There isn’t an issue with the theme or anything, this is all just the way the way they (StudioPress) designed the plugin to work.
The Child theme doesn’t affect the backend/options of the Slider or any plugin for that matter, so if you’re having backend issues, it’s usually something else that is conflicting with it. A child theme usually only affects design, unless there’s custom code added to modify a particular part of the backend.
For the slider to display properly you would need to add more than 1 slide. If you add just 1 slide the shadow doesn’t show up, nor do the circles, and that is because the Slider doesn’t add the code that is needed to show it….since it’s not needed with only 1 slide. So if you plan to use this as a slider and have multiple slides you need to add at least 2 slides. If you’re planning on using just 1 image, then definitely do not use a slider to do that. That would be overkill. Just add the image directly <img src="http://link-to-your-image.jpg">
For the previous/next arrows and pagination, the answer is the same as above, you would need to add more than 1 slide (at least 2 slides) and all of these things will show up with no problem. Again, no issues issue with the theme, this is all just the way the way they designed the plugin to work.
“We’re running behind on our deadline now so a quick fix response would be appreciated if possible.”
Of course I can assist with any theme issues caused by the theme, but if an external plugin (not created by me) isn’t working correctly you should contact the developers that created the plugin, which in this case is StudioPress…..(but wait until you do that since the above solution should help).
Let me know if you get it all working.