ulbrich shares his thoughts on the challenges of staging "You Can't Take it With You" at Naperville Central High School.

"You Can't Take it With You" is a classic of the American stage and screen. On first look it may appear to be just a fun show about a quirky family and the inevitable complications that arise when a young girl falls in love with the boss' son. However, after auditions, reality sets in and the director, producer, various assistants and indeed the whole cast and crew realize that in order to do this show justice, a great many things need to happen.

The first decision confronting the cast and crew is whether to do the show as a period piece. In doing so, we have created the problem of finding authentic-looking costumes. The problem is not too bad for the men of the cast. We just put them in baggy pants, add a button down shirt and tie and throw on a sweater vest - instant '30s.

The women present a slightly larger problem. While it would be easy to simply rent all of the costumes, we prefer to challenge our students and have them take on the responsibility of design and construction. In doing so, we hope to teach them not only valuable costuming skills, but also time management skills, people skills and the ability to work successfully in a group.

The next problem created by the decision to do this show falls on the shoulders of the technicians. This show requires use of pyrotechnics - fireworks. My students must be able to produce authentic explosions on stage on cue. The inherent danger of exploding fireworks and the necessary red fire should be obvious. Rest assured my technical director has taken all the necessary precautions.

Some of the other not-so-obvious problems occur in casting. One character must be able to dance on point for the entire show, another must be able to play the xylophone, still another must be able to use a manual typewriter (not as easy as one may think in this day of high-tech computers). I actually had to teach my students to load the paper, move the carriage, and change from all caps to lowercase.

Finally, a problem has occurred this year that I never thought I would have to deal with. The show requires a great deal of hand holding and some kissing. After all, the young ingenue does fall in love with the young hero and plans on marriage. Enter H1N1. To save the show and the cast from unnecessary illness, I had to place a moratorium on any behavior that may spread germs. In other words, no kissing till the week of the show.

With all the problems created by this production, it is still one of my favorite shows. The characters are real people with real problems. The situations are believable, and who doesn't love a good old-fashioned explosion?