A large amount of work and planning goes into a stage production, and a musical as large as "Guys and Dolls" requires many long hours from every person involved.

Kathy Voecks, assistant professor of scenic design, designed all the "Guys and Dolls" sets and knows firsthand how much work goes into every aspect of a performance.

"There are six different scenes, with some variation in each, and we use a couple of the scenes multiple times," Voecks said. The main piece of the set, a large city backdrop, will be the most challenging to build.

"The big set is eight to 10 separate pieces, and each of those pieces will take a couple of days to build," she said.

When building the set, the scene building and design team has many factors to keep in mind. First, Voecks said the team has to make sure there is enough space backstage.

"With a musical we have to keep a lot of open space because there's lots of dancing, but still make sure it's not boring," she said.

Boring is definitely not a word that describes the set of "Guys and Dolls." Construction of the sets has just begun, but mock-ups of the stage show colorful storefronts, high-rising signs and a vivid portrayal of the sights of a big city.

"One of the biggest challenges is that it's big and our set shop isn't, so it's going to take a lot of time," Voecks said. "One of the best things is also that it's big, it's fun and it's colorful."

Once Voecks designed the sets, she sent them to the head of set building, who took care of the details concerning the dimensions and measurements of each piece. Once the plans were made, they were sent to the set building shop located in the back of McCain Auditorium.

When there, the staff of about 10 students - as well as other students from a set design class - works to build the pieces under the watchful eye of George Matthews, supervisor of the set shop. Matthews once did freelance set building in New York but was drawn back to the collegiate setting three years ago.

"I really wanted to work with students and get back to the university setting," Matthews said.

The shop can be pretty hectic at times; the team is working on a total of three sets for various plays right now that are all in different stages of development.

"To build a set, you have to know how to read plans and be able to do basic shop math," Matthews said. "There's definitely an artistic side to it also, making it look good and not just getting it done."

Once the "Guys and Dolls" sets are built, Voecks will oversee the painting of them before they are finally ready for the stage.