Following five weeks of late nights rehearsals and four showings over the homecoming weekend, the cast and crew of Big River wrapped up the rehearsal process Sunday evening with their last performance followed by striking the set.

“It was one of the shorter strikes I’ve been involved with. I think it has to do a lot with not having to haul everything back over from Albert Taylor Hall,” said Justin Scheck, who played the King and is a sophomore theatre major.

For some, Big River was their last performance for college.

“It’s bittersweet. More than likely that was the last time I’ll be on stage in Bruder theatre, but it was a fun musical, and it was a challenge playing two completely different characters,” said Nathan Short, senior theatre major who played Pap Finn and the Duke.

Big River was chosen because of the relevancy it has to current events.

“The story of Huck Finn is a satire to show how dumb racism was at the time, and it’s still a satire today showing how bad any discrimination is,” said Hewleek McKoy, sophomore theatre major who played Jim.

Opening night presented an interesting opportunity for actors on stage when a string from a set that had been flown out was hanging down on stage.

“As soon as it happened we were looking at it thinking ‘that has to come down, there’s no way they aren’t noticing it,” said Fran Opheim, stage manager and junior speech and theatre education major. “We had everyone that was backstage spread the word, because there was about to be a huge scene with everyone on stage, to try and discreetly pull it down. Finally, Nathan (Short) walks out and starts batting at it like a cat and finally he just goes ‘boing’ and pulls it down.”

“It’s a moment that actors live for,” Short said. “It just made sense, you know, being the deaf and dumb character. It just fit, and maybe it took away from what was supposed to happen, but it was an opportunity I wasn’t going to pass up.”

Overall, cast and crew alike thought that the show was successful.

“There was just a lot that people don’t see that went into this that made the show what it was with tech, and costume and everything, and we wouldn’t have had a show without them,” Scheck said.

Some even thought that the show came full circle.

“It kind of circled back at the very end when Huck is about to go off stage and he says ‘Jim was right. Considerable trouble, considerable joy.’ and runs off and it kind of came full circle,” said Abbi Timmermeyer, assistant stage manager and junior theatre major.