That's Not The Way They Did it Before

Jumping in at full speed was not the way wanted begin my career but that is what happened.

Teaching by day and rehearsals and performances at night for the hold over play left me little time to explore my new town or find a place to live.

That first play, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is a bit of a blur to me.

Although it was a hold over summer show with some non-students working on it, it was still a good way for me to see how things were run at Brockport and give me a starting place from which to proceed.

I do remember one funny incident happened one night to an actress.

As she walked across the stage and someone stepped on the outer skirt of her costume and pulled it off leaving her in her petticoat.

She was completely unaware of what had happened and just kept acting until the end of the scene.

There were more than a few laughs both from the audience and crew backstage.

To the Freshmen I was just another teacher, but to the older students I was someone new, someone who they had to test and challenge.

I was only 26, just 5 years older than most of the students.

The next youngest teacher was 38 and the remaining faculty was twenty or more years older than me.

Although the staff was friendly to me it was easier for me to hang out with the students those first years.

In those first days I tried to show the students what I knew and prove to them, and myself, that I belonged there and that I now in charge.

I had to figure out what may place in this new world was going to be and did not know at the time that it would change over the years.

When I finally had time to relax and go out for a beer in town I found the bars were full of college students with a few locals and faculty types mixed in.

Not a big surprise in a college town.

The pervious Technical Director, Michael, had been well liked but when the college expanded the position they wanted someone with more formal training and experience, but of course they got me instead.

In those first weeks I had to listen many times to how Michael did it this way or that way, and that is not the way Michael did it.

I tried to remain calm but I know at least once I snapped back at a student “Well if Michael did it so well then he would still be here!”

The first play department production that I worked on with the students was Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.

It was produced in our small Black Box or Lab Theatre and directed by Dr Cho.

It was a unit set with box beams hanging from the lighting grid and had a sliding wall section for use in several of the scenes.

An Enemy of the People, 1982

Because it was my first production of course I wanted it to go well.

I wanted to show off what I knew and prove to the faculty and students that they had hired the right guy and honestly I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it having been out of Theatre for the past year.

As I remember it I was a bit nuts ended up doing a lot of the work on the set myself leaving the students just watching from the side handing me tools and whatever else I needed.

The set turned out nice but I quickly realized that it was the students who needed to do the work and not me.

It took a few years but I became relaxed with the fact the students in my Stagecraft class are going to be new each semester and that they will make mistakes.

I try hard to make it so that they will not make too many mistakes and have also been honest with them when the mistake may have been my fault because I gave them the wrong directions.

In those first years I would get upset when the students would measure or cut things wrong and drive up the cost of the set, but over the years I have come to accept that mistakes will always happen and that the best I can do is try to limit them.

I am never happy when things go wrong but I try to just remain calm and move on.

Of course if you ask those students who I have yelled at and called an idiot they may have a slightly different opinion, but the only way I have survived is to try to stay relaxed and less stressed when I can.

I am still working on my book; Zen and the Art of Stagecraft.

When we did An Enemy of the People twenty years later in 2002 and I was able to pull a window from our storage area from the 1982 show and reuse it.

I have used bits of that first set several times over the years.

The box beams that I made were used in several productions and the last pieces of them were thrown out during the recent renovations

The production went well except for the day that one of the actors decided to give blood for the first time and got sick on stage and throw up all over the place.

This would not be the only time actors or crew have gotten sick or have done something stupid, but it was the first time at Brockport and hinted at the fun that may lay in store for me in the coming years.

As I look back I am amazed at how many of the students from my first year at Brockport I am still in touch with, thanks in part to Facebook.

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