Local Lancer: Junior Elsie McLain’s involvement in tech theater and stage managing

What’s your involvement in theater?

“I am in the classes. Right now I’m taking rep theater and tech theater, even though I already took tech theater last year. I’m on our thespian executive board, so my role in that is to keep track of thespian points — which is how we keep track of people’s involvement. And I do crew for most of the shows.”

How and when did you first get involved in theater?

“In seventh-grade I was in the Indian Hills musical, and I was going to do it again in eighth-grade but it got cut off due to COVID. My freshman year, they did Godspell, and I did the spotlights for that. Since then, I’ve been really interested in lights.”

What do you like so much about doing spotlights?

“I’m someone who really likes to work with my hands. So being able to actually touch the lights and see my work on the stage is really fun.”

What are some shows you’ve been a part of that stand out to you?

“My number one would be last year when we did Wedding Singer, which was our musical. I stage managed for that. It was kind of a really stressful experience, but it was also really really fun. And for last year’s play which was Halloween Spooktacular I did set crew for that and it was just a blast.”

What was stage managing like for you and what made it so stressful?

“It was a lot of responsibility and keeping track of things. The musical is the biggest show, so it’s the most people doing it and the most people that don’t do theater classes or any theater outside of that. So it was a lot of people to keep track of and a lot of responsibility.”

What are the feelings on a show night like for you?

“For the first two usually very excited and then the last one’s kind of sad, especially this year, there are a lot of seniors that I look up to that I’m really sad are leaving. There can be some stressful moments, but it’s usually just a lot of fun.”

What’s your favorite show you’ve been a part of?

“Honestly, An Unspeakable Triumph of Supreme Brilliance probably would be. The performances were so amazing, and it felt like a really tight-knit group of people. So probably this year’s fall play.”

What’s the technical process like during the show?

“Most of my work for the show was done beforehand. [For An Unspeakable Triumph of Supreme Brilliance], we had a few fixtures that we needed to focus in certain areas and we had a couple of special effects that we needed to add in. That was mainly my job. During the actual show itself, I sit in the booth and look out for anything that may be going wrong — whether that’s lights related or just things on stage in general.

Would you say you become close friends with the people who work alongside you in the booth?

“Definitely. We all joke that we should have a podcast of us in the booth. It has definitely helped me form connections with people who I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, and I think we’ve become a really nice, little group.”