Taking seats in the arts center, the audience watches as the final product of a Choate theater production unfolds. If everything goes according to plan, the effect is magical: it’s as if the actors, set, lights, and sound all mysteriously appear out of nowhere. It appears seamless, but a spectator can’t help to wonder, “What on earth is happening in that unknown territory called the ‘backstage’?” Well, I am pleased to inform you that the uncharted world located behind-the-scenes is not as intimidating as it may seem, and it is, in fact, a second home to many students and faculty.
When exploring backstage, an observer will encounter several noteworthy areas. At the end of a short hall is the Green Room, a comfortable common-room-style space used mainly for tech work, classes, and lounging. Just beyond the Green Room, a door opens to the Costume Shop, a classroom-sized space housing a myriad of labeled cardboard boxes, sewing machines, cloth, and cutting and measuring tools (as well as a TV). The shop is where acting director, teacher, and costume designer Deighna DeRiu’s and her student helpers design and create (you guessed it) costumes. Traversing this space will bring one to the Scene Shop, where Technical Director Mr. Brad Seymour and the tech students who sign up for Tech Theater as their afternoon activity or take one of the shop classes during the day construct sets.
The students and faculty who work with the theater program agree that the atmosphere backstage is one that epitomizes Choate values of respect and tolerance. The Director of the Theater Program, Ms. Tracy Ginder-Delventhal, said, “We work really hard to make this environment inclusive and safe so that the energy is always positive and joyful.”
Lenard Sandberg ’17, who works with sound tech, added that the “atmosphere is amazing. It’s so inclusive. Everybody has their own walk of life, and we all come together and become little tiny cogs in the gigantic machine that is a tech production.”
An important element of backstage life is the freedom students are granted to explore the world of theater and make independent decisions. Moreover, the backstage forms an interesting juxtaposition to Choate’s academic setting; relations between students and teachers are less hierarchical. For example, all the faculty members in the theater department are addressed by their first names, without a prefix. According to Mr. Seymour (‘Brad’), “Collaboration is really important for theater, and if you have that student-teacher formality, it can get in the way of certain types of collaboration.”
Tradition plays a fundamental role in backstage spirit. The most obvious ritual that graduating techie grandmasters observe is the signing of the walls and ceiling of the Scene Shop with paint (it’s a wonder how students manage to sign the estimated 20-foot ceiling; apparently they use lifts). In addition to their names and graduating classes, seniors of the past have left a variety of messages, ranging from inspirational quotes to inside jokes: “If you eliminate the impossible, Whatever Remains, however improbable, must be the Truth. Julie ’10” or “Hockey is life, the rest is Tech. 2005 Sam Bergan” or “The only People for Me are the Mad Ones… Cait ’08”. And, inexplicably, “Oh hey”.
Farewell notes are so numerous that, as Nell Shaper ’17, a tech theater arts concentration member, puts it, “Wall space for signatures is a commodity.” Mr. Seymour says that in order to solve the problem a book was recently created to hold the “notes and advice to future generations of tech kids.”
In a way, the backstage world of theater is a reflection of the ideals the Choate community seeks to uphold. With an open and welcoming ambiance, a greater emphasis on liberty of self-expression and discovery, and an avenue to follow Choate footsteps through the keeping of tradition, many regard the backstage Arts Center as a haven and a home.
