Setting the stage for success

When you hear the word “theatre,” your mind might immediately go to the actors you see on stage. It’s fair to say most audience members probably aren’t thinking about the lighting technicians, makeup artists, props artisans or carpenters who built the set before them.

Yet these members of a theatre crew are essential to any performance’s success. Their jobs are unique in that if they are done successfully, most people won’t even notice.

Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Theatre Department has built a reputation in developing skills that are invisible to most theatre patrons. And that’s a good thing, said Professor Brian Kelley, the department’s technical director and coordinator for the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Applied Theatre Technology and Design.

“I think one of the most interesting things about working in the field (of technical theatre) is that when you do your job absolutely correctly, almost nobody notices that you’ve done anything,” he said. “They just buy it as part of the environment of the show.”

While MSU Denver has a fair number of students who want to go into theatre design, there are more who are focused on being technicians — that is, the artisans who make all the things happen. “That’s pretty unique for most theatre programs,” Kelley said. “It’s much easier to go out and get work as a technician than it is to get consistent work as a designer.” ​​

Just ask Zee Howard, who plans to graduate this spring with a BFA in Applied Theatre Technology and Design with a focus on lighting. “I applied to college as an undecided major,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do this as a career.” She has already landed a gig operating the spotlight at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities this spring.

“Other programs will train people in carpentry or electrical or painting, but their goal is to produce designers,” Kelley said. MSU Denver students get hands-on training (often paid through work-study programs) in building, painting and electrical installation, learning everything they’ll need to know for a real-world theatre technician job. 

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Max Boelte graduated from MSU Denver in 2017 with a BFA in Applied Theatre Technology and Design, with an emphasis in lighting design. Before applying to MSU Denver, he considered going into electrical engineering at a different institution. But he decided he could combine his passion for theatre with his interest in electrical work while at MSU Denver.

Technical lighting, he said, involves hanging the lights, getting data and power to them, making sure they’re configured correctly and dealing with the data network. “I’ve actually been able to do a lot of IT (information technology) work,” he said.

People often think of a Theatre degree as “super-niche,” Boelte said. “But there’s a ton of applicable skills in other fields that all translate really well,” he said.

This reflects the MSU Denver Theatre motto “equipment for living” — a phrase coined by Marilyn “Cookie” Hetzel, professor emerita and founder of the Theatre Department at MSU Denver.

“Students are building, welding, hanging lights and speakers, building props for six weeks leading up to productions,” said Jacob Welch, chair of the Theatre Department. “For a large musical, MSU Denver brings in over $1 million in equipment into the space. Our students are getting to work with cutting-edge entertainment technology.”

Additionally, Boelte noted Kelley’s class on career development, which covers things such as how to write a cover letter and résumé for technical theatre professionals. “It was the most useful class I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Boelte said. Today, Boelte works at Casa Bonita, a Denver restaurant known for its immersive experiences, managing lighting projects and new installations.

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For Kelley Reznik, another alum of the BFA program in Applied Theatre Technology and Design, this ensemble spirit was a big part of what attracted her to the field.

Reznik, who now works as an assistant stagehand at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, wanted the college experience and started at MSU Denver at age 23. She considered studying Astrophysics but decided to take Kelley’s Intro to Stagecraft class for fun. She knew within the first five minutes she was in the right place.

“I always struggled to make friends, and I found that theatre really pulled out my gregarious, kind of, authentic self,” she said. “And I found a community in theatre that I just had not really found in any other studies.”

Professor Kelley is in his 11th year at MSU Denver. The born-and-raised Denverite began teaching in Ohio but returned to Colorado to teach after learning about Hetzel and the ensemble spirit she hoped to cultivate within the department — the idea that everyone working on a production has value.

“Theatres are a collaborative artistic endeavor,” Kelley said. “Everybody wants to have the show as a whole come to a successful conclusion.”

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As Kelley describes it, designers come in with big ideas of the worlds they want to portray on stage, but the technicians have the hands-on skills to make that design come to fruition. For example, the University’s production of “Girls Like That” this past fall involved building a 14-foot-tall replica of a cellphone using Plexiglas and acrylic paint to mimic stained glass.

“So it’s still an artistic endeavor on our part because we’re doing really, really odd things with really, really good materials … and still function within a budget,” he added.

“The goal is, I think, to really immerse people in the story, and we’re all just kind of helping push that story forward,” Howard said.

With her gig at the Arvada Center this spring, Howard feels she’ll have a solid foot in the door at one of the top theatres in the state upon graduation. In fact, Arvada Center stage manager Zach Madison said MSU Denver theatre-technician graduates stand out when he’s looking to bring on new hires, especially when they come with a recommendation from Kelley or Reznik.

The theatre community is a strong one, and connections matter. Luckily, the MSU Denver Theatre Department is all about connecting students to the real-world skills and people making shows happen in Colorado.

“If you’re going (to college) for theatre, I don’t know why you’re going anywhere else,” Boelte said of MSU Denver. “I love that place, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.”