Elizabeth Wehrli, as Maria, sings with actors as they play the Von Trapp children in the musical performance of “The Sound of Music” Friday at McLeod Theater. The play was the second production this season of the McLeod Summer Playhouse. The third production will be “Peter Pan,” which opens July 28.

Behind the stage of the McLeod Theater, there’s a bustling world that few audience members may ever think about, but without which the world portrayed on the stage would cease to exist.

The backstage area houses a labyrinth of work areas filled with flying sparks, sawdust, towers of old set pieces, the whir of sewing machines, festoons of stage lights and the odor of fresh paint. For six days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the summer season, the backstage is where the play is put together — piece by piece.

Every piece of scenery, every prop sword or teacart, every costume donned by the actors and every shaft of dramatic light is the fruit of hours of labor by an ever-busy staff that may never grace the stage themselves. During summer stock, theater lingo for the summer season of shows, that job is even more hectic and demanding.

“Everybody works hard, but that technical crew is amazing because I don’t think they even get a second,” said Vincent Rhomberg, director of marketing for the McLeod Theater.

The McLeod Summer Playhouse consists of three shows that run from June to August. This season’s shows are “A Chorus Line,” “The Sound of Music” and “Peter Pan,” which opens July 28.

Rhomberg said while the Summer Playhouse is affiliated with the university, it has an identity of its own and draws its funds from several different sources.  The backstage talent for the McLeod Summer Playhouse, such as the actors, come from both the local area and across the Midwest, Rhomberg said.

Technical Director Jamie Lindemann said despite the hard work, McLeod is less demanding than some other theaters.

“Summer stock is notoriously rough on technicians,” he said. “Twelve-hour days are not uncommon. Around here, we’ve been keeping it to something a lot more sane … long days if we need to, but we go home at night, which is not always true.”

Though the hours might be sane, the schedule is fast and Lindemann said the turnaround rate from one play to the next must be swift.

“We have two days to go from Austria to Neverland,” he said.

As technical director, Lindemann said he is the engineer for the play’s scenery. He said the scenic designer hands him an image of the set and he figures out if it’s possible, how it can be done, how much it will cost and then starts the technical drawings for it.

“I’m up working on what we’re going to need for the day a couple hours before work starts,” he said.

Lindemann said it’s a job that relatively few people can do, so he usually doesn’t have too much trouble getting work. But that doesn’t mean he’s exempt from having to go where the work is.

“The life of a theater technician professionally is pretty nomadic,” he said.

One advantage of moving around, though, is that you create a network of people you know, Lindemann said.

“The vast majority of the time, you go somewhere, you work with somebody who knows someone you’ve worked with,” he said. “The theater world is so small.”

Lighting designer Christopher Jorandby said the same thing has been true for him. He said he’s never gotten a job from a cold interview.

“The idea of getting a job from essentially a stranger seems an oddity and an absurdity to me,” he said.

Jorandby said people can move up the ranks very quickly in the theater, and as an assistant in the theater department he reminds his students to always respect not only those above them but also those below, as they could find themselves working for someone who had once worked for them.

He said his job consists of deciding which lights are hung, when they’re turned on and when they’re turned off.

“It sounds really simple, but we’re going to have probably 200 instruments up there, so deciding which ones are going up there ends up being kind of like conducting an orchestra,” he said.

Jorandby said the theater requires a mix of technical and creative skills. He said he started as a carpenter in the theater and was told he could make more money working construction, but the theater offered an experience that building houses couldn’t.

“Building a stud wall is one thing, but I’d prefer to have to build a house that has to transform into a giant tyrannosaurus rex and burn down on stage,” he said.

In fact, many people in the theater started in one area and moved to another. Teena Sauvola, scenic charge, and Jamie Karas, props master, both moved into their jobs from other ones.

Sauvola said she started as an actor in high school and had fun, but the fierce competition in college made her realize it was not the path for her. She said she found that she had more fun harvesting her artistic abilities in behind-the-scenes work and hopes to move on to film.

“That’s why I enjoyed starting out in theatre, because it’s so much about creating a world out of nothing,” she said.

This summer, she’s responsible for every painted surface on the stage. She’s given renderings by the set designer, and she and her one assistant then interpret them on a large scale.

As props master, Karas said she is in a leadership position for the first time. She said she always volunteered to help with props in college and realized it was her calling, but she found out too late that Northern Illinois University didn’t offer good prop classes. She said people like Sauvola are thankfully always available to mentor her.

Karas said this is also her first summer stock.

“(This is) my first time out of school doing work, so it’s a very exhilarating, nerve-wracking experience,” she said. “But I’m enjoying it very much.”

In the basement below the noisy set-building area is the costume shop, which is managed by Caitlin Entwistle. She said her job is different every day.

As the shop manager, Entwistle makes sure all the supplies are on hand and does fittings with the cast members. As the designer for “Peter Pan,” she also creates the costume drawings. She said she interacts with the actors more than most backstage staff and started out as an actress herself before moving onto costumes.

“Getting my costume was always my favorite part of plays,” Entwistle said.

She said once she’s designed a costume, she hands it to the draper, Nick Jones, who takes measurements, spends time making shapes with the fabric and starts to put the costume together.

Like Jorandby, Jones said theater work,  costuming, in his case, requires a combination of technique and imagination.

“You have to be able to translate emotion into clothing, which can be really creative,” he said.

Jones said he has been working professionally in the theater for 11 years, and this is his fourth Summer Playhouse. He said though he loves it, he doesn’t particularly like the nomadic lifestyle.

“I’m very homesick right now, but it’s our life. It’s what we do and what we have to do,” he said.

Jones said some of that homesickness is alleviated by the network of friends one creates when working around the country.

“You develop families in different areas, so it’s not that bad,” he said.

With the last performance of “Peter Pan,” August 1 the McLeod Summer Playhouse will end another season and the staff will have to pack everything up and head their separate ways. Another summer of hard work, learning experiences and new friendships backstage will inevitably give way to the fall, possibly without the audience ever knowing it was there.

“That’s the biggest thing about summer theater … it only happens in three months and then its gone, so all these people come together, form really, really close tight-knit friendships, and then they disperse,” Sauvola said. “There’s something magical about how quickly it goes up and how quickly it comes down.”