Lights, sound, curtains: Students learn technical theater in CCISD club

For the show to go on, it needs curtains opened and closed on time, lighting hung and focused, the stage managed properly and audio equipment rigged to catch every word.

Behind the scenes this year at performances such as Corpus Christi ISD's "Beauty and the Beast," Moody High School's "Moana Jr." and Metro Elementary School's "Shrek Jr.," as well as events including the district's State of the District fundraiser and UIL One Act Play competitions, the district-wide high school stagecraft club worked backstage.

CCISD fine arts specialist Tasha Jones recently shared information about the stagecraft club, as well as other growing programs including speech and debate and musical theater, to the CCISD Board of Trustees. During a Monday work session, the board also heard about music and art programs.

"This year marks the culmination of an idea that has gradually evolved over the past two years — the inception of a club dedicated to technical theater," Jones said.

The club provides training and hands-on experiences to students.

"There's a tremendous amount of jobs and opportunities that have heavy overlap with the skills that we use in technical theater and stagecraft," Veterans Memorial High School auditorium manager Burton Baxter said.

Baxter runs the club.

"People don't realize these things happen behind the scenes," Baxter said. "We're trying to shine a light on what it means to have a career in stagecraft."

Veterans Memorial High School senior Catie Hamisch and Carroll High School senior Ludbin Rocha are co-presidents of the club.

"One of the things I love about stagecraft (club) is being able to work with kids from all different schools," Hamsich said.

The two have been heavily involved with theater in their schools since before the club came together. Hamisch hopes to get involved with community theater when she's in college. Rocha has already found work using his sound technician skills in the community outside of school.

"He's already working in the industry and is already making money working in this field professionally in the community," Baxter said. "You'll see him working festivals downtown and doing installs in venues."

Stagecraft club students assisted Tuesday with the regional UIL One Act Play contest for 2A schools, hosted at Veterans Memorial High School.

"They are literally the people who are in control of running the facility," Baxter said Tuesday. "They are actively running and managing and executing everything that needs to happen within the guidelines of the contest."

The club has participants from across the district who meet about once a month.

"We want to empower them to grow their own campuses," Baxter said. "The idea is to give them experiences and take that back to their home campuses and grow."

Students can assist as stage managers, lighting and sound technicians and fly operators controlling the curtains. These roles can teach skills relevant for careers in theater, film, live entertainment, radio and communications, Baxter said.

"Every fine arts program has a great need for the technical side," Baxter said. "They don't realize they're all interested in the same things. Whether you're participating in dance, band, theater, choir, orchestra, there are students in each one of those programs within the district that don't realize they're doing the same stuff working to produce live events."

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: High schoolers run the show at Corpus Christi ISD productions