Backstage AIC

Truly, I am a theater junkie. I have been in theater for 40 years. I worked professionally for many years in several states before settling down as the Technical Director for Bradford Theater, where I have been the TD and Instructor ion Technical Theater for 23 years. It is only recently that my friends have finally convinced me to share what I know with a wider audience. Our theater runs a 6-8 show season, we support two dance programs, and our music department. Our school runs a full 7 periods of Stage Craft and 2 sections of Stage Management. The lessons I post are what I have used in my class for about 8 years. Originally this shop was called Monkey Wrench Productions, the name I freelanced under many moons ago. Now it is Backstage AIC, the business I started to make life easier for educational drama adults!

We learn by DOING. I am very laid back. My goal is to get my students to love theater and work together first. After that, the skills will come. Our Stagecraft classes support our large season, so everything we learn is practical. What I teach and the order I teach (outside of safety, which always comes first) depends largely on the needs of the shows. Everything is therefor project based. I treat my classes as I would a shop, with some obvious modifications for attendance, rules, grades, etc. I lecture (very short ones), model, use hand outs, reteach, offer feedback as they build, all in one class period. I differentiate tasks period, and we often have multiple build happening at once. The style flows with the build.

Our program has routinely been accepted to perform on the Main Stage of the International Thespian Festival. I believe we have been there 16 times in the past 20 years. We have been awarded the Crew awards for our state one act festival 4 out of the past 5 festivals. Our stage managers have earned Jerry Awards for the past two years(WI state awards for high school). Our shows have received Jerry Awards for lighting and technical categories. I have earned Jerry awards for design for the past 3 years. Shining teacher moments? There are so many, but I think my favorite all come in a very similar way, and it happens at least once a year. Our stagecraft students get a free ticket to see the show, so they can see their finished work on stage. For some, it is the first time they see am live theatrical production. And one of them will find me after a show, after watching the audience respond to THEIR hard work, after seeing their class in the program, after hearing the applause, BEAMING with pride, And they say to me "We did that." and I say "Yes, we did that."

I grew up back stage at the Temple Theater in Sanford, NC. I will plug them all day long. My high school was very active, doing 6 shows a years. Two of those were performed at the Temple Theater. I fell in love with theater in that house. I learned all of my basics in that house under two different TDs. I attended UNC-G and earned a BFA in Design and Technical Theater. I also worked as over-hire in Greensboro, did a brief stint with NCTYP and was a scenic artist there for a few summers before I graduated and moved on to my professional career.

Theater is for everyone. Theater shouldn't be out of reach of any school or teacher. I hope the unit plans I post will be useful. Feel free to message me with questions. I've been doing this for a long time, but I have not been in the habit of formalizing my practices outside of sending them to colleagues in my district, so if links are squiffy, please let me know.