Beloit Memorial High School Theatre 
Hi Greg,
I heard through the stagecraft list that you're looking for stories
about how high school theatre has affected lives for the better, to
help persuade your school board to keep you open. Here's my tale (in
brief).
I've always been a technically minded person - in fact my first word
was "button". One day in elementary school, I was watching the
princial setup the school sound system for an assembly. I couldn't
believe that he knew what cables went where and whats knobs did what!
He saw me secretly trying to watch him, and invited me over to take a
look at what he was doing. That was the first time I ever had anything
to do with audio, and I fell in love.
Fast forward to my freshman year of high school. My high school had
just bought a brand new sound system for the theatre programme,
outfitted our amphitheatre with a lighting system, power distribution,
and intercom system. We even had a brand new drama teacher, who knew
little or nothing of anything technical. Our first production that
year was "A Midsummer Nights Dream". I just dropped by the first
rehearsal of the show to offer to help on the technical side of things
- only having slightly more than a clue myself about how anything went
together.
Luckily for us, the President of IATSE Local 107 happened to be a
parent of a student. He was happy to come down on the weekend and help
us load-in the lighting and such. Thrilled that there was a group of
students (I had recrutied some friends) who wanted to learn about
technical theatre, he proceeded to teach us enough to get the show
running, and gave us some additional resources (names of books, etc)
to learn more.
That's where it all started, but let me tell you about where it lead.
By the end of my junior year, I had done enough shows and had enough
experience under my belt, that I decided I might want to try and move
up out of the educational theatre realm. I called back the IA
President and asked him about joining the union. He said to call him
back when I was 18, but in the mean time to try Paramount's Great
America - a local theme park. So I contacted the entertainment
department and asked about their technician positions. It happened to
audition week, so I went down the park and interviewed. My first
season at the park I was hired as a sound technician for the karaoke
show.
While working for the park, I continued to work on shows at the high
school. I picked everyone's brain who I came across (especially my
boss at work) for any morsel of information they might be able to
offer. My learning curve steepened.Haven gotten my technical chops up
by asking questions and doing my own reading, I was extended an offer
by the theme park to come back for a second season as a technician
supervisor. Some of me new job duties included training incoming
technicians, working with contractors sent by the corporate
entertainment technology office, and working with designers and
directors that came in to install shows.
The shows at the high school kept continued to get more and more
technically complex. When we did Midsummer, the lighting consisted of
a basic McCandles plot, there were no mics, and we only used canned
sound effects. My senior year, we put on a stage adaption of "The Last
Unicorn". The lighting plot consisted of around 70 instruments, and
over 120 cues. many sequences of the show were automated with SFX and
a show control system running time code to trigger video playback on
stage. This entire show (on the technical side of things) was
completely student designed, constructed, installed, and run. The
original group of technicians from Midsummers (3 of us) had trained a
small army (about 15) of technicians that we used to run the show.
After graduating, through the theme park, I had an opportunity to work
for Nickelodeon doing show programming. I would not have been able to
take that job had it not been for the experience I had programming
"The Last Unicorn" my senior year.
When I finally turned 18, I applied to IATSE Local 16, and have been
working with them ever since. I am currently a sophomore at
Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, CA majoring in
Sound Arts.
My original circle of friends that had helped with Midsummer is also
still involed with technical work. My friend Brian, majoring in
political science at Iowa State, is interning for the Iowa State
Democrats - a large portion of his job is to edit audio and video
material for press release. He learned those skills along with me in
high school. My friend Nick, currently in pre-med, is working his way
through college with a local production and lighting company.
The first freshman we "adopted" into the programme (after we realised
we needed help) is currently a freshman at BYU, about to change his
major to Theatre with an emphasis in Production. I've been spending
some time with him over the holidays. On our way out the door the
other night, his dad pulled me aside and said "Mat, I've never taken
the time to thank you for how you've positively affected Bryan's life.
I know he wouldn't be the young man he is today if it had not been for
the time you spent with him at high school working with the theatre
department. As a father, I want to thank you for that. Thank you."
Since I left the theme park, two other students from the high school
technical programme have gotten jobs there. Their supervisor
frequently comments that they are the most skilled technicians he has,
and that his biggest frustration is that they are still in high school
and can't work overtime. The only training these students received in
their fields of specialty (lighting and audio, respectively) was
through their high school.
Washington's technical theatre programme is still going strong. I
still act as a consultant to the theatre department on a regular
basis. Students are still training each other and moving forward to
achieve greater things with the theatre department as a whole.
This email (though lengthy) can only begin touch on the effects of my
high school theatre experience. It's affected me, my friends, my
peers, and continues to positively influence students lives every
semester.
Hope these are some good stories to help things along.
--
Mat Goebel
www.matgoebel.com