February 14, 2014
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The show must go on, but it can’t go on with out the help of technicians. During Miss Saigon technicians are both in the booth, which is in the back of the theater, and behind the stage directing people when to go on. They are called the stage managers and there are two of them.
Senior Josh Flowers is the head technician of the Starlight Theater Company (STC).
“My job as the head technician is to oversee the entire crew of the show and to make sure all operations and tasks conducted by the tech crew are being conducted as efficiently as possible,” Flowers said.
Senior Dominic Cortinas is the light board operator and designer, this means that he works on lighting.
“Yes, I do turn on and off the lights, but it’s a little more complicated than just that. It requires making sure the actors are lit properly which means making sure the lights are focused properly,” Cortinas said. “It also means making the mood of the lighting match the mood of the scene. It’s a lot of fine tuning which also requires a lot of timing of when a cue goes or how long it takes for a cue to come up.”
The stage managers communicate up to the booth with headsets. Junior Halen Wilson is one of the two stage managers.
“My job as the stage manager is to make sure that everything goes smoothly backstage and to make sure all of the set and props get on stage at the right time,” Wilson said.
Lights and sounds aren’t the only things needed for the play. Senior Jared Guerrero is the head of specialty building and stage hand. Guerrero built the helicopter for the scene of Kim’s Nightmare Part III.
“One of the most difficult parts of building the helicopter is a tie between the building of a reliable rigging system and the body work that went into building the nose,“ Guerrero said.
Senior Cole Wheeler works fly, he is in charge of making sure that all walls and props that hang make it down to the stage on time.
“I am the fly, and I lift the drapes and set pieces up and down. Some parts of being the fly can be difficult like following cues, it’s pretty difficult because I can’t always hear when the stage manager gives me cues. If I miss those then I’m in trouble,” Wheeler said.
The technicians ended the two weeks by taking down all the props and cleaned up the stage with the help of the STC cast.
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