Striking the set

An activity connected with the show, Oliver!, that I was not previously familiar with is "striking the set". Timed, I suppose to capitalize on the energy of the last show and the relief that we don't have any further performances on the calendar, striking the set is imposed as an obligation on all the cast members (even if I did see some slink off before the job was done.

Costumes were returned to the costume department,


sets were disassembled and the parts moved to storage, dressing rooms and bathrooms were carefully and thoroughly cleaned,

and props were packaged up to be returned to the donors, stored in the props storage area, or simply thrown away.

I think the idea is to give the next production the closest thing we can come to for a clean slate. I would have felt better if I thought that the stage plans were already set for the next play so that we'd know for sure we weren't taking apart something that was just going to be put back together again.