# What inspired you to get into technical theatre?



## dvsDave

I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


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## zmb

Having an oppurtinuty to be on crew for school's production of _The Mouse that Roared_ in 2008. Today I do lighting design at my school and have also worked with an area high school and community theatre.


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## Les

True Story

When I was like 4 years old, my mom would watch these early '80's Def Leppard music videos. There were a lot of behind the scenes shots and I think that really piqued my interest. Then I saw Wayne's World, which also had a few cool lighting shots (well, they were cool at the time). Then I remember back as early as first grade noticing the 5 brown Altman 360Q's and Altman 520 strips on the school's stage and thinking 'NEAT'. (I didn't learn the actual names of the instruments until I was acquainted with the internet in about 8th grade). 

In 3rd grade, I was the only kid in my class who didn't want to be in the class dance (a dance in a school play), so they *made* me run lights (on an 8ch EDI Designer Series wallplate). I actually didn't want to do it at all because it was A LOT of pressure for a 3rd grader to handle, but I made it through. It probably looked really bad though. haha

I didn't really do much else 'till middle school, where I ran lights for a few plays and musicals. Their system wasn't much better. Still a cafetorium, about 7 Altman 360Q's and 8 Par 64's front of house, 6 6" fresnels and a few more cans over the stage and an ALM Systems architectural board for control. I finally figured out how an ellipsoidal worked and what it did exactly (I've always been more in to the instruments themselves as opposed to strictly design, for some reason). 

Then came high school in '99, community theatre in '01, Controlbooth.com in '03 and the rest is history!


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## Anvilx

Fake Story

And the burning bush spoke spoke to me and said, " Anvil, take this 65Q and with it you must fulfill the prophecy."



And now on to the true story:

I have always wanted to make and do things that made people wonder how I did it and challenge them to think.

“Yeah, well we don’t really know how to make it work, but if you could figure it out that would be wonderful,’’ said my seventh grade drama teacher, Mrs. A. My teacher heard I was the resident computer geek and asked me if I would figure out how to work the light board for the upcoming show Into the Woods, since no one else including me had a clue about how to run the lights. For that matter I didn’t know where to begin, I had no direct experience with either theater, or lighting, and suddenly I was responsible for putting on a show. 

So that day, I began visually inspecting this strange new object. I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a Strand 200 series 24/48 with one DMX universe and 24 effects. At the time, it seemed huge and powerful with about a million buttons and sliders and a little screen. I turned it on and began pressing and mashing the buttons in a semi -respectful way that ultimately conveyed that I was desperately hopeless. Wait, hang on a second, what was that, did I actually get it to work? No, I did something right, but in my haste to get it to work was unable to reproduce my success. Slightly dejected but not deterred, I went back to my teacher and asked, “Are you sure that there isn’t someone here that might know how to operate the light board?” “Well, tomorrow, you can go see if Mr.B, the head of maintenance knows anything about it.” So the next day during class, I walked over to Mr. Blankenship’s office to talk to him. “Well, I don’t really remember how I did it, but last year we used the board for graduation, and I set it up. I don’t know how helpful I I will be, but I’ll see what I can do,” he said. We trooped back to the “gymatorium” and he walked me through a few functions on the light board. “Oh I see, the sliders are the individual lights and these buttons refer to the information on the screen,” I said. “You are correct. The one thing I am not sure about is recording, it seems like we used the feature on the last performance, but I don’t remember how it worked.” “Thank you for helping me I think I am going to have to look up the instruction manual for this board so I can fully understand how to use it,” I said. That night I went online and read the manual, and when I went in the next day I was armed and ready. I powered it up and started experimenting with it. I actually got things to work, Lights dimmed on and off. I told Mrs. A. of my success and she was pleased, “But that doesn’t mean I am finished, I still need to figure out the best way to set it up for the show,” I told her. I spent the next week trying to totally demystify the entire board. I became proficient but not a master, by any stretch of the imagination. 

Monday of the next week arrived and the teacher announced the start of tech week. Originally, I was supposed to run follow spot and there were 2 girls that had kind of run the lights the year before who were going to be on the light board. However, since I was the only one who could really operate the light board to its full potential, I ended up joining them at the board for shows and to program it. My first order of business that week was to determine all of the different looks that the director wanted and then consolidate them. I consolidated them based on what lights were on the most together and then -programmed only one look that was common to multiple scenes. I did this because it seemed like the logical thing to do and it would save the operator time changing the lights. To my teacher that was like the cherry on top, because no one had ever done that and it made everything go so much smoother than normal. 
I was the go to guy from that point forward. Everybody sought me out I was adored by the maintenance department and drama department alike. Even the student council sought my help when they had to set up DJ equipment for a dance.

This was my first time working as a Technician and I loved it. Looking back four years later it is kind of humorous to think of how I struggled with something that seems so simple and easy to me now, but you have to start somewhere and what better place than starting at the beginning.


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## DuckJordan

It was actually my high schools production of wizard of oz when i was in 3rd grade. I creeped into the booth during intermission saw the light board and sound board and asked a ton of questions before my teacher found out where i was and ushered me back to my seat.


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## MarshallPope

For me, it is several separate stories intertwined. 

STORY 1
My dad was one of the two men who could "run" the sound board at my church. I would sit in the booth with him often, watching. When I was in middle school, I started doing sound for Vacation Bible School, since I was the only one there who knew anything about it. From there, I started occasionally doing sound on Sunday nights. Even then, I knew where everything was in the church, so I was called on to set up lights for special events. These lights included floodlight holders on blocks of wood, 2 pinspots, and a wooden box with 4 wall dimmer switches and 4 duplex outlets. To make a long story short, I enjoyed "playing" with this stuff and feeling important, but never really thought anything more of it. I also started designing the sets for Vacation Bible School around this time.

STORY 2
My senior year of high school, I was in statistics class, sitting next to a friend from band who was also in theatre - Elizabeth. She mentioned that they needed extras for the musical - Way Out West In A Dress (ugh). I thought that that might be fun, and I knew a few people who were in it, and marching band was done for the year, so I said OK. I went to the theatre after school and talked to the director. Everybody seemed nice enough, so I stuck around. My "extra" part turned into a minor part as people dropped out, and I had 3 lines. I sucked at acting, but I really liked everyone and liked being involved in it. That show came and went, and there was one more show that year - the competitive one-act play Defying Gravity by Jane Anderson (Texas UIL). I wanted to spend more time with my new Theatre friends, so I auditioned. Luckily, I didn't get a part.

INTERTWINING
The director was friends with several people at my church, and they had talked about what I had done and was doing there. My most recent project (during the musical) was designing set and lighting for the church Christmas cantata.

STORY 2 CONTINUED
The cast list was posted for Defying Gravity. I was in shock when I saw, at the bottom of the page, "Lights - Marshall Pope." I loved designing the show (closely overseen by the director) and, as it was a competitive show, adapting my design to 3 other theatres, in addition to our own. I even got an "Honorable Mention for Technical Achievement" at the district competition. Thus, my high school theatre career was over, except for the several shows that I have helped out with since graduation.

STORY 3
College. I signed up for the theatre practicum my first semester, but I had to drop it because of conflicts with marching band. Over Christmas break, though, I got an all-students email from the PAC TD, saying that he needed crew members for the spring semester. Heck Yes, I said. We met after break and he hired me, making an exception, because he normally doesn't hire people who are in in band because of conflicts, but I had experience and he was in a bind. I quickly fell in love with it, and still am the only person on the crew who is there for the sake of theatre and not simply for a job, and I have gained respect because of that, leading up to recently being "substitute TD" because there was a rental (a graduation) in the PAC and he was going to be out of town. It's nice to have keys.

So, that is my entirely-too-long story. All thanks to Elizabeth.


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## EricC

For me it was my wife "volunteering" me to help my daughters high school with a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" with a statement that I can do construction, electrical and plumbing, but only let me paint larger areas of a single color.

Since that time 4 or so years ago, I have built a castle ball room for "Beauty and the Beast", an emerald city for the "Wizard of Oz", and a junkyard for "Cats".

I have found it very rewarding over they these years working with the students and honestly get as worked up on closing night as they do when the seniors realize that this is their last performance.


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## noozer42

The very first play I was ever in was a tiny little production of The Pied Piper of Hamlin in first grade. I was a member of the town council, and I remember feeling unhappy about the way I said my line. After that, I did plays in middle school, and was very interested in it, but I didn't really get a chance to do real theater until high school. 

I was mainly a performer all through high school and college, but whenever anyone needed someone to do sound (putting together sound effects or editing music or whatever), it seemed like I was always the only one who wanted to do it. Our high school administration considered our theater program an annoyance more than anything else, so everything was done on a shoestring, but it gave our theater group a lot of opportunity to improvise and do whatever we wanted. This feeling of doing something just for the love of it has stuck with me ever since. 

By the time I got to college, I was trying to do both audio engineering and theater performance. both were very time-intensive majors, so by my second year I had scaled back the audio work and was focusing on my theater degree. At that time there were only a couple of "sound design" programs in the country and my school didn't have one yet, so I ended up sort of making up my own theater degree with a specialization in theater sound. This entire time I was doing half performance and half technical theater, along with other types of audio work on the side like DJ'ing and running the boards for and performing in live bands. Since then, mostly because of time constraints and opportunity, I've found myself doing technical theater more and more, until just this year I've picked up an internship at a prestigious theater here in the DC area with a top sound designer that I'm very excited about. 

I love all of the work I do with audio. I love experimenting and trying new things. I like the powerful effect just the right sound or music can have on an audience, and I love how theater involves a group of dedicated people working towards a common goal. It's so different from a standard work-a-day kind of job. I love what I do and consider myself very lucky to be able to do it.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I'm looking forward to doing the most ambitious work I've ever done in the next few years...

-B


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## MPowers

No one big thing, just a lot of little things adding up until suddenly I looked around and tech theatre was already my life, too late, no escape, I was addicted for life. The first memory I have of tech stuff was when I was about 8 or 9, My mom was working for the March of Dimes to combat Polio. She did a series of presentations touring Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. A large number of them were in cafeterias, lecture halls and such. In 1953 schools didn't have commons with architectural dimming and such so we toured with our own dimming system ...... 6 one quart milk bottles in a plywood six pac carrier. A copper disc at the bottom and a 8 gauge wire on a wooden knob that you could slide up and down in the salt water in the bottles. The closer the wire and plate, the brighter the light. Salt water dimmers. After that I dropped out of theatre, became pretty much of a jock, wrestler and football. That is until I met Cheri Ingrahm. Gorgeous, red head, female. My three greatest weaknesses. Her Mother ran a dance school in Oklahoma City and Cheri was the star pupil and rightly so. One day she asked me if I liked her mom, and I did, everyone did, she was a real cool lady, so I said yes. Then she asked if I'd do her mom a favor, she was doing a dance program and needed boys......NO! NEVER, NOT ME!!! Blink, blink, little smile, not a chance, I was hooked. Then I discovered that dance was more rewarding and harder work than any sport I had ever done. I was back in show biz. When Cheri was 15 she got a tryout for the NYC Ballet and made it, and headed for New York. Her diary/bio became the script for the movie "The Turning Point" with Anne Bancroft, Shirley McLaine, Chelsea Brown and Michail Baryshnikov (pardon my spelling) We kept up a long distance romance (no such thing as e-mail or texting or cell phones. and she convinced me I was as good as any guy there, give it a try, so I did. I was a good dancer, got lots of work but a very average actor and I really don't sing. Never had to steal my dance card to know it said "Dance 10, Sing 3". I was always interested in what and how the stage hands did what they did and when my knees gave out, it was a foregone conclusion, theatre was my life, the only question was what I was going to do in theatre. No knees dancing was out, average actor, that was out, but I seemed pretty good at the stagehand/tech stuff. I said "I can do that! So I stayed the rest of my Life!" 

Michael Powers, Project Manager
ETCP Certified Rigger - Theatre
Central Lighting & Equipment Inc.
675 NE 45th Place, Des Moines, Iowa, 50313


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## derekleffew

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


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## kiwitechgirl

It's really all my dad's fault. He's an electrical engineer who was involved with lighting shows while he was at school, and before I was born he built a 9-channel dimmer pack with its own two-preset desk - it also has a built-in telephone circuit for basic comms! (It's still working today, although it does spend most of its time in the garage) One of his friends was the principal of a small independent primary school and Dad would go in and put in his dimmer pack and desk and hang some lights for their production each year, and I (for some unknown reason!) often used to go with him. So I had a taste for theatre from a very early age! 

Once I got to high school, given that I already had a taste for it, I just naturally gravitated towards tech theatre - and missed quite a lot of class working on various productions.....there was one entire section in my final year chemistry exam that I left out because I'd missed that entire block of teaching! Once I was at university (studying psychology) I spent more time in the on-campus theatre than I did at lectures - I don't know how many productions I worked on. Somehow I managed to pass everything and ended up with a degree, when I realised that working in theatre that was what I really wanted to do. By that stage I knew little bits about lots of things, but I recognised that there were gaps in my knowledge, so I headed off to drama school where I had two brilliant years - and I haven't looked back since! Funnily enough, where I used to go home with questions for Dad, now he comes to me with questions...but I don't think he minds really!


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## Popsha

I started out as a dancer. Which was kind of my first taste of theater. Then came the acting, which I continued taking courses in (see I'm only a high school student in the techie world). Then, as I became more involved in more professional productions. I was able to see the technical side some more. By that time I basically was in love with everything theater, so I did all I could to be involved. I worked front of house for many shows since I was not old enough to act in them. Then I was able to "shadow" some of the techies. They were such awesome people, and they were so welcoming even though i was such a young'in. They were just really eager to show me everything and how to do it all. I sort of just seemed to fit in with the technical side of theater. So by the end of the year I knew more about mics, lighting, the miracles of gaff tape, what is needed and when in the theater and when. Now I finally now get to be the techie that taught and inspired me. (Where has the time gone? lol)


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## CSCTech

Well, when I was in fifth grade I knew the person that ran sound at the highscool and actually I wasn't interestd what so ever in it. Later that year the fifth grade was doing a small, rather pathetic show which the name escapes me now. I made a slide show for this show and was also running 'lighting' for the show, consisting of 6 resistance dimmers hardmounted and wired to a very long single boarder light above the cafetorium stage with I think 5-6 whatever watt par lamps for each color red green blue and open (white). There was no sound system to speak of besides a single mic line to the speakers where I never did understand where they were. Hidden behind some mesh board somewhere in there..

Anyways, after I left the middle school I was then in Jr. HighSchool which is connected to the highschool. And that is the year, 7th, I fell in love with Theatre. I went into the 350 seat proscenium theatre one day to join stage crew for the Jr. High Drama production. There, I met one of the seniors who where graduating the next year and needed to find someone to take over light and sound for the following years. So I then assisted the small tech crew of 3, which where somewhat considered seperate from the stage crew of plays, as we had to do everything else the school did in there aswell. One lighting designer/operator, one sound operator, and one 'stage manager' (Only difference was he/she is allowed in the booth and gets the walkietalkie ).
And so I learned what I needed to know from the seniors, but I felt I needed to know more, so I researched all of our equipment read through all the manuals we had and then the rest online, got spec sheets for our fixtures etc. And so as it stands now, a few years later I am somewhat self proclaimed TD. I know all about our current equipment and can utilize it rather well, however I have no other expeirience outside our theatre so I am currently looking for a summer program to join or possibly an internship to get some real world knowlege. 
We do 2 musicals a year, pushing to do more, so they are useally good as we take half a school year working on them. We do a fair a ammount of concerts, dance recitals, and the classes sometimes put on movie nights, talent shows etc. 

I am very happy that I get to have as much hands on expierience as I do and get to take the role of pretty much everything to know what I really want to do later in life. 

I am happy with how things are going now and am looking forward to bigger better things after highschool : )




Wow, I guess I never realised this, but theatre is the same for everyone, reading other posts, . You can't just do it, you love it, and put your whole life into it.

Whoever mentioned shoestring budgets and doing something for the sake of doing it,
I feel the same, we have slightly more backing in our situation but a lot of small things I and other techs have brought in just so we can see the show be better. (Tape, adaptors, lamps, other supplies etc.)


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## MPowers

I'm not sure if I "love" theatre, it is just such an integral part of my existence I can't imagine not doing it. Maybe "addicted" is a better word. I tried to get out a couple of times, it just didn't work out. The first time was a brief SE Asia Vacation, courtesy of my uncle, Sam that is. Two years in Nam. Actually learned a lot of things that have served me well in theatre. I was an engineer, combat battalion, learned to drive most any heavy equipment and how to blow things up. My first job back as a civilian was with a Pyro FX company in California working movies, lots of black powder gasoline lifts and one really cool tree slicing sequence. My heavy equipment experience allowed me to assist the designer of a West Virginia out door drama, stack two ton boulders with a backhoe to achieve the "look" he wanted. Thirty five years later I had kind of a "burnout" period and "dropped out" for two years to drive OTR (Over The Road) long haul trucks. If I'd landed a job with Clark "We Get The Show On The Road" Trucking, I might have stayed. But I found I just couldn't NOT do theatre. Hmmmmm, maybe I do love it. I love the feel of a bare, dark stage after a strike, a new canvas to paint on. I love the sudden intake of breath and instant of silence from the breathing audience when the curtain first goes up or the first light cue reveals the true look of the set during/at the end of the overture. I love the experience of standing out front as the audience files out and hearing how the show changed their viewpoint or seeing a young couple walking away hand in hand, did this show create "the moment"??? Yeah, I confess, maybe I do love this job, this life, this world.

Michael Powers, Project Manager
ETCP Certified Rigger - Theatre
Central Lighting & Equipment Inc.
675 NE 45th Place, Des Moines, Iowa, 50313


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## venuetech

When I was a young lad in Junior High School, a buddy of mine told me about the wild cast/crew parties that happened after the play closed. And I did not like learning lines.


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## KGustafson

I was involved in technical theater all through High School. I went to UNM to get my degree in Theater Education. Unfortunately, the program was not very "working student" friendly. I was required to audition for all shows and when I made one, I was expected to show up for rehersal 5 nights a week. I worked full time and was unable to do it. I dropped out of the program and became a health education teacher. Over hte past 14 years I have taught everything from Heatlh, to Science, to History. I started teaching Architectural and Engineering Drafting two years ago and was offered the opportunity to become the Technical Director of our brand new state fo the art 500 seat Performing Arts Center. I jumped at it and can't wait to get started.


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## erosing

My friend's sister was my ride to and from school, she was in the spring musical, it was do nothing for hours on end, be in the cast, or join the crew. I was very reluctant to choose any of those, however the stage crew seemed the most fun. If it weren't for her (and numerous other women in my life) I'd probably be doing something with computers or woodworking. I just can't help it though, I have always been attracted to females involved with theatre. Sadly, my fiancee is no longer active in theatre, but at least she sort of understands the life (once in a while), but that also means I get my alone time. Umm, back on topic now, after that first year I just went back because that group made up my only real friends and from there I have always had very good friendships as a result of theatre from high school to college to now. Theatre people are just a good bunch. Later I realised that theatre could basically incorporate almost (I still haven't found room for fine woodworking in theatre) all my hobies into one awesome job. So yeah, why not enjoy doing what I love? The icing is that I've never done the same thing twice (ok, not the _exact_ same thing).


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## IATSEM291

I got stated in high school as a board oper. and follow spot oper.


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## What Rigger?

I blame Holly Ahlborn at CSU Long Beach, and Paul Rubin.


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## flash1322

back when i was in 6th grade i was in my schools newscast program and i designed the lights for the studio because i thought it was fun and the schools director saw me doing it and asked me to design them for their play and ive been in tech crew ever since


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## 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.


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## 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...


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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


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## 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.


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## chausman

First off...

derekleffew said:


> 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...


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## 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...


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## derekleffew

chausman said:


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



From my very first post:

derekleffew said:


> ...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. ...


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## 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


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## 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).


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## ruinexplorer

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


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## 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.


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## chausman

1troubledouble1 said:


> I wasn't casted, however.


 
Channeling Derek here, 

Don't feel too bad, hardly anyone is casted. Only cast. 

I've seen the"I did act, but realized how much better tech is" story on here multiple times. That makes me happy!


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## Tex

chausman said:


> I've seen the"I did act, but realized how much better tech is" story on here multiple times. That makes me happy!


Not jumping on you here, but the two are not mutually exclusive. It's not a competition; it's a collaboration.


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## natebish

when i was in 7th grade a friend of mine's older brother was the TD of a local theatre, he had conscripted his brother (my friend) to help him hang lights, and so my friend called me and asked me to come and help so he had someone other than his brother to talk to. so his brother quicly gave me the basics of striking/hanging lights and i was off.

then in the summer before 9th grade i started to work light calls at a community theatre, and the reason that they let me work there as a minor (something against their policy) was because the guy who i had worked for/been trained by had worked there when he was my age and so they have come to respect him alot. (proof that it is who you know as much as what you know) and from there i got to know alot of designers and a couple who i worked with on several ocasions called me into other theatres to work for them.

it was on one of these calls that i met another designer who was co-designing but he always uses a youth crew. the theatre was using a ETC Express 125 and that being the board i'm best on i made a really good impression on him as a programmer and i have been working on his crew as a general technician and programmer. through his crew i have gotten to work in all sorts of theatres, including one PAC were we were working with 20+ mac 550's on a HOG 1k (that was an insane venue!). and now i know i won't leave the booth any time soon.


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## StewTech

Well, I have been in theatre since I was born.

When I was a baby, I was forced to play 'baby Jesus' in the Christmas show at the church where my father was a pastor. As I grew older, I graduate to angel, wiseman, and Joseph. 

When my family moved to the big OH, I got involved in community theatre. When I got a little older, I started a puppet ministry at a local church. As it grew, I wanted to learn how to make it appear to have higher production values, so I began to add in lots of technical gear.

When I got into middle school, I did a few plays. My freshman year of HS, I noticed they were struggling to keep the fall show going, so I volunteered to help. 

The organizer of the concert put me back stage and had me run the show. 

I had to learn on the fly, and became a very authoritative freshman.

Once that was complete, I discovered how much I liked being in charge, so I SM a few more shows. In the spring of my freshman year, they needed someone to run followspot for prom, and since I was the only Freshie in the theatre area, I was volunteered. I really like it, and did spot for a few shows. 

In the summer, I was asked to help clean up the theatre, and I agreed. I learned so much about rigging, and lighting, and I fell in love with it.
The next year I SM the fall show again, and the Fall Play, and I kept going with it. 

At this point, I've become an assistant to the Auditorium Manager, because I'm in the theatre for every show, HS or rented out, and I know more about the theatre than anyone, excluding the AM. 

I've just kept up with it, and I'm battling between going to college to major in a technical theatre area, or an onstage theatre area.


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## Clairabelle

I was a runner and ensemble fore several shows prior to 8th grade. In the beginning of 8th grade I was handed a script and told "You will be the Stage Manager," by my theatre teachers. I met some great upperclassmen that taught me everything I know. I have since worked in area theatres and do several shows a year at my highschool.


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## chausman

Tex said:


> Not jumping on you here, but the two are not mutually exclusive. It's not a competition; it's a collaboration.


 
Better as in the one that I would like to to do. But yes, it IS a collaboration!

But, tech _can_ give you the opportunity to be more creative in difficult situations.


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## DuckJordan

chausman said:


> Better as in the one that I would like to to do. But yes, it IS a collaboration!
> 
> But, tech _can[I/] give you the opportunity to be more creative in difficult situations._


_

Then you have never worked with a director who likes to toss a script out the window. Again not jumping on anyone but it should be said again Actors have the same amount of work we do its just different and generally less structured. While we have more structured guidelines to attend to._


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## MarshallPope

Also, we generally don't have to think of something to talk about for a couple of minutes when someone's quick change goes horribly wrong.


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## Tex

MarshallPope said:


> Also, we generally don't have to think of something to talk about for a couple of minutes when someone's quick change goes horribly wrong.


LOL! A buddy of mine and I had to re-write a scene on the fly when an actress didn't make an entrance. She never did show up, but we got all her lines in!


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## gcpsoundlight

I First got involved through my younger brother, who was in a kids drama group at the time, and they needed someone to help with sound. Went in knowing nothing, and ended up managing radio mics. Did a few shows through scouts, and the local amateur theatre companies, and I am now head lighting designer for the company I started with, plus I am now studying to make it into a career.

I guess I really didn't have a choice, as Both my parents are musicians, and so it was either music or something to do with the entertainment industry.


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## strandcentury

School! Like most people 

I have been to two secondary schools in Vancouver, BC, both having really nice lighting configuration. Taking drama in grade 8 and being offered to perform, I refused the offer because of stage fright and ended up running lights instead. I was not part of their lighting crew at first but I was offered the position as board op. Suddenly I was in love , the first time I used their Strand MX 24 desk and 24 CD80 dimmers and I could not get enough. My next year I joined up lighting crew and was hanging Lekolites on the catwalks / attics in no time! and later in the year ended up being the assistant student leader and designing some of the shows.

Later on at my new school after I transferred in grade 10 to another high school. Their lighting configuration was quite poor and consisted of one Strand Mantrix IIS that had a broken crossfader (we would make bets on the probability of the slider going haywire  / 12CH CD80 for their rehearsal studio. Later another department head from my other high school switched posts and ended up at my new school the next year. In my grade 11 year we went through a major electrics upgrade in both their main theater and rehearsal studio. Under my direction, a DMX retrofitted CD80 and ETC SmartPacks / SmartFades found their way into both venues. Since then I have been using the equipment to my advantage since I am the main designer for all shows but also enjoy transferring the knowledge like I currently am in my senior year to other students.


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## lightingfreak

Being a bad actor. LOL

Actually at the beginning of middle school I started designing lighting for my school and a couple months later got an internship.


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## Batwoman

*pokes head in and looks around*

Not sure how much I'll be hanging around these forums in general, probably whenever my TD calls me with a question I can't answer. lol 

Anyway... how did I get into this?

weeeeellll... it all started one dark and stormy night....


oh wait, wrong story.



ok seriously, I was a choir geek in high school, as well as in drama club, in fact I had no clue we even had a tech booth at my high school (and considering the fact that it turns 100 in a couple years says a lot, I graduated 20 years ago). It wasn't until recently when I (re)connected with a guy that went to high school with my sister who was on A/V that I learned that there was indeed a tech booth and that it was above the stage. 

SO.... fast forward about 11 years after graduation, I was church shopping and had decided to shut my sister up (she had been pestering me to check out her church, for months at this point) and went to her church. They were meeting in the local high school's gym at the time so there wasn't much to do with lights, except plug them in and go sit down. I started going there in April of '02 and by December I was on the stage team. 

A couple years later when we moved into our building, I was still on stage team but I went to the lighting training just so I knew how to turn the (express 48/96) board on while we were doing set changes. I still don't know how it happened but I was some how drafted onto the light team, which was just two of us. 

There was a point in time when I was the only person doing lights for a good year, then some time after that we finally got more people and are now on a four team rotation. I'm on one team officially and on another team in the interim while they're finding folks to do lights and camera, which I do both, at the same time. We're now using an Ion board and as much as I have learned to do with it, there is still a carp load of stuff I don't know how to do. Which brings me here, to find out how to do something. 

For the record, my original college major was computer graphics, but sadly, I didn't get too far into it before I transferred from college #1 to college #2, which eventually turned into 4 total but that's another story.


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## gumboot

When I was 12 in 2008 my Mum took me to go see the professional show of Phantom of the Opera that was in town. As soon as the Overture started and the fireworks in the Chandelier started I thought "Hell yeah, I wanna be involved in this some day." That was the night I resolved to be involved in the technical side of theatre one day, but I still didn't know enough to decide on a discipline. 

The next year I started higschool and I did stage-handing for our production of 'Dreamgirls'. We only put on a big show bi-anually, so it was this year that we did our next one; West Side Story. I had previously operated the lights for a music evening and quite enjoyed it and my teacher asked me if I wanted to do lights for WSS. You bet I did. Went from there really. Though I haven't done much since.


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## jlusardi

I've been in the cast of eight different shows and I love every second of being on stage. However, during *Beauty and the Beast*, which was a year and a half ago (my freshman year of HS) I began helping with things like painting. Then last spring during *Guys and Dolls*, I really began to learn a lot of different crew jobs. Whether it was putting wheels on sets, putting together a flat, designing The Hot Box Sign, painting, and the list goes on and on. It was then that I realized how much I loved technical theater and I think it had to a lot to with the people I learned from. 
I then proceeded to help with musicals at our elementary schools, dance recitals, graduations. Currently I am working on crew for our school's fall play.


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## Jimbo

Like many others, theatre managed to weasel its way into my life because of a girl. When it came time for me to decide what I wanted to go to school for, I, like many others, was not entirely sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I knew I liked physics, psychology, engineering, architecture, photography and film so I reasoned that I could do a little bit of everything if I decided to continue with technical theatre. Now I have my degree, work all the time and make very little money, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Who wants a desk job anyway?


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## nesscar

It all started with a conversation over lunch back in the seventh grade. "Hey, how about the Drama Club? We can do lights and stuff." I then did lights for out middle school's production of Barbecuing Hamlet. Now, 120 shows later, I'm glad I made that decision way back when.


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## Leapoffaith28

Hmmm...Lets see...I was a middle school kid and we had an orientation meet for a summer program at a local high school, and when I walked in the first thing I could notice were the massive, exposed catwalks with who knows how many lights hanging above my head. I couldn't concentrate on a single word, and when I eventually got into the summer program lo and behold a high school techie was teaching tech as an elective and I signed up as fast as I could. Over the course of the summer, I met my counterpart, a girl who could dance with all the grace in the world. We ended up going to high school together, the same high school where the summer program was held, and I signed up for a tech class there too and she went into acting. Like many before me, I was taken in by a departing senior who taught me all about...well everything. We have too few techies for us to "specialize", so I learned lights and sound and set building, but since someone else was all crazy over lightboard I went deeply into sound, and here I am. And the girl? Still around/ =P


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## Zelma

In 1978 I had a small role in a play and it gave me plenty of time to observe what the stage manager was doing. I said to myself, "I can do that." I stage managed the very next show and fell in love with it.


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## katharine

I saw a poster asking for people to help paint sets in 10th grade. I like painting. I went, I had fun, they liked me, and then they told me I could get paid for it.


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## Clarkwg3

I started my Theatre career as a stagehand for my local Beloit Janesville Symphonic Orchestra(BJSO) 3 years ago. At the end of the school year the BJSO plays a the local High School Theater for the area 5th Graders. I asked the student Sound Op if the Theater was looking for help, lol. The reply was something like: "Our current Tech Director builds our set and kinda helps sound. What do you know in the realm of Sound N' lights?" Now I realize just how big of a hole I found my self in, cause my response was something like: "well, I put on a Christmas light show that runs up the power bill $200.00. and I can fluently operate a PV12 after resetting it up." Now I'm the "Tech Director of A/V and Technology" overseeing, teaching, maintaining our Lighting, sound, video, and fly systems. Oh and still working on repairing the the mountain of cabling I took out of service my first year as a volunteer. During my 2nd year I was asked to be a 'Field Marshall' for the local Film Festival. That had lead into some interesting places, and many jobs updating systems in local business for the film festival.


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## patlienemann

I started in music in high school and gradually moved over after being in the Pit for a few musicals. The creative side of me has always loved the creation of things and how every little detail works, especially in the arts. When my high school asked for people to join stagecraft class I figured what the heck. Turned out to be the best experience of my life because it introduced me to the whole technical side of theatre... a world I had never imagined was more than two people sitting at a light board. The things that people can create through a world of imagination in the mind is just amazing.


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## Darby

My first view of theater was during middle school, watching my older sister act in productions. When I got into high school I was in several shows my freshman year but was not quite fitting in. I started working tech on various middle school and rental group productions. Throughout my last 3 years of high school I switched to doing only technical theater, mostly stage managing. It also helped that my mom was my school's set designer and prop manager and both of my grandfather's worked technical theater at some point in their lives, so I guess I was doomed to work tech theater... Personally I am very happy that I made the switch from acting (which I enjoyed but was not very not good at) to Technical Theater which is much more my type of work.


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## Lyons

I always like sharing this story. 

I'll make it short. I was acting/singing in middle/high school. When I was 15 or 16 I got kicked out of the HS performance of Mame or something due missing a before school rehearsal for whatever reason. The director made "an example of me". So I asked the "TD" if I could do sound or something. I haven't left the board for the stage since. That was 11 years ago and prior to collage for Sound Design. 

Funny how that works.


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## bobcatarts

When I was growing up, my family worked in radio and TV broadcast; I started learning to operate all kinds of recording and AV equipment as soon as I could read and understand the numbers on them. My sister, eight years my senior, was already doing theatre after school before studying and pursuing broadcast, and I followed her footsteps through junior and high school. You could say it's a family tradition, I just wound up pursuing it professionally.

I've worked on just about every production that came my way throughout school and started getting paid for production my freshmen year of high school, and have been training and chasing it ever since. 

Theatre design gives me the biggest challenges and opportunities. Somewhere between art and science, I am forced to constantly learn everything about everything (from organic chemistry to electrical and mechanical engineering to physics, astronomy, anatomy, acoustics... even the culinary arts) and then apply that learning to creatively solve problems. It also lets me be infinitely creative, giving me a safe and contained environment to "play god" by constructing -and then destroying- entire worlds and all the lives within. 

No other vocation does all this - and I've tried a few- and quickly grown to dislike doing anything else. I'm utterly unemployable outside an Arts context. It's how I survive, how I keep (functionally) sane, and how I leave the world a better place one story and lesson at a time. Just wish it paid better, but I didn't go in to it for the money.

You could say, rather, the Arts chose me, and design/tech is where I can serve her the best. So I do; everything but costumes and makeup.


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## chieftfac

The wild backstage parties, the sex, drugs, and rock & roll, but mostly for the hallucinogenic effect of smelling burning electrical wires and overheated amps.

Am I going to get in trouble for this post???

"Stay in school kids!!!!" and remember ".. Children, Dugs are bad, m'..k..."

Edit... I am so going to h*^l for this....


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## chausman

chieftfac said:


> Edit... I am so going to hell for this....



Yup. 

Remember, "family" site. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Pugs

Both my sisters did it in highschool i just followed when i was un able to join any of the branches of the ADF (Austraila Defense Forces Army, Navy & Airforce) did all the major productions in hgih school was pulled out of other classes to help set up any traveling shows.


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## JonasA

My very first tech moment was when I auditioned for the local Scout cover band; I was 12 and my voice was breaking and I didn't know any rock songs anyway, but they took pity on me and suggested I do lighting. I seem to remember the band spent most of the next few months plunged into abject darkness, and are still thankful that I eventually took up sax.

At school, I joined Tech Crew because one of the older students who I thought was amazing suggested I did. I still remember my first night on desk - school concert, which I left early to get to rehearsals for another much bigger community show. And I guess that was it... I remember looking at all the older students who stage managed and did lighting design and thinking they were infinitely cool. Five years later, I've just handed on the reins as Crew Manager and Stage Manager to a girl who I taught to use a followspot at 12. In the interim, I've read books, seen over 100 shows, trained kids, been trained, learnt lots, found out I don't know much, done things better, done things worse... you get the idea.

I don't know when I decided I wanted to do this professionally, but it was probably the moment when I stood on the stage of the State Theatre (Melbourne, Australia) and looked out over the 3,000 seats there and into the cavernous flyspace and a tech next to me said "It's like heaven, isn't it?". I love the adrenalin thrill of making shows happen: To me, performing is lovely, but it's something else to create the show from nothing and help it grow and emerge. I'm just hoping I still feel that way in a few years/decades...

Since then, I've just gotten more and more obsessed. My mother is horrified at my boundless enthusiasm. Ah well... She'll live. 

PS: I'm hoping one day I'll look on this thread and see "Some senior call Jonas at my high school said I should join and I didn't really have any friends or fit in so I did and it turns out it's great" - it's been the story of so many of the students I've trained over the past few years, and they've all been brilliant. Can't say how much I've loved watching them all fall in love with technical theatre as well as grow into amazing people.


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## kenact

Always been a techie. When I directed my first play, it was either hire a sound, set & lighting person out of my $0 budget, or learn how to do it all myself. As a singer all my life and a guitarist since 1967, sound was no mystery and having accumulated enough power tools to take down a small house, carpentry didn't scare me either. My biggest learning curve was lighting, and finding the stones to climb 40 feet in the air on a ladder to handle something too hot to touch with your bare hands.

My first foray into lighting was on an E-Lite 2x24 board in a 166 seat theater. Now I want to "replace" the E-Lite with a laptop to run all my sound & light cues and not have to worry about stuck faders and noisy pots.


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## CJWahl

Got interested in technical theater when I started college. Had a choice between regular PE classes, or dance, so I got involved in dance. My dance instructors found out that I knew how to sew and build things, and it was all over. I spent most of my spare time the first two years of college sewing ballet costumes. From there, I transferred to another college where I could major in costume design and technical theater. My oldest child cut her teeth on thread spools in the costume shop, where I was doing my senior internship as assistant costume shop supervisor.

Then I went back to college in the mid '80s and got a teaching degree, so I could afford to live, while creating costumes and doing custom sewing on the side. I'm now at a high school with an awesome auditorium, which just needs some TLC. My background may not be in lighting and sound, but I do have some students with lighting and sound experience, who are willing to teach their teacher about the electronics.

This leap back into technical theater was unexpected, but I find it an exciting change from teaching in the classroom.


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## leastlikely

tl;dr: I was super involved in theatre in high school and mildly involved in college, but it was a really long process to figure out what I wanted to be doing. The single event that truly got me into what I do now was this random Fringe show I did for a friend-of-a-friend. 

The whole story:
In high school my friend and I tried out for a play. From then on I was hooked and worked on every play in my high school career except one, in addition to taking several classes (no tech classes, but acting and IB theatre) and being the president of the Thespian troupe my senior year. Mostly I acted, but I did some costume crew, and some props design and run crew, and then I did AD and ASM, which I liked more than anything I had done before. My school theatre department had an "exec board" with a TD, ME, PM, and theatre manager. Rumor was that I was going to get the theatre manager position... but then it went to a student who was a year younger than me (which, looking back, makes sense - this is the person who keeps the schedule for all rentals for the theatre space... give it to someone and let them keep it for a while [wait a second... why was that a responsibility that was given to a student?!]) and I was pretty upset because I was sure that if I had more tech experience I would have gotten the position. I acted in the first two shows in 12th grade but for the final show that year I decided to SM it - I've never told anybody this but the actual reason I chose not to audition for it was that she wanted British dialects (I think there were something like 7 different dialects in that play, it was ridiculous) but I knew I wasn't going to be able to pull it off and didn't want to make a fool of myself so I decided to try stage management instead.

Went to college, auditioned for something, realized I sucked. But at the same time I was also doing some scenic painting and some light hangs to help out a professor (and to get extra credit). She mentioned to me that one of the student-directed shows needed a stagehand, so I did it. Had a couple more crew gigs throughout college, but I was only a theatre minor so I didn't have the practicum obligations that majors did, and naturally the spots went to majors first.

Four years out of high school, a friend from high school contacted me. "I'm starting a summer camp theatre program. We're doing a full production. Will you be my stage manager?" So I did it, and then after that I didn't do any theatre for another three years. The same friend contacted me saying "I have a friend who's doing a Fringe show and she needs an SM and I already gave her your info." So I did that show, and at the Fringe bar I met an artistic director who invited me to work with him and I've been working professionally (in stage management) nonstop for the two years since then.


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## fiona

I was recruited to help in the shop my sophomore year of high school: a friend who worked on costumes mentioned that they could use some help in the shop, and I tentatively committed. Halfway through striking the show (Agatha Christie's _The Hollow_), between accidentally drilling my thumb and crushing my foot under a 4x8 platform, I realized that I already couldn't see myself doing anything but theater in the future. Two years later, here I am.


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## LightingGirl

Well I started off as part of construction crew at my high as a freshman because i can't act and i had some friends who did tech. Then sophomore year it was dumb luck that i got into lighting. From there i just found my niche and learned what i want to do with the rest of my life. I directed lights my whole junior year and now that i'm a senior i'm lighting more shows at my school outside of just the fall play and spring musical and i plan on working with a local theatre this summer and then, next year, off to college to study lighting design.


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## Vamp Til Ready

In 4th grade, my friend Josh and I used to play during recess. We loved an old TV show (...or was it a segment within a comedy program?) called Not Necessarily the News. We used the chalkboard as our set by drawing the outline of lights and a podium. The premise of our version of the show was that Josh was the "esteemed" news host and I was the engineer/tech. My character was always scheming to find ways to get into the spotlight and often found ways to sabotage the program. This is what I do professionally in the world of public radio to this very day (I don't really sabotage the show--but a girl can dream). 

Later on, I majored in dance in college. I took dance production classes and loved it. I am that crazy person who will get up at 6am--do load in at the theater, take ballet class, rehearse,focus the lights, perform in a 2 hour opera...then stay for strike. I worked every show I could get my hands on--well beyond any requirements for classes. I worked in every position I could possibly find. So far, the only thing I really haven't done is work a follow spot. 

I took two years off of college to study with a professional modern dance company. I thought I had volunteered to do gel changes during their home performance season-- imagine my surprise when they handed me a check! Now that I had connections, one gig led to another and I got a few summer tours with ballet and modern dance companies over the next few years. On a whim, I saw an online ad for a position in the engineering department at a public radio station and I applied. I didn't hear anything for 6 months but eventually was called and hired to do lighting at their performing arts studio. Strangely, I didn't see the inside of that performance space for two years because I was grabbed to work as a board operator in the master control room/radio operations. Eventually, I was moved into a management position in the engineering department and I got to do cool things like help fix transmitters. I started mixing front of house sound and occasionally cover in the recording studio. I have now been in radio for almost 10 years. On the side, I am an over hire theater tech for another venue.


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## Parkertech

I used to act, I actually wanted to be a professional actress... then after auditioning and not getting a role at a community theatre production of "Lives of the Saints" I was asked to help with the tech work. I had my hands in everything from costumes to set design and even stage management. I went from being a spoiled actress to loving the elements of a show. I learned that with good tech work a show could go from people playing make-believe in front of others, to a rich mini-world observed by the audience. 

Recently I discovered my greatest love is sound. I'm actually working on creating a tornado effect that will (hopefully) sound like it is whirling around the audience for Book of Days.


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## ebailey

Since I was tiny my parents always took me to different gigs and I loved watching the guys work in such an amazing atmosphere and then I found out tech theatre course existed which is what I do now  (yay)


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## Kdiggins

When I was eleven, I auditioned for my school's production of 'Oliver!'. Didn't get a part so I joined tech crew and realized I liked backstage more than onstage. I worked on every show in middle school then I went to an arts high school as a tech theatre major and now I'm almost done with my Live Show Production degree and doing an internship at a local theatre.


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## Light-n-Sound Tech

I actually had an interest in theatre starting in high school, after my freshman class did a super small musical that was unique to our school system. Up til my 2nd year at Iowa State, I was focused on acting and directing. All it took to change my mind was a lab that was mandatory for me to graduate. Having the experience of acting and directing though helps communication between the different areas. I can't remember the number of times I've helped design and have gone into the mind set of a director to get clarity of a concept.


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## Nahiyan Navid Haq

Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in Technical Theater. When I was in grade 7, I was supposed to be helping the backstage crew for the school show and I was just an "extra" helper. On the opening day of the show, both the lighting designer and the sound engineer called in sick. So our theater teacher really liked me as a student and I was trustworthy. So, he called me and asked me if I would like to run the lighting console for the show and I said that I would love to. Then he kind of gave me an intro to how the ETC Express console worked and gave the LD's notebook with cues and stuff written in it, so I pulled off the whole week of the show running lighting and sound at the same time. It probably didnt look very good and sound very good either but it worked and was a great experience. I have ever since been running shows and have done over 50 productions and over 250 different little shows. And, now I am the Tech Crew Representative at my school and worked at The Grand Theater as the LD during the summer. I hope to do this on the side of whatever job I do in the future.


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## A1or2

So I always wanted to be a lighting designer in 5th grade, but then I learned I was colourblind. So that pretty much went out the window, but somehow I ended up behind a sound board for a tiny little play we did, and I instantly fell in love. It was so amazing to me that I could make such a difference with nothing more then the slide of a fader. And ever since I've been doing theatrical sound. Then when high school started I joined MSG varsity and started to learn going post/live production sound. And one year after that I joined a studio where I have been learning mixing (though I'm not any good at it), and how to set up live sound gigs.


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## Michael Scroggins

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


 
My undergraduate degree is in English (1998). I went back to school and got a master's so that I could teach (2013). This summer I interviewed for three English teaching positions but got excited over a stagecraft and drama teaching position that opened up at my alma mater. I interviewed and secured the job and absolutely love it. A happy accident, possibly.

I've joined this group in an effort to learn the technical aspects of theater as I will be the one to go to at my school for such information. I don't know much, so I need to learn. Very glad to be here. Looking forward to any help I can receive and, at some point, offer.


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## Taylor Ness

I was influenced by a teacher back in middle school. I "lighting designed" my first play in the 7th grade, been doing it ever since!


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## Just Another Lighting Guy

I wanted to study acting actually. As a freshman performance major in HS, I was forced to take Stagecraft, against my will, but I found out I picked up carpentry and lighting quickly and really enjoyed both. I kept begging my Stagecraft TA to let me run lights for a show as all I worked were electrics, or carpentry calls that year. At one point he pulled me aside and told me I didn't want to hit go during the show, I wanted to learn to program. So he taught me how to patch the Express some 15 years ago, and showed me how to write subs and cues after I was done. And although I thought then I'd never get a chance to do any of it again, but I soaked it all up anyway.

Well, our HS took a show to Scotland and somehow I got to be the board op for that show. The LD programmed the show in the US herself, but I watched and picked up on her methods, since she was unable to travel with us. In August 2000, before my Junior year in HS, I left the country for the first time and programmed a show from a magic sheet and a cue list for the first time. I was given a little bit of creative freedom by the director and added cues and specials while still keeping true to Pam's design for the show. After all this, I still wanted to be an actor, though I did enjoy lighting.

I started volunteering at a community theatre in my hometown. The TD there was also the resident LD and let me be his ALD for a few shows. After I graduated HS, I was hired as the ATD and worked there summers while going to college for...? You guessed it... acting. I was actually in the BFA Theatre Arts program, so I was able to take lighting and sound design with lighting and sound majors. I was supposed to do wardrobe, front of house and run crew for 3 shows my freshman year. But I ended up working on 6 shows, all LX, one as a programmer and one as the fill in ALD, updating the paperwork when the actual ALD got sick. All throughout college I designed shows and worked as the ATD in my hometown and/or freelanced at theatres around school, mostly as an electrician. After college I moved back home, worked as the ATD and designer for a full year then moved to NY to do what...? Be an actor. Still, wasn't taking a hint...

Moved to NY, acted Off Broadway, managed a bar, started designing Off Broadway became a production TD, then became a space TD/resident LD and worked some LX calls with Local 1. Finally it dawned on me I should stick to the production side, where people keep offering me work.

This past November, my wife got a job in Central Florida at a new golf resort, and here we are. I'm working LX in Lakeland learning the Ion, and getting phone calls for work in Orlando. For as long as it took me to "see the light" and the writing on the wall, I feel like I'm in a pretty good place in my career for the moment. I want to learn more about programming intelligent fixtures (I've done LEDs on an Element, and a handful of movers and scrollers on an Express), but have a decade of technology advancement to catch up on. So here I am. Thanks for having me.


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## Goatman

I was actually interested in film more and asked the high school director if she needed someone to film the show for her (Musical Comedy Murders of the 1940s), to which she said yes. Four shows later, the show needed a new props person, so I did props for a couple of shows (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead and A Chorus Line). When my props job was done for A Chorus Line (it was high school and obviously low-prop so they didn't want someone backstage in charge of the props), I was delivering the last prop after rehearsal when the director received a call from the light board op saying that he had a concussion and would not be able to climb the stairs of our outdated theater (which lacked an elevator). The director pointed at me as I was leaving and asked if I wanted to learn how to use a light board, to which I said, "Sure. That might be fun."

Now six years later with 51 shows under my belt, I basically only do lighting and technical directing for my old high school and am going to major in theater. So I can honestly say that if my friend hadn't been severely injured, I wouldn't be the same person I am today.


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## DTaxon

I was interested in the sound board when I was in a band, and after the band disjoined due to college, I was still fascinated with the tech side of things and when I entered high school, I joined tech crew and will continue to stick with it until I graduate, and probably even after that.


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## Catwalker

After I pulled the sword out of the anvil, a majestic voice boomed out, saying, "cue three go". But seriously, I ran our schools complex lighting system in junior high (one followspot) and that started me off.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## Eboy87

My parents both work(ed) in the medical field (Dad's a doc, Mom ran the lab at a hospital until my sister was born). When my sister came along, she took dance lessons at a local studio. They would put on their annual dance recital each spring, as since I was too young to appreciate the female form (my sister is 4 years younger), I was bored out of my mind sitting through a 2 and a half hour dance performance. So I'd entertain myself looking at the lighting and speakers, and watching the techs when they were in the house.

_Flash forward to grade school
_
The 7th and 8th grade at my school always did a musical in the spring that the entire school would watch. Nothing fancy, since the stage was still (mostly) unchanged from when it was built in the 50's. I have terrible stage fright (unless I'm behind a guitar), and remember how cool the tech stuff was from those dance recitals, I signed up as crew. They put me running curtain and lights, and by lights, we're talking probably original run Altman R40 strips, and floodlights like you'd have on your garage, all controlled by circuit breakers, i.e., no dimming. For sound, the music teacher's son, who was about the same age as us, brought in his own PA system, supplemented by a few pieces rented from Bush Creative Services (one of my classmate's dad worked there). He and I got along well, and I was hooked. 

So, that was 7th and 8th grade, then in high school, I got involved in my theater's tech program as a lighting guy. I stayed in lighting until I worked a show (coincidently at the same place my sister's receitals happened, and I believe @rwhealey also spent a lot of time in that venue) which had a much larger lighting system and an actual LD. I didn't do well under the pressure, combined with strong competition at my school for who got to run the board, so I jumped over to the less-favored (and to me, much less stressful) sound. 

Haven't really looked back. I did a few other jobs, run crew, SM, LD, etc, but mixing, system tech'ing, and sound design are what I've made my career in. It was either this, airline pilot, or locomotive engineer. Railroad turned me down, flight school was too expensive, and I get too much of a thrill working on shows and hanging out with the crazies we call theatre people.


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## AVKellyDS

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


 my old roommate was the technical director at a local mega church. I started by helping with set of for jr high and high school l services. Later I became the lighting design for the jr high services. I had a basic express system and no moving lights. I was hooked. After a year or so I got to move onto main service lighting. There I had 6 IT lights, cans, franels, and an LED wall. I used a Congo jr. It was awesome. I have a successful career as a nanny but I'm thinking about moving into lighting design full time in the next few years. I'm trying to learn everything I can do I can be a full time concert lighting designer.


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## Beny

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


I had a great drama teacher in high school and was determined to become a lighting designer. I went to Northwestern to study with Theodore Fuchs and was his graduate assistant for a couple of years, though I also took acting classes and eventually got all my degrees (BS, MA, PhD) in oral Interpretation. I worked professionally for a few years, but soon started performing in Second City, from there started teaching acting -- continued for fifty years. Once in a while I still design one of mjy own shows, but am not up to speed with the new equipment from people like my pal Joe Tawil.


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## SeanO

In all honesty, I'm not really in the industry, I'm still in high school (16 years old) and I've taken an interest in lighting design mostly, due to visits to theme parks when I was younger (mostly universal studios, even when I was 11 I spent most of my time at their shows and simulators trying to work out how everything was done). More recently, I've also seen lots of videos of musicals and other stage things on youtube recently, and the lighting in these shows have interested me.

I really have no drama experience at all though, because when I was younger I really had no interest in it (and outside of the technical aspects, I'm still not that big on it), and when picking my subjects a couple of years ago, I had nothing to go by for drama because we only had a cover teacher prior to that, so I did not choose it.

I'm now hoping to at least take on some form of lighting on as a hobby, if not as anything else, and if I stay on for 6th year at high school (Scotland), I may end up crashing Higher Drama.


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## Mark Harris

It was probably because I didn't get cast in a particular show ;-) but I was working in a community theatre where everyone did everything that had to be done and I was keen to learn new skills. I helped rig and then sat on the board for plotting. It was a 10 channel 2 preset manual board (Theatrelight for those playing along at home) and I was very much at the "push 8 to 100" stage, but it appealed to my gadget side and I slipped into the role quite happily. I operated other people's designs for a while, along with sound, and finally thought "I can do that" so I progressed. In these days of computer boards and moving lights, having a background in the manual world is often helpful. And we're still using much of the same gear!


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## babylightgoddess

I was always convinced I wanted to be an actress, but after my first high school show (pride and prejudice) I was so stressed, and the lighting tech were just sitting in the lightbooth, and I thought, that's what I want to do, do everything before the show and then just go, and that's where I've stayed


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## JJBerman

My freshman year of high school, my advisor strongly suggested that I try a school sponsored extra curricular activity. Because of Boy Scouts and Martial Arts, the only club that met during my "free" time was Stage Crew. Once I started I never looked back. Because of my enthusiasm I was hired on as a technician starting my sophomore year. Currently I'm going into my junior year of college as a Lighting and Sound Technical BFA with an IT minor.
If it wasn't for my freshman advisor there is the possibility that I would never have step foot backstage, let alone live backstage!


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## garyvp

I had no interest in theater until I met my wife. She was heavily involved in a local community theatre…actor, stage manager, a great lighting tech, and property mistress. It annoyed me when we first were dating how committed she was the place…..especially at night. They were doing Dracula and I went down to see the place and help out with the set. I am very technical and mechanical and had worked HVAC and electrician, good carpenter and professionally a science teacher. I was a teenage geek, science fairs, the whole thing. Well, I was there 20 minutes and soon realized that they mostly actor types and not great with tools. At the end of the first week of long nights I had built three large bats that flew and whose eyes lit up. Built a dry ice fog machine. DId all the FX. Hung the lights. The hook was set. 

The control booth was a death trap of cables so I volunteered to rebid one that was roomier and safer. All their lighting was through a conduit system which had thirty six circuits that they were expanding to 84. And bringing in new three-phase service. I worked with the electrician set up the trough and manual patch panel. What a great project. Later it was upgraded to a hardwired 24 dimmer NSI system with a programmable board…Still works great if you take care of it. 

Well, they asked if I would be the TD…..which I asked, 'What's a TD?". I have been technical director for almost 30 years, and married that woman…..otherwise we would never see each other. I maintain the theater's infrastructure, tools, shop area, costumes and prop rooms, dressing room, but it is my electrical skill that is most important. I maintain all the fixtures, cords, and even rebuilt the dimmer packs. This summer I rebuilt/rewired all the patch panels and connection strips. I use my electrician for all mains and sub panel work. 

Since joining the CB, I have become a student of the NEC code, at Steve Terry's recommendation and have my own hard copy, and recommend that anyone in this business, professionally or volunteer like me, should do likewise. My electrician is a NYC licensed master electrician, but without specific knowledge of theatre electrical details…NEC 520, nor do any of the electricians I have worked with. So you have have a good dialogue with them when they are doing your work. 

And the Controlbooth is a great resource, especially the electrics section. It has the best and most articulate people in this business.

Ten years ago I was appointed President of the Board of the building we are located in and am also the manager…..more technical projects.

I have only worked in one other theater - another community theater nearby to do some special effects. Plus, i go to shows in other theaters. Most are quirt scary technically and lack the continuity of a permanent TD, one who is not hired to a show.

Just love it. Training some new people to take may place, but it is difficult.

Hey….just ordered some medium focus Fresnel bases……! Yum!


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## Bedsprings

In high school, I was in love with tech theater, my older sister, who was struggling as a stage manager was reason enough for my father to tell me to "get a real job" so after 5 different career paths, i found my way back as a way to make ends meet, 3 years later I'm the house TD for one of the largest and most intensive High Schools on long island.


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## lapro63139

Concerts tickets are so expensive, why not get paid if your going to keep going to them.


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## artable

My HS director asked me to Stage Manage for her sophomore year. Now I spend all my freetime (and a good deal of what were once sleep hours) either in my theater, or passive-agressively emailing my actors.


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## Les

artable said:


> My HS director asked me to Stage Manage for her sophomore year. Now I spend all my freetime (and a good deal of what were once sleep hours) either in my theater, or passive-agressively emailing my actors.



I can tell you were cut out to be an SM. "My theater", "my actors". No offense of course - you're all like that.


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## artable

Les said:


> I can tell you were cut out to be an SM. "My theater", "my actors". No offense of course - you're all like that.



We also talk to the systems we work with when no one is listening."Why are you so unhappy?" (things that are broken are unhappy. also cable that was wrapped poorly.) I'll say to the recently shorted frensel, or the mic pack that refuses to transmit/pickup...


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## Les

artable said:


> We also talk to the systems we work with when no one is listening."Why are you so unhappy?" (things that are broken are unhappy. also cable that was wrapped poorly.) I'll say to the recently shorted frensel, or the mic pack that refuses to transmit/pickup...



Oh yes - I have met lots of unhappy and temperamental gear. Some was unhappy due to improper care and feeding, others were born that way.


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## wanderer

...I've always loved theatre. But I was never advised to go into it, or any related field. I've always loved playing with tools and technology, but nothing along those lines were advised either.

Let's just say that going straight from high school to a UC without any real plans and with a growing case of burnout was a bad idea. But hey, it sounded like a great idea at the time! Everyone was doing it!

A few years of retail hell later, I decided to give community college a go to find a professon -- any profession! -- that I wouldn't hate myself to get up in the morning for. Theatre wasn't even on my initial idea list, but the first semester I went, my sign-up date was so late that I had to troll around on waitlists to even get a single class. The only class that would take me, though it was the one I was most wary of picking, was theatre costuming. I tried a few other things, but theatre stuck. Now I've got a local certificate, I'm a good few musicals wiser thanks to a followspot job at a small professional theatre, and I'm crunching my way through general ed for my transfer degree... surrounded by classmates a decade younger.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to specialize in, though -- the classes here are great but (naturally) limited in scope. Leaning toward lighting/electrical but not really sure what steps to take in that direction. So, joined up here to look for further ideas and inspiration!


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## robartsd

wanderer said:


> But hey, it sounded like a great idea at the time! Everyone was doing it!


I think I've come to realize that what everyone is doing is what often needs the most scrutiny as to whether or not it is a great idea - but I'm not sure I could convince my HS age self of that.

I recommend community college to any student that feels like they need to explore options; and nobody should borrow money for education until they have a clear idea of how it will be applied to career development.


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## cmp914

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?



Honestly, boobs. I was hanging out with a girl I had a crush on asked me to tie her into a corset before a rehearsal, then a few of the other actresses asked me to do theirs too. I spent my first production doing nothing except make boobs look sexy in corsets.


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## TheaterEd

For me it was that there were no roles for little kids in the HS production of Oklahoma and the director new how much I loved theater. I was in eighth grade and my sister was in the show, so they recruited me to run the sound board. I was in charge of the area mics, while an adult ran the wireless. From there I started running the sound board for church bands on Sunday (way better than sitting in with the rest of the congregation, no one could see my gameboy in the booth). After that I went to college and found my way into the theater education program. Due to a scheduling error I needed an extra semester, so I filled it with every theater elective I could fit. 

My original plan was to graduate and become an acting teacher, however the people that have those jobs don't seem to retire. Fortunately, I had enough tech experience and an education degree to land my first job as a part-time Performing Arts Center Manager for a large school district. Was able to use that experience to land a full time job at a smaller theater and have been loving every minute of it.

TL;DR Obnoxious Eighth Grade actor did tech on the side until he became an adult Tech that does Acting on the side.


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## SayanteeSC

Curiosity about the back stage antics, driven by the invisible magic that brings to life that which is visible to the public. We slowly transform the intangible idea into the tangible performance.

And yes - Boys. A girl in the backstage is always amongst Boys.


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## Ben Crop

Because it turns out I am way better at tech than acting!


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## MoreThanSet

I watched someone running lights for an open mic night I was doing audio recording for. He had a small DMX controller and some LED moving head lights. He could tell I was interested. At set break, he asked me, "Do you want to try it?" I said, "Sure!" I ran lights for the whole second set. After the show, the owner of the lights, a musician playing on stage, said "lights looked good!" The guy pointed to me and said, "he ran the lights that set." I then did sound and lights for the band for the next 2 years. Now I am getting my B.S in Entertainment Production and thinking of going for M.F.A in Lighting Design.


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## Tronchaser

I got bit by the bug when I got out of the Navy and my brother hooked me up with a job.


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## bobgaggle

I like acting in high school, but like building stuff more. I swore when I was a kid that I'd never have a desk job so theater seemed like the way to go. I have a desk now, but its in a scene shop so I'm ok with that.


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## The Gray Lady

When I was in 8th grade, I was in the drama class, and since I have stage fright, I decided to go with the technical aspect. I started out with just making the posters and doing publicity for the school, but then I was put on the soundboard. I didn't have to do much, mostly just cue the music. I didn't really overly like it, but I stuck with it and I continued to be a part of the theater department when I went into high school. It was there that I started working with the power tools. 
Anyways, that's what really got me into the technical aspects. I now work more with the actual building of the sets, but I also tend to work on some of the publicity.


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## Offdaheezy

Years of passion for the industry. I've performed musically in the past and recently decided to take my passion and make it a career. I'm a first year in Cambrian Colleges Theatre Arts Technical Production. Thanks for creating this site, it's awesome!


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## burgherandfries

I started backstage in 7th grade, pestering the sound guy at church to teach me the ancient Mackie because the board looked cool and he got to hang out with the musicians while everyone else sipped "fellowship coffee". After a few years, the sound guy moved away and I took over. I played in a few bands in high school and was volunteered to be the one to set up and break down all the equipment. My Drama teacher found out that I sort of knew what I was doing and threw me on _Footloose_ my sophomore year. I learned lighting for the straight plays and stage management for Thespian competitions and then became the school's "tech guy" when they rented out the auditorium for dance recitals and talent shows. Nobody ever mentioned that being a technician is a real career choice. I thought I wanted to be a Communications Officer or an MP in the Marine Corps. My siblings are military and that was my expected trajectory, too. My step-dad told me about the theatre program at his alma mater and I applied to make my parents happy. After my recruiting office's Staff Sergeant told me "you don't want to be an officer," presumably because I'd outrank him right out of school, I took the theater scholarship and got a B.F.A. in Stage Management. After internships, apprenticing and freelancing, I made my way up to Production Manager and here I am.

TL;DR : I'd rather wear black than camo.


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## NateJanota

Simple: World of Color.

Prior to meeting my now-fiancee, I hated Disney and theme parks in general. I loved the idea of touring but with my lack of experience, I wasn't confident in picking up work that was stable.

Then she dragged me to Disneyland and California Adventure, where I saw World of Color. My jaw dropped, and I was forever transformed. I don't remember moving at all during that show. I do remember dragging my then-girlfriend by the hand, however, shouting about getting a job doing "that" (whatever "that" was).

I eventually ended up joining the Entertainment Tech team at Disney, but was heartbreakingly laid off only 5 months after starting work. I since then have taken up work at Universal Orlando with a sentimental and loving tear in my eye.


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## NateJanota

burgherandfries said:


> I started backstage in 7th grade, pestering the sound guy at church to teach me the ancient Mackie because the board looked cool and he got to hang out with the musicians while everyone else sipped "fellowship coffee".



Wow, you totally just nailed how I got into lighting. I can't even count the number of entertainment interviews I've had where "I like buttons and encoder wheels and flashing lights" was my official reply to why I want a job. Needless to say that doesn't always work, but in some weird way it's what got me started!


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## Joel - Studio 52

I've been a musician all my life. After starting my own band in the 80's, I started building a sound system out of necessity. Shortly after, a high school music director friend ask me to help with a musical she was putting on. I started out buying a couple wireless lapel mics for her show and haven't stopped adding and upgrading since. We're now up to 24 Sennheiser wireless units, a new 32 channel A&H digital mixer and are always expanding the business. Over the years we've done school musical/drama, holiday programs, community theatre, county fairs. I've worked with local, regional and national touring acts. Bars to large outdoor shows. One offs and festivals where we've had as many as 5 bands in one day. On the bigger gigs, I rent and/or subcontract with larger production businesses that I know. Saves me from having to own so much gear. Most of my gigs are theatrical/school related now.


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## Professor Ed Baker

I grew up in a poor community in a poor state in the south. When we wanted or needed something my father made from what we had access to before spending money. I learned complex problem solving skills from thos "Making" experiences. As time went by I looked for places and ways to share my skills and knowledge... I love Acting and had a fair little career in it... but I have found that the really serious creators and inventors are back stage and in the production shops.

So that is where I spend my time, now.


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## Jon Epstein

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


Hello,
I got into theatre in high school in the bay area in the mid 80's really loved it.. after 30 plus years I still love making fantasy a reality. Be it a alien invasion or a kids tv show


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## Connor techie JR

It started last year in health class when my good friend slammed the tech application sheet for our schools production of you're a good man charlie brown. They then made me fill it out and dragged me to the first meeting. Ever since then I've loved the work on building sets, hang and focusing lights, designing the sounds, props, and costumes, along with managing everything as a stage manager. Oh and the community, I love the community and I feel like I belong here


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## PapaJJ

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


When we started our theater company, there was no money for Lights, Sound or Set Construction resources - so out of sheer necessity, I've had to step in, suck it up, and "git 'er done". 5 years and 20 shows later - still doing it (love it though).


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## harmony

I decided to go back to "school" this year not wanting to do what I did before or any of many other jobs that personality tests thought I'd be good at. Don't know I'll be good at this either but starting a "Live production" course in a few weeks and expect I'll find out. What inspired me to choose theatre - I have a brother who writes beautiful music and songs while I have a talent for writing so my aim is to write a book for a musical. As I'm theatrically illiterate I figured I'd better learn a few ABCs before I demand XYZs from a tech crew. This looks like a great place to get the gritty truth while I experience some basic hands-on education during the tech course. Wish me luck!


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## RonHebbard

harmony said:


> I decided to go back to "school" this year not wanting to do what I did before or any of many other jobs that personality tests thought I'd be good at. Don't know I'll be good at this either but starting a "Live production" course in a few weeks and expect I'll find out. What inspired me to choose theatre - I have a brother who writes beautiful music and songs while I have a talent for writing so my aim is to write a book for a musical. As I'm theatrically illiterate I figured I'd better learn a few ABCs before I demand XYZs from a tech crew. This looks like a great place to get the gritty truth while I experience some basic hands-on education during the tech course. Wish me luck!


Welcome-aboard!
Toodleoo!
Ron-Hebbard.


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## EdSavoie

I got sucked into this world thanks to being lucky enough to be at a school with an actual theatre.

I can remember being a grade 8 student and going to the end of year assembly for those who would be attending this highschool come the fall. My naive thought when they lowered the video screen was joking to my friend "I want to be the guy who pushes the down button". 

Of course as I would find out come the fall, that was no button, that was counterbalanced manpower.


Once I joined and assumed more responsibilities, I found myself drifting further away from my original intent to go somewhere in the computer sciences. 

Now here I am, finishing my last semester at highschool, and despite all the problems with this old theatre, the people who would come in with crazy demands and the outright toxic ones...

I loved all of it.


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## RonHebbard

EdSavoie said:


> I got sucked into this world thanks to being lucky enough to be at a school with an actual theatre.
> 
> I can remember being a grade 8 student and going to the end of year assembly for those who would be attending this highschool come the fall. My naive thought when they lowered the video screen was joking to my friend "I want to be the guy who pushes the down button".
> 
> Of course as I would find out come the fall, that was no button, that was counterbalanced manpower.
> 
> 
> Once I joined and assumed more responsibilities, I found myself drifting further away from my original intent to go somewhere in the computer sciences.
> 
> Now here I am, finishing my last semester at highschool, and despite all the problems with this old theatre, the people who would come in with crazy demands and the outright toxic ones...
> 
> I loved all of it.


The thoughts of an old blind guy: Some people are in technical theatre because they want to be, others because we must be. For some of us we can never remember a time when we weren't compelled.
Edit 1; corrected a minor spelling error.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## Debra P. Holmes

The smell of lumber being cut. . .


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## salsan375

It mostly started cause I was bored. I go to a community college that has multiple campuses around Cleveland. I started at the one downtown and went to one in the suburbs of Cleveland. I joined drama club saw a few plays started hanging around the theater department and volunteering. One of my classmates said they were in Mary Poppins at a local community theater and I went to see the show. They do a program every summer where people can volunteer to help build the set for the summer show and then do crew for that show. I've been a volunteer there for a year now and my third show I was spotlighting beauty and the beast. I just decided then that I love working musicals. I also took a stagecraft at my college and got to play around with the lighting board for a few minutes so I'm here to learn more and maybe one day tour with a traveling show like trans Siberian orchestra doing lighting or working other concerts


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## Ian Sk.

dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


The first Broadway show I saw was ‘Hello Dolly’ in 1968 I was in 7th grade with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. I was amazed at set pieces moving on and off stage as if by magic. The next day I went to the school auditorium and signed up for the back stage crew and the light board grabbed my attention and that was it.
I stayed involved through high school. I didn’t go to college so my ‘career’ stopped in 1974.
I want for a number of reasons to get involved again in lighting but I will need some help. I’ll look around and find the correct forum to ask my questions.


dvsDave said:


> I'm curious. What inspired you to get into technical theatre?


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## RonHebbard

Ian Sk. said:


> The first Broadway show I saw was ‘Hello Dolly’ in 1968* I was in 7th grade with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway.* I was amazed at set pieces moving on and off stage as if by magic. The next day I went to the school auditorium and signed up for the back stage crew and the light board grabbed my attention and that was it.
> I stayed involved through high school. I didn’t go to college so my ‘career’ stopped in 1974.
> I want for a number of reasons to get involved again in lighting but I will need some help. I’ll look around and find the correct forum to ask my questions.


 *@Ian Sk* You're amazed!!? Heck! I'm totally incredulous to read: (Quoting you) "*I was in 7th grade with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway*" 
Toodleoo! 
Ron Hebbard


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## John Scrip

I was the chief engineer / studio manager at a recording studio. The place semi-suddenly changed ownership, turning my full-time gig into a part-time "freelance" position. Figured I should get something at least somewhat stable to make up the difference. Local performing arts facility had an ad out for a part-time TV studio tech. Signed up, got the job. Some day before my start date, I asked if they'd mind if I just sort of wandered about the place to get the lay of the land. There was a rehearsal going on in the main theatre (A Chorus Line - I remember it like it was yesterday). TD / sound guy was having issues with a couple wireless units. I offered to help. 

_"You know anything about wireless mics?"_
"Well, enough I guess..." 

Tweaked the mics, plugged everything in while he was working. Something started feeding back. 

"Do you mind...?"
_"Go right ahead."_ 

And I pulled down a couple frequencies on the graphic. 

A bit later, something (don't remember what) needed attention and he (TD) said "I have to leave the board for a bit" to the director and brought the faders down. I said "Do you want me to fill in for awhile?" and he says "Can you live sound?!?" and I said "Well, sure." 

At that point, I was a theatre tech. I can only imagine how much more of my hair I'd still have if I didn't go in that evening.


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## f_zzyslippers

I started out acting. I always wanted to be a comedic actor, but I was always cast as the milquetoast normal dude. Lol. I did improv for a while. I still like doing it, but the whole "improv world" is too much for me.

I eventually got a part time job as an event technician at the community college, and held on to the job longer than any of the other stuff I was doing in my life. By the time that happened, I realized this is what I had to do for a career.


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## Bob Bayer

Hmmm....back in 1967 I was about 25 and had just lost my job as an electrical engineer at Northern Instrument Corp. They expanded too fast and whet under. I went back to working at the Jones Beach Marine Theatre as a sound tech where I had worked 5 years earlier. 
I was immediately bored to stiff working for the State of NY. Soooo I invented a sound operated SCR controlled lighting system i doubed the "Chromatic Illuminator" and found a customer. ...Lafayette Electronics. Before I could close the deal, Mr. Dick Write, who had just purchased Theatrical Workshop in Valley Stream, hired me and signed a contract and I was working there 2 weeks later. 
That is when i saw my first scenic shop. Cool. 
A few weeks later they were contracted to build a set for the show Billy Budd, designed by Ming Cho Lee, for the Billy Rose Theatre. Since I knew controls and automation, i was suddenly designing and building all of the automation and doing a Broadway install. 
Ming won a Tony Award. for the design. 
Wow ! I got sucked in. Theatrical Workshop went bust after the show opened. I was immediately offered a position at Fellers Studios and a Local 1 card.....ummmm and i said no. Didn't want to travel to Fellers from middle of Long Island and started TSSI "Theatrical Services & Supplies, Inc." Instead. 

Now, 50 years later, what a ride life has been. Sold the product sales and contracting portion of the TSSI company, started Impact Multimedia Inc. , IMI-LED and Theatrical Design Group, Inc. and am designing theatres for educational institutions, consulting, and designing and manufacturing LED control systems. 
Fun stuff.


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## derekleffew

So you're this guy? Cool.


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