This translucency cube is among the student works on display in the exhibition “Back-stage Tours,” which runs through April 16 in the Emmitt Christian Gallery of Rockefeller Arts Center at State University of New York at Fredonia.

An exhibition in Fredonia’s Emmitt Christian Gallery is offering a unique look at the productions of the 2024-25 Mainstage Series.

“Backstage Tours” opened April 3 in the gallery, which is on the second floor of the Rockefeller Arts Center on the campus of the State University of New York at Fredonia. The exhibition is free and open to the public and runs through Wednesday. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The exhibition features student costume, lighting, props and set pieces from the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series productions of “Legally Blonde,” “The Book Women,” “Alicia’s Lens,” and “Twelfth Night,” as well as the Hillman Opera production of “Cosi fan tutte,” and class projects from the Theatrical Production & Design BFA program.

Czerton Lim, associate professor of Scenic Design, said the exhibition offers an opportunity to “take a close look at the work that happens before the house lights dim and the show begins.”

The goal of the exhibition is to showcase the work that the students do behind the scenes to make these Fredonia productions “as artistically and technically exceptional as possible.”

The Fredonia Department of Theatre and Dance involves its students at every level of these productions. Its academic program is designed to “ready students to be active collaborators in the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series, training them in the skills needed to participate fully in the production work, from first-year students just beginning to learn all that goes into making a production, to third- and fourth-year students taking leadership positions as designers, stage managers, and technical supervisors. This combination of theoretical work in the classroom and practical application in the performance spaces uniquely prepares our students for the professional world.”

The exhibition offers a chance to see the work of these students up close. The Department notes that these students are “brilliantly creative artists, excellent problem solvers, and skilled craftspeople.”

The goal of the exhibition is to allow gallery visitors to enjoy this sampling of student work, “both from the studios where they learn and hone those skills and from the productions where they apply and expand upon them in real and tangible ways.”

“Backstage Tours” is made possible with the assistance and support of the Fredonia Student Chapter of United States Institute for Theatre Technology and the Department of Visual Arts and New Media.