‘big’ Picture

Even before its local premiere on Tuesday night, “big” had brought a playpen of activity to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

By noon Tuesday, 50 stagehands in Levi’s and tool belts had crowded Segerstrom Hall’s cavernous backstage with the touring show’s 275 lights and 500-plus props and set pieces, including Zoltar, the glowering mechanical fortuneteller who turns the musical’s 12-year-old protagonist, Josh, into a grown-up.

Zoltar suffered a short during the two-day truck trip from Denver, but an electrician with a nut driver handily restored the turbaned-one’s powers. Among other acts of theatrical magic--a.k.a. elbow grease--the crew performed before curtain for the six-day run ending Sunday:

* Load-in, wherein the contents of five 18-wheelers were transferred into the theater. The 13-hour process also entailed reassembling such towering set pieces as a 20-foot-tall toy-store display surmounted by a giant yellow ball. Stagehands used a motorized cable to hoist the unwieldy orb aloft, then gingerly lowered it onto its peaked lavender base. Crewman Dave Walker crowned the contraption with a teddy bear.

“Hug da bear, Davey, hug da bear,” joked his cohorts.

* Prop prep: Prop master Mike Sullivan spat instructions as assistants emptied deep canvas bins, “dressing” backstage tables with hundreds of hand props for the actors to grab.

“I have props for days,” Sullivan said. “I have pens, I have pencils, I have money, I have baseballs, I have skateboards. . . .”

* Light focus: After hanging the myriad lights, the crew must position them to illuminate a designated person or thing. Assistant stage manager Guy Roberts acted as stand-in to help the hovering technicians focus.

“OK,” he bellowed in theater lingo, “make it hot here.”

* Finishing touches: Wardrobe supervisor Annie Trimble crouched on bended knee to mend a gaping rip in a floor-to-ceiling scrim. Responsible for keeping the cast’s costumes “beaded and beautiful,” she also performs lowly tasks.

“People say I have a glamorous job,” she said, laughing good-naturedly. “I tell them, ‘Yeah, we wash all the dirty underwear, too.’ ”