Regent Theater forecast calls for rain

Even though Gene Kelly's graceful splash-dance looked easy during his "Singin' in the Rain" performance, a few folks at Regent University recently learned it was anything but.

On Friday, Regent kicks off its own production of "Singin In The Rain" at 8 p.m., and among the 20 scenes in the musical is the memorable moment when the main character, Don Lockwood, sings in the rain.

That's right. Audiences will see it rain on stage.

Despite the challenges involved in recreating the famous scene, Mike Burnett, assistant professor of theater and the production manager for the musical, had no intention of leaving it out.

"I think that if it doesn't rain, the audience will feel cheated," Burnett said. "So we're doing everything we can to make it happen."

Burnett and Tory Helgeson, Regent's technical director, began looking into the rain project last July. Over the past year, they have talked with other theater companies that have also put on productions of the musical, complete with the famous rain scene. They came away with about 12 possible alternatives they could use.

The duo whittled them down according to their criteria. At the top of that list was making sure the water wouldn't damage the stage or splash onto the audience.

Helgeson was also mindful of creating a nonslip surface to dance on, keeping the water room temperature, and making sure that the functioning lamp post would not pose an electrical hazard.

"We didn't want to reinvent the wheel totally," Burnett said. "We picked the one that was close to what we needed and then modified it for us."

The duo's modified alternative is a 10-foot-by-20-foot rain wagon constructed by the theater crew. The 16-foot-tall wagon will feature a two-story facade, sidewalk and lamp post.

The self-contained unit will include 250 gallons of water, which is pumped to the top of the facade to a sprinkler pipe that allows it to rain down. The wagon also includes a reservoir where the water will be recycled throughout the four-minute scene.

There is another rain scene that includes the entire cast at the end of the musical. Both scenes, Burnett said, would require about 2,000 gallons a night.

"When you look at it, it just looks like water falling and you think, 'Huh. That's easy. It's water falling,' " Helgeson said. "But it really is very difficult."

Just finding a pump that was both quiet and could push out enough pressure, Helgeson said, took him almost two weeks.

The duo also decided to have two water pumps running during the production, just in case one of the pumps fails.

And just how clean is that recycled water? Helgeson and Burnett thought of that, too. The water will be treated with a fungicide.

"This is the first time it's actually rained onstage," Burnett said. "I think this is probably the biggest play Regent has ever done."

Rita Frankenberry, 222-5102,

rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com