A Theatre Story

My college history was a bit of an aimless wander in search of an unknown destination. I only took classes at five schools, had four majors (five if you count the switch from the normal to the online version of my final major) and I don’t even want to attempt to count the minors..

I recently was invited to join a Facebook group of Wright State University‘s Theatre Design and Technology alumni. In that group, a student who was in the program eight years or so before me wrote:

I might have only been in the program one year 92-93, but I learned a lot in that year. One regret I’ve always had was not finishing, I was a kid just out of high school and I wasn’t ready for the rigors of the program unfortunately. To this day I take a lot of pride in being at least a small part of it. I really can’t say I know of any program of its kind that is better…

I wrote this on the wall over there. (I’ve tweaked it a bit for this blog):

I’ve been enjoying reading this and taking some walks down memory lane.. That comment inspired me to share one of the stores I remember from the two (practical) quarters I was a Stage Management Major. I never felt like I really knew what I was doing in the SM program, and I made the decision to change my major to Theatre Studies near the end of the winter term. I didn’t do this through the theatre office, but instead just went to the registrar’s office and changed it.

The next day I went into Theatre Tech class where we built sets and the like. Tim, the student manager for the class, pulled me off and assigned me to grind down the weld joints on some iron work for Kiss Me, Kate. I forget the conversation around things, but I came out with the impression that this was a bit of “shit work” to just get me out of the way for the last week or so of the term.

The funny thing? I really enjoyed grinding down those joints. I happily came into Theatre Tech the next day and picked up right where I left off, and Tim complimented me for continuing on the work. Looking at it now its one of those things taught me a good bit about myself, and how I do my best work..

Its been an interesting journey over the past twelve years, but I really appreciate my time at Wright State and as a student in its theatre department.