Excellence in Arts honoree prefers to act behind the scenes

By RANDY CAPPS

For the past 13 years, Stephen Roberts has been a part of around 50 productions for the Neuse Little Theatre.

But while he appreciates the skills needed to be a proper thespian, he’s more comfortable behind the scenes — or building them ahead of time.

It’s his craftsmanship and ability to bring ideas to life that have earned him the 2021 Johnston Now Honors Excellence in Arts Award.

“They needed help building sets and I’m kind of good with my hands,” he said. “I’m mechanically inclined, so I started doing that. The guy who was in charge of that retired, so I just kind of stepped up and took over set building.”

A native of upstate New York, Rogers moved to the area with his family in 1979 for a few years before eventually heading back. A taste of North Carolina weather, however, got him to return.

“If you’ve ever been to upstate New York, you know the snow is bad,” he said. “So, when I graduated high school, I came back. I figured out this is where I wanted to live.”

His father returned as well, serving as Santa Claus in the Smithfield Christmas Parade and other churches and organizations for many years. And it was his influence that led Roberts to the stage.

“My dad, the late, great Richard Roberts,” he said, about who started his love of theatre. “He decided that (the theatre) would be a good thing for me to get into. And when I got there, it was great. When he first did it, back in '93, he wanted me on stage. I didn’t like that so much. But 13 years or so ago, they needed a stage manager. I got to be backstage and more involved in the whole show instead of that one little part where I was on stage. It appealed to me.”

A supervisor with Crawford Sprinkler, Roberts is pretty good with his hands. So that skill, and an interest in theatre, eventually led to set design.

During the Neuse Little Theatre’s 47th season, the next show will be “The Explorer’s Club,” and Roberts is already thinking about how the sets might look.

“There will be a bar, and there will be some stuffed heads on the wall,” he said. “We’ll throw some vines on there, and there’s supposed to be some kind of grandiose staircase. I have to figure out how to build that. I’ve got to get this show (“Never Too Late”) done first.”

Roberts’ job is a demanding one, but he’s found a way to keep some time free for his work with the NLT.

“Saturdays are usually free, so that’s when we go down there and build sets and stuff like that,” he said. “During what we call our hell week, our dress rehearsals, I have it worked out with my company that I get off at 3:30 on those days.”

So, why does he keep coming back, set after set and show after show?

“Meta,” he joked, referring to Meta Toole, a director at Neuse Little Theatre. “It’s fun. You get to meet new people.”

The director’s vision, it turns out, is the primary thing that drives his set design.

“I rely mostly on the director,” he said. “There have been a couple of shows that I’ve gone to see, but not for set building. Pretty much, the director tells me what they want, and I build it. I throw my own two cents in there every now and then. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t.

“We had one director that wanted me to build three rotators,” he said, looking over at Meta. “So, we had a 16-foot, an 8-foot and a 12-foot circle on wheels. I built the wall in the middle, and a set on either side. We could just rotate it 180 degrees and, boom, a new set — instead of changing a bunch of furniture. It’s really fun to build and take apart, not so much to turn it when they’re a whole cast on there.”

It was a complex vision, but one Roberts enjoyed bringing to the stage.