What inspired you to get into technical theatre?

[shiben]

It took me a while to actually realize theatre is what I liked. In High School, I mixed sound for my church youth group. Upon getting to college to study engineering, I applied to do sound with their events people. They didnt need any noise boys, but needed some stagehands. After a semester of doing that, they had an opening in the lighting department, which I was asked to fill. I did, and discovered that I was quite good at it. The reason I ended up accepting the role is Wicked. After seeing the Chicago show, I thought the flight sequence rocked and I wanted to do that with my life. Somehow someone thought I might be useful in LX, and now I design shows and work for a profesional company as well as the college. Fun stuff.

 

[Scarrgo]

I was born into the theater,an old vaudeville house, my parents ran as a summer stock theater here in michigan. My play pen was in the theater, and I was told that I ate "Gothic" Yellow Ochre, out of the can(that answers a lot questions). They put me in shows starting at the age of 6 months on.
Once I was old enough I moved to working in the costume shop, scene shop, and concession stand. Once I was tall enough(with the help of an apple crate) I ran one of the carbon arc follow spots.
I worked tech. for all the school show thru high school untill I moved to texas during 10th grade, than back to michigan during 11th grade, joining what ever school program I could.
The college years, working at the collage road house till I got picked up by a tour company and spent the next 15 years doing theater and some music tours.

I even fell in love and got married to what I call an "Outsider", and she still loves me after all that time of me being gone on the road( heck, she got the paycheck, love ya dear) even though she still after twenty plus years, does not understand how I cant tell her when load out will be done...

Theater is what I do, I love it, live it, and it keeps me alive...it is who I am

Sean...

 

[madeye]

There is two main reasons to why i entered into the field of technical theatre.

1. i was in eight grade and i was at a dance show my sister was in. At the end of the show, which included a snow dance, grand was raised and i saw the stage crew participating in a snowball fight. The snowball fight stuck with me until the next year when i joined the crew.

2. it was the first few weeks of my freshmen year, i had come from a different school then most of the kids and didn't have many friends. The one kid i had befriended over the weeks, said one day during math, "Hey is anyone going to the stage crew meeting", as a way to become closer friends with this kid i piped up saying yea i am going. We went to the meeting, and listened to everything everyone had to say, unfortunately said kid never returned but i stuck with it. I was never really hooked until last year my sophomore year when i took up a greater leadership position and started to stage manage, the adrenaline pumping through me after a perfect show, has got me hooked for life and i plan on attending college for technical theatre/ electrical engineering.

 

[bdkdesigns]

I got involved with Technical Theatre via a scheduling error in high school.

Throughout junior high, a friend and I started dj'ing. His dad owned a recording studio and gave us some gear to get started when he was updating the studio. We came fairly popular and grew a lot by acquiring a lot of lighting gear as well as some more sound equipment. We had grown so much at such a young age that we ended up getting a story about us and our business in the local paper during the summer prior to starting high school.

First day of classes and we had both signed up for a photography course...or so we thought, because we started to realize that we needed to be able to take pictures of our work. Apparently the school was transitioning into being fully computerized and mixed up some of the arts courses. Instead, we were registered for musical theatre. We had to go to classes on that first day and set up a meeting with our counselors for later on in that day to get it fixed. We explained our situation to the teacher when we got to the class and said that we will be switching out of it later on in the day.

When we got to our counselors later on in the day, we discovered that the photography class was full and there was not anything they could do until they found out if anyone was registered for that class even though they didn't want to take it. The following day, we returned to the musical theatre class and found the teacher sitting there with a printout of the newspaper article that she had pulled online. She explained that she understood our situation and how we did not wish to do musical theatre (trust me, I cannot sing to save my life). However, she wanted us to remain in the class if they did not find an opening in the photography course because she had nobody that new how to operate the sound and lighting system. She remembered the article and wanted to confirm that it was us. We would essentially use that class time as a self taught stagecraft class. She brought in some books for us to reference from her personal collection. We slowly started rehabbing everything and bringing everything up to par while learning along the way. She also would call in friends sometimes when they weren't working who dabbled on the tech side of things to help us sometimes. The rest is pretty much history. I did end up taking the photography course the following year and took a theatre course every semester. The high school utilized the 4x4 system at the time so we had 4 classes a day for half the year and then had 4 new classes.

 

[TheGuruat12]

I was always very interested with electronics and computers, so I asked my new MS band director if I could help set up the sound system for the concerts. He liked me, and wanted some help, so I was allowed to help. He taught me the basics of sound throughout 7th and 8th grade. In 8th grade, I did my first musical, and they needed some mediocre lights, so I hunted down the "dimmers" that controlled all of the 20 par cans mounted foh and above the stage. Believe it or not they were wired directly to circuit breakers in a panel SL.

In HS, I hunted for posters about when Stage Crew met, couldn't find them, couldn't find them, and finally just gave up. Until I realized that one of the sophomores in my spanish class, and one of the sophomores aiding for my math class (madeye) were on it, and they wore their shirts the first meeting day. I tagged along with one of them, and arrived at our HS auditorium for the third time ever. There were about 30 newcomers at that first meeting. I was interested ONLY in sound, and was quite adept at it by then, so I put in my required "freshman time" at gelling PARNels on booms for dance concerts, then got lucky when our main sound guy couldn't make one of the shows. I enthusiastically volunteered, learned their soundboard during tech week, and ran my first show at RUHS.

Over the last year and a half, I have worked everything in our auditorium. At some point, I got started on a crusade to fix all of the glitches in our lighting system. I learned lights, and can do 98% of all jobs in our theater. Stage Crew has been like a family to me, and I love it more than anything else I do in life. You put your all into it, and it just keeps giving those wonderful feelings of satisfaction.

 

[sstolnack]

I was in a stage crew class because it sounded interesting, although it was only set building and painting. I was asked to join run crew for a show, and then they needed a lighting freshman to start training, and I was the only freshman not scared of heights. So I went and learned how to focus a light, and became the lighting tech, then when I started designing, I started realizing that I loved it and couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life.

 

[LXPlot]

I acted because I had moved to a new town and wanted to get to meet people. I didn't really like the acting, but I loved the atmosphere. So I did tech for the next show and I'm like, Heck Yeah, this is my thing

 

[mstaylor]

My story is very similar to others here. I actually had a teacher in elementary school that headed the AV crew. He had it set up that no teacher touched a film strip, 16mm projector, opaq projector or slides, we did it.
Fast forward to Jr high, eigth grade, my band director had convinced the pricipal that the techs should always come from the band. I was picked to learn. The upper classmen taught me the system, a Frank Adams autotransformer board, and the very basic sound system. It was these run the white lights, these run the colored lights.
Nobody ever knew there was a basic assignment system, rotating switch to assign to each dimmer or a nondim. When I moved to HS I was the only one still doing it so I became the defacto tech guy. I did lights, sound and built the sets. I did all the class shows, musicals and drama productions.
As a senior I was hired by the local arena as a spot op. My suoervisor decided four years later that he wanted to quit, promoted me to his job, then the stage manager quit and I got that job.
I also bought into a dinner theatre that I operated for seven years.

 

[chausman]

First off...

How very interesting to note how many of these stories begin with "Well, there was this girl/boy ... "

So where is your story Derek?

Second...
My story is like most people's although I did start earlier than some people.

When I was about 7 or 8 I thought it was cool how the person sitting in the back of our church would control all of the sound in the room. I ended up sitting in the back for about two years. Then, I joined Christian Youth Theater and enjoyed being backstage. After a year of actually performing and being backstage, I managed to run lights for both shows we did that quarter. First in a full theater and then in an old middle school that has 14 S4's and a lepricon board. We brought horizon software and I was taught how to load it properly. (about 6 other people had tried and said we had the wrong USB cable.) So after two months I new how to use an ETC board and Horizon software. Started buying my own sound equipment and got lights for christmas. I used my sound equipment in elementary school and now have several thousand dollars of equipment that I use regularly in Middle School. Just waiting for High School for a theater to use some of the knowledge from CYT. Waiting...Waiting...

 

[Tex]

Short answer: The need to eat.

Long answer: I am, at the core an actor. At the beginning, acting jobs were few and far between and the only people I knew were other theatre people. I tried "real jobs" and it just never worked out. The only thing I was really good at and gave me real satisfaction was theatre. So, in order to keep it together, I learned to do technical work and used my theatre contacts to get jobs. I found out I was a pretty good carpenter and also had some electrical and electronics skills. Between acting gigs, I began to work tech and it just grew from there. The more I worked, the more my respect and love for the technical aspects of theatre grew and I wanted to know more. I still do and spend lots of time learning about new techniques and technology.
Eventually, reality caught up with me and I knew that I wasn't going to be famous or fabulously wealthy, so 17 years ago I decided to teach. It was the best decision I ever made. Now I'm one of those actor/designer/director/technician/teachers and life is very, very good. I can't imagine myself ever doing anything else...

 

[derekleffew]

First off...
So where is your story Derek?...

From my very first post:

...I suppose my first stage lighting experience was in fourth grade, in the 1960s. I was in the school chorus. Teacher had to leave the “gymatorium” and, being bored, I found the Main Circuit Breaker panel on the DSL Proscenium. Three breakers were labeled something like “red x-ray; blue x-ray; white x-ray.” They were off, so of course I flipped one on to see what would happen. Teacher came back about then and said “How did you make the stage red?” I told her “I flipped this switch right ‘chere.” Since I was not, pure of voice, shall we say, I was given the task of flipping on and off the three breakers during the concert. Viola, My First Cue Sheet, coming soon by Fisher-Price.

I had forgotten entirely about that when my next experience happened. July 4, 1976, the entire township was celebrating the Bicentennial festivities when I was pressed into service because I was hanging out in the parking lot outside the high-school auditorium. It was basically "Hey kid, c'mere. Wha-cha-doin'?" “Nuffin’—I’m not doing anything wrong.” Next thing I knew, I was climbing stairs to a light booth and shown a Strong Carbon-Arc Trouper built in the 1960's. "Point it at whose-evers singing, turn it off when they're done" was what the guy told me--then he disappeared and I never saw him again. I believe he was a “friend” of the high school technical director/drama teacher. ...

 

[stagehand1983]

Let's see.......

Ever since I was little watching music videos, I was always interested in what was going on behind the scenes. I watched alot of stuff on TNN and CMT, some live shows and music videos. In second grade, I was excited to be on stage for the first time in a vocal music program. I had watched other people on TV on stage and now I had the chance. I was in a show the next year and then wasn't in any more of them.

Fast forward - I was looking on a website for a horse event and came across a thing that said the venue was always looking for part time stagehands. Well, I jumped at that and worked my first show. I'm not gonna lie, I did freak out at first, almost didn't come back for load out because loan in was so grueling but I did and have been hooked ever since.

Right now, I'm struggling a little trying to get back on the call list. I love being backstage. I do not like sitting in the house. I can get claustrophobic with a lot of people around. I have some acting ability but a little stage fright so I like doing things behind the scenes. I am currently trying to learn more but it's not easy. If I wasn't doing the horse thing, this is what I'd be into full time. I hope to be a TD someday. I've also worked with dogs as a kennel assistant, groomer and bather, and thought that was where my career would go, but now I think theatre is my niche. I can't explain why. LOL

 

[soundlight]

In fifth grade, the whole class was doing a talent show or something of that nature. I was not going to go on that stage. I just wasn't. I instead said that I would run the three wall dimmer switches off to the side of the stage (it was a multi-purpose room, not a real theatre space). Sixth grade, I'd heard stories from my dad who did lights back in his high school days and had befriended the art teacher who also became the theatre person. There was a school-wide musical that one of the teachers was directing, and I got on the crew as lighting guy. Some old controller that I think was a Dove Scenemaster, a couple of parcans and fresnels (all on L11 stands), and I was off to the races. They forgot to put my name in the program that year as the lighting person; I made the programs for the musicals, band events (I was a part of the band) and several other events. My name was in the program at least 3 times in each one.

7th grade the school got some basic lighting equipment, which I used for several shows in 7th and 8th grade. In the summer between 7th and 8th grade (I think - I may be wrong here, it may have been the summer before), I attended a Shakespeare camp at the high school. I attended because a number of my friends were, and I figured it would be fun. It was; there was stage combat and actual fencing classess - but the best part was that I became the "stage manager" for the show, which in that sense meant that I was in charge of all of the scene changes with the minimal scenery that we had.

Freshman year I showed up to high school and went right to the theatre teacher (who knew almost nothing about tech), and asked to be on the crew, and got on as a lighting op. I later learned that she hated freshmen, but I somehow got through that. I was the king of the booth at my high school in short order, and I made numerous improvements and redid many things. I even got a budget a couple of times. Summer between junior and senior years I went to a summer program where I discovered what an ETC Express was and what a Source Four was and that shows didn't have to be lights-up/lights-down like they were at my school. I returned and made major changes; I also got us the old light board from said summer program (Colortran Encore) that replaced the "Lightronics CrapBox 5000X". I should add that I joined ControlBooth just months after that summer program - wow I've been here a while...

When I started looking at colleges, I was looking for a school for what I thought would be Electrical Engineering or something similar, but I went to the theatre dept. at each school. I went in to the office of the TD at Bucknell, not knowing where I wanted to go and not thinking that theatre would be my major, and left knowing that I wanted to do theatre for the rest of my life and that Bucknell was where I was going to learn about it. I ended up with a theatre merit scholarship and participated in about every tech organization on campus at some point or another. I only took two electrical engineering type courses (one EE and one Physics dept. Applied Electronics - both well worth it, though).

 

[SteveB]

How did I miss this thread ?.

A girl. Devi Ukraine.

She was 3 years ahead of me in high school, she being a senior, I a lowly sophomore. I however, was in the "AV Club", those of us in the club being responsible for lugging 16mm film, 35mm slide and overhead projectors to assorted classrooms throughout the school day. We had our own "Homeroom" that we would report to each morning in a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere that the typical student experienced. Thus we were privileged.

Devi was lighting the Senior Play, a Senior Only experience. She needed some T3 flood lights which the TV studio owned. I was "in charge" (as in - head student) of the TV Studio. Devi let me help on the senior play if I loaned her the Berkey T3 floods, which I arranged and helped her setup. Had a great time. I was the first non-senior to ever work on a senior play in the history of our school. That meant something back then. By Junior year I was in charge of the stage crew as well as head of the AV Club. The rest is history. Ancient history.

 

[flash1322]

4th grade i joined my elementary schools tech crew setting up mics and cables and 7 years later I'm designing an running lights and sound for some of the local theaters.

 

[nd925a]

For me, In 8th grade I was actually listening to the announcements one day when they said they needed stage crew for the school play. So like anything thing else I don't know about I went and asked my dad, he said I might enjoy it so go try you'll be moving sets around and such. Got there and ran lights out of a breaker box and the main curtain.

Enter freshmen year of High school.
Old tech guru that ran lights is now a senior and needs an apprentice, the rest is history.

Now I'm the senior with nobody to train

 

[StarbucksAndRedBull]

In 7th grade, I decided to join stage crew for the school's production of The Music Man. I remember the high school's stage manager, Melinda, showing us the ropes (literally; she showed us the curtain control ropes first). I, along with a few other friends, volunteered for run crew. We didn't do much; we just moved a lot of benches and a piano. It was then that I realized that I wanted to do this more. (Dramatic epiphany! )

Fast forward to my freshman year (which is currently happening). I, sadly, missed signups for the fall play and the one-act plays, but I signed up for our school's production of the musical Lucky Stiff. I chose to do run crew (again), and I was assigned to move a door set piece with another crew member. The show ended about 2 months ago, but I still remember all the good times we had. I'll be sure to sign up for the fall play and the one-acts next year.

 

[Shannoncdickey]

I first started in theater as an actor in a childerens theater group, C.T.E. My older sister was a great dancer and i found my love for singing. We always joked that if you conbined us we would make the perfect actress.

I worked my first show backstage when i was 8, and i found out how much fun it was to hid in the dark. So now, as a college student at citrus college, i am a full time technitian and couldnt be happier.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Welcome to the Dark Side and to the Booth, Shannon. I'm glad that you have found happiness hiding in the dark.

 

[1troubledouble1]

Towards the end of my eighth grade year, I auditioned for Thoroughly Modern Millie, and thought that I would make it since it would have been like my fifth show. I wasn't casted, however. My director noticed my sadness and to make up for it, asked if I would operate the lights. The show was performed at the high school, and the high school teacher told me to sign up for her Tech Theatre class.

However, I didn't get in it freshman year and continued as an actor. As a sophomore, I was on run crew for A Midsummer Night's Dream because I couldn't audition, and then I found out how much interesting this side of the stage was. I initially used crew as a back up for not being cast, and in the next show, Noises Off, I ended up being the Co-Prop Master (If you know the show, it's a hellacious show to find props for.) I was also finally in the Tech Theatre class and was taught construction and basic sound set up.

This past year, I really embraced my techiness. I was the ASM for the one act, and while in two of the four shows performed, I was still in charge of setting up the sound, create mic charts, teach the op how to do their job, passing out and collecting mics, and performing/regulating mic checks. I started out as the Props Manager for the final show of the year, and then at tech week, the sound operator dropped out and since I had already went ahead and created the mic flow chart, the director just asked me to run mics and let my assistant run props. I then signed up to go to Internationals to tech audition for colleges, as well as landing an SM/TD job at a community theatre here. And now I love being a tech.