This year’s homecoming musical will see a change in scenery as Big River is presented in the Karl C. Bruder Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 13-15, and at 2pm on Oct. 16 as part of homecoming festivities.

“This play has a lot of scenic requirements which would be challenging in Albert Taylor Hall,” said Jim Bartruff, director of the theatre department. “We need more lines to fly scenery, so there were lots of good reasons to make that change.”

Big River follows the story of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” and his adventures with a runaway slave named Jim.

“Huckleberry Finn is a very adventurous young boy that runs away from home and goes on an adventure down the river with Jim, who is a slave,” said Fran Opheim, stage manager and junior speech and theatre education major. “The adventure is kind of an adventure to free Jim and they meet all kinds of strange characters along the way.”

In addition to the five week preparation for actors, designers and technicians are busy preparing for production nights as well.

“I have been doing research of the time period. This includes looking at the different fashions for the time period as well,” said Courtney Romero, hair and makeup designer and senior theatre major. “It’s like adding the finishing touches to a production. A lot of people might just plow it off, but the hairstyles and makeup styles add to the show just as much as the costumes that the actors wear.”

Just as students are involved with every aspect of the production, their input is considered when choosing the productions as well.

“Because it is dealing very straightforwardly with race issues, we thought this was a way to explore Twain’s anti-slave sentiments and address how in this story, two men come together to support one another and become friends in the process and forcing one another to question the perceptions and the ideas that have guided their lives until that point,” Bartruff said.

Of the many reasons why the musical was chosen, it’s relevance to events today was a defining factor for faculty and students alike.

“This one was chosen because of the themes in it being relevant to the kind of issues we’re seeing on campus and in society right now,” Opheim said.

More than that though, the musical has had a history of awards and notoriety.

“It was the musical that was one of the hits of the Broadway season in 1985, ran for almost four years, won seven Tony awards including Best Musical and it’s one we’ve been keeping our eye on,” Bartruff said.