IN A PAST LIFE...

...I was a high school teacher.

Immediately after graduating with my bachelor's degree, I began an 11-year career as a high school theatre teacher and technical director in Orange County, Florida. The broad education I received in undergrad gave me a solid base of knowledge, but the specifics of how to make theatre I learned from the best teacher: experience.

TECHNICAL EVERYTHING

When you do theatre on a public school budget, you end up wearing many hats. Unless otherwise noted, I was the technical director, scenic designer, and lighting designer, along with the endless responsibilities related to being a teacher for my actual job. For those productions that I didn't design myself, my students did the work under my supervision and guidance. I taught my students carpentry, electrics, sewing, sound mixing, and painting in order to execute each show. It was a point of pride for our department that our sets were built entirely in-house, without parental help. I am sometimes more proud of their work than I am of my own.