Open Forum

One of the main goals for our Theatre Education Community is to help theatre students and professionals from all over connect and identify with each other in order to build resources and support the theatre education field. We shine a spotlight on a different member every other week by conducting a simple interview.

Our next spotlight is Sydney Thiessen, the Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator and Technical Director at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. Sydney is a bronze level contributor who always has great advice and solutions for various technical theatre issues.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My days are flexible, much like my schedule. Usually I have meetings in the morning, independent work in the late morning and early afternoon, stagecraft and building maintenance in the afternoon, and depending on the day, a concert or event in the evening. After late events, I usually come in late, because I am hourly, and need to balance out my hours.

What is the resource you most recommend to others in your profession?

I most often recommend my tech theatre professor's blog that he uses for classes: classwithbryan.com. It has a variety of short posts that include slides with equipment, and links to a number of technical resources.

Pinterest is my go to spot for collecting design inspiration.  I create a board for each show I design. It keeps the links to inspiration with the photo, which has made my life easier all around.

Also, if you haven't checked it out, Q2Q Comics is a wonderful webcomic, all about tech theatre. I enjoy going through the back catalog, and many of the problems they face are relatable.

Do you have any tips for new theatre teachers?

If you are not technically minded (or even if you are), a great starting place is the book Technical Theatre for Nontechnical People by Drew Campbell.  I read this in my college stagecraft class, and it was a good foundation for our program. 

Establish rules for keeping and discarding things. 2x4s less than 2 feet in length will abound, so it's best just to pitch them. Sets of props and furniture are better than singletons. If it's a singleton, it better be unique in a good way. Anything unique in a bad way needs to go.  Storage is the enemy of most programs, so do yourself a favor, and purge what you can’t imagine using in a show.

Consider numbering lighting cues differently: I number my lighting cues based on pages, not 1, 2, 3... If the cue is on page 7, halfway down the page, it's cue 7.5. This numbering helps immensely during the rehearsal process, as you instantly know where you are in the script based on what cue you're in. Cue numbers are set during a paper tech, once we nail down the call line. If you've never tried this method, it is worth trying.

What is your favorite musical (or play)? What makes it so special?

One of my favorite shows to work on was The Game's Afoot by Ken Ludwig. I was designing the props for the show, which was set in New England in 1936, at Christmas. The show was filled with weaponry, a large bookcase that revealed a hidden bar, a Christmas tree with gifts and tinsel, Sherlockiana, and a Scottie dog. I was a sophomore in college, and it was one of the most complicated and fun props shows I have ever done.

The Game's Afoot. Photo by Bryan Boyd.

The Game’s Afoot. Photos by Sydney Thiessen and Joel Bock.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

While not a teacher per se, my journey toward working with students began in college. I had a film advisor explain that, as I took an introductory video class, a course which covered a multitude of filmic jobs, I would find things I liked and didn't like, and by the end of it, I would have an idea of what I wanted to do in film. By the end of that class though, I liked everything, and that kept happening with both my film and theatre classes. Each new class was a new opportunity to build on my knowledge and skills. My senior year, I had a mentor explain that I could be a generalist, which was a new concept for me. I strive to learn about a variety of subjects and areas, so that I can bring them together for my job.

What is unique about your program?

They have me! No really, I'm the Fine & Performing Arts Coordinator, and Technical Director, which are both rare positions. I manage the auditorium and arts building, keeping it maintained and keeping track of its schedule. We have multiple plays a year, concerts at all levels of our district, festivals, assemblies, events, classes, and rentals in our space. I meet with my assistant principal once a week, to talk about everything arts department. That started because I was new to the school and my career, but has continued to be an asset to myself and the teachers I work with. Having direct communication connects us more strongly to administration, and has opened doors to make big progress in my year and a half on the job.

What was the most difficult element of a production you’ve ever had to manage?

I once stage managed two actors who broke up a week after casting. They had both agreed to do the romantic one-act before casting, even if they broke up. Right before dress rehearsals, I had to go to each one of them, consoling them and getting them to go on.

Everyone has at least one good theatre story. Tell us yours!

Just following the first dress rehearsal for the first show I ever light designed, 17 lights went out at once. They were all receiving a daisy chained DMX signal, with separate dimmer packs. The electricians and I stayed up late into the night. With no success, we continued work on it the next day. As the second dress rehearsal was about to start, we had reached wits end, and my technical director gave us a borrowed dimmer pack to switch out, since we had figured one of them had probably been fried. When I tried to pull on the DMX cable to connect it to the new dimmer pack, I found the problem: the DMX cable was melted to the side of a fresnel. We all learned a valuable lesson about dressing cables that day.

If you could have a different career, what would you choose?

From the time I was a little kid, until I was a junior in high school, I wanted to be an engineer or an architect. I watched This Old House as a preschooler, and I was fascinated by building things. That side of me became interested in technical theatre, and I still tell people there's a lot of overlap.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I won the KCACTF Region 7 National Lighting Award in 2016. I was elated to have my work encouraged, and to be able to attend KCACTF Nationals in Washington, D.C. I hadn't been to the East Coast, and it was a whirlwind to do so just a few weeks before I graduated.

These Shining Lives. Photo by Joel Bock.

What is something we would be surprised to learn about you?

I kept track of all my hours for all my high school and college shows for the fun of it, because I found it interesting to know how much time I was putting into projects.  This showed me how much time and effort goes into working on a show, and taught me about my own process of teching, designing, or managing a show.

If you enjoyed Sydney’s interview as much as we did, add her as a contact in the Community.

Do you know someone who deserves a moment in the Spotlight? Tell me their name and why at gbutsch@schooltheatre.org. Want to read more Community Spotlights? You can find them here.