During the two week long winter break, most people are at home relaxing with their families. But for theater tech teacher John Davenport, his break is being cut in half, as he is spending this week in the auditorium preparing the set for the new play Oklahoma.

“I’m building a giant, working windmill, and we also are building a house that also converts into another smoke house that is going into a different scene,” Davenport said. “So those two things I think are taking me the longest to finish.”

The building of these pieces is part of achieving Davenport’s overall vision for the setting of the play.

“I think the idea behind is that we are trying to build a set that kind of reflects what Oklahoma looked like during the time period of the show,” Davenport said. “It should like kind of a little dusty, a little dirty, and a little country. I don’t think we are trying to go overboard with the design. We are trying to keep it simple. As you look at the set, we don’t want it to be overwhelming, rather it’s just the essence of what you think a farmhouse in Oklahoma would look like.”

Davenport drives an hour to the school from his home in Bedford and is working from roughly 9 a.m. to 10 pm to work on the set, but he will have some help as students in his theater tech class will be volunteering as well.

“I am coming in to help whenever I can, probably at least 3 days,” freshman Mason Long said. “I try and stay from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., if not longer.”

For the students in theater tech, a properly built set can enhance the overall experience of a show.

“The set is a large part of the show,” Long said. “It sets the mood of any show, and it also gives it more of a real life effect, so that it’s not just actors standing onstage.”

In addition to students and other faculty members joining to build the set, Davenport also enlists some professional help as well.

“Karen Karnuta is a former parent of two students that went here,” Davenport said. “She has had a long standing relationship with Lovejoy and the community. She’s also the one who designed all the crests of the schools. When her children were in our program, she helped us a lot. She has kind of stuck around after they graduated. We really like her because she is a really talented artist. She comes in and helps us do a lot of our painting and design work.”