This February, University Theatre is performing “Urinetown” a satirical musical about a revolution against an oppressive corporation that forces every citizen to pay to relieve themselves. Being in a near, dystopian future, the set is meant to capture the cold, harsh reality of corporate Urinetown in contrast with the lives of the revolutionary townspeople.

Jayme Mellema, assistant director in charge of scenic design at University Theatre, leads the set design for “Urinetown.” Mellema said his main responsibilities include creating a general aesthetic for the scenery, identifying major conflicts in the show and incorporating them into the set.

“What we settled on was an interesting mix of brutalism, which is a genre of architecture that involves a lot of cement and is mostly associated with things like the Soviet Union,” Mellema said. “There’s this immense, oppressive structure in contrast to this much more homey-type stuff, which feels like actual lived-in structures.”

Mellema said the musical’s set consists of a series of contrasting ideas which emphasize the differences between Urinetown’s lower class and the corporations they rebel against. The set includes a concrete halfpipe as the base with movable slums the general population of Urinetown lives in.

“It’s sort of this denseness versus openness and heavy versus light,” Mellema said. “So the cement will feel a lot colder and this more lived-in stuff will be warmer and more colorful. It’s trying to make those differences between the two different sides of this issue and story to have parts of the world that feel like they belong to them.”

Jennifer Flowers, a third-year studying business administration and arts entrepreneurship, is the stage manager and a volunteer for building the set. Flowers said a major element of the set is the varying levels of elevation in the halfpipe, where the corporate characters spend most of their time at the upper levels, in contrast to the townspeople near the bottom. She said subtle design choices like this make great contributions to the depth of the story.

“The design adds a lot of subtexts that you don’t have to speak objectively out loud,” Flowers said. “And it gives you a lot more creative control of the process.”

Luke Anderson, a second-year studying mechanical engineering and communication, is a volunteer and swing actor who is building the set and said even the basis of the “Urinetown” set is satirical, likening it to a toilet bowl.

“As far as I can tell from everything that I’ve built, it is a giant toilet. Literally,” Anderson said. “There’s an innate hilarity to it in that I’ll be working on the set and I realized that the painter put yellow stains everywhere.”

Around 25 student volunteers are involved in the set-building process under Mellema’s artistic lead. Mellema said University Theatre’s program is invaluable to students who have a passion for theater despite the University not having a theater major.

“Our program is open to everybody,” Mellema said. “Everyone who’s here working on the show is here because they really love theater and it becomes a bit of their outlet from their major to come here and not think about it for a little while and do something else with their hands.”

Flowers said volunteers often find new opportunities to become involved in other parts of production due to the lack of a theater major.

“There’s a lot of us who are really versatile in what we’re doing because again, we don’t have any specific majors for us to concentrate [on],” Flowers said. “So if, for example, you take the theater minor, you’re doing a little bit of anything.”

“Urinetown” will be performed Feb. 23-26 in Stewart Theatre. Purchased tickets in advance from University Theatre’s website.