To those looking for something entertaining next weekend, Hutchinson High School’s theater program has this peculiarly named recommendation: “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

“This piece centers around a boy named Christopher who is investigating a crime in the community, and it also centers on his efforts to connect more fully with his dad, and also, (to learn) what happened to his mom,” director Jason Olson explained.

While the story features a mystery, it centers more on family drama. Olson selected the show because he thought it would be a good choice to push theater students and their skills.

“A coach came in and worked with accents,” said sophomore Kendra Sundblad, the show’s tech crew manager. “I’m excited for people to see that.”

“They are doing a British accent,” Olson said. “We even have one girl doing an Irish accent. So that was one of the challenges.”

But the polishing of skills will extend beyond the stage. Included in the show are projections on the floor, back wall and side walls to create a “sensory experience.” Five projectors will run at the same time to achieve the desired result.

“This is one of the most technical shows we’ve done,” Olson said. “That’s maybe what scares me the most. … We’re trying to see what we are capable of.”

“We’ve done it in last year’s ‘Anastasia,’ but we’re doing more projections,” Sundblad said. “In ‘Anastasia’ we did just one, but this year we are adding three of them. We’re having fun with the lights and audio. It’s kind of a different setup.”

To make sure everything is running how it should, the crew will balance its effects across five computers, which must all coordinate. That prompted students to develop a professional-level system of cues to keep everyone synchronized.

“We’re trying to give more ownership than ever to the crew members. My hope is this will help the program going forward by teaching new skills,” Olson said. “With every show we try to figure out what we haven’t done before. We’re an educationally focused program.”

With so much relying upon the crew, Sundblad found it important to know she could trust everyone to do their part.

“It’s just trying to find reliable people. I’m lucky we did find them. Overall, tech in general, I’m kind of new to crew, doing it for two years,” she said. “I think it’s going to go OK. We’re getting the hang of it.”