JOHN BLACK ’04

John Black's path into theater management is a tale spun from unexpected turns and unwavering passion. An unforeseen email amid wedding preparations led him back to the theater's embrace, steering his focus from the spotlight to the intricate artistry behind the scenes. As he shares his journey, discover the captivating story of a backstage enthusiast driven by an unrelenting dedication to the craft.

How did you get into theater management?

I was in an undergraduate theater program that was focusing on design. My initial plan was to go on to graduate school. My main passion area is lighting and lighting design, so I was looking around at lighting MFA programs during my senior year. Then I got an email from Seoul Foreign because I still had contacts here saying, "Hey, this theater management position is becoming available. Would you be interested in coming back?" At that time, I was also planning a wedding and she [Stephanie Black] was also applying to grad programs in physical therapy. So that kind of threw a wrench into our plans. [laughs] But in the end, we decided to come back. Growing up as TCKs [Third Culture Kids], we were itching to get out of the United States.

You are an SFS alumnus. What was your experience like as a student?

Very different from the student experience today. I was very focused in the areas that my passions were, and was very involved in the music program. Very involved backstage doing tech. There wasn't a formal tech crew back then - it was very student driven. And I also had the time to be able to focus on it because I wasn't an IB student. I started to get involved with the production stuff when I was in grade five. At that time, the music concerts were in the old Robb Hall and could seat 200 people, and I remember seeing a couple of high school students running a soundboard and some mics and there were some lights up in the rafters. At the time, there was no Theatre Department, productions were directed by an English teacher in the high school - The high school was the only section that had drama productions. The support of the theater was kind of the responsibility of a member of the IT department, but it wasn't his area of expertise, so he got students who were interested to help him and run it. So I got my hands and feet wet by getting involved. I loved it so much, I was a bit of a bookworm nerd, so I got my nose into any textbook that I could find, or any online training that I could find. And eventually, I found myself being kind of an expert. I missed a lot of classes, because I was pulled into Rob Hall to fix things or to run assemblies for the middle school, or this, that and the other. That was kind of high school for me, what I made it. Because I loved it and it's my passion, I put all my efforts into it. And I had somebody who was willing to let me do that.

When we think about theater, we tend to think about actors and frontstage, but your passion was what was happening backstage. Where did that come from?

I think it started just as a curiosity. I've never enjoyed being onstage as an actor. I love being on stage as a musician. So throughout school, and even as a member of faculty for many years, I've played as a part of faculty bands and jazz bands. I'm a drummer. Performing as a musician, you always kind of have this sense of being aware of the backstage element. Sometimes actors can forget that because somebody else does it. When you're in a band, you are your own road crew, usually, unless you're really big. I also got involved running sound at my church. So it kind of became a seven day a week interest. What I like about it, particularly with lighting, is the creativity of being able to use color or being able to use timing and textures in the air and projected images and other things to be able to appeal to or affect an emotional response. It's not a traditional medium, by any means. But it's a powerful medium. Similarly with audio, where a sound comes from or the loudness of that sound can evoke emotional responses that people feel. They may not understand or notice it, but I enjoy the mystery of that.

You work with a lot of students, how do you pass on your passion to them?

A lot of the students I think are just curious, they don't necessarily know what happens behind the scenes. Even when I was a student, there wasn't a formal Tech Club, there still wasn't really a formal established club when I came back on faculty. In fact, for the first show that I was back for, I think I had four kids in the group that transitioned over from the previous year. A lot of things were done outside of the scope of students. At that point, set construction was completely outsourced. There really wasn't scenic design, the director would kind of come up with a concept and then send it off with drawings to a carpenter who would bring it in. There wasn't a technical training program either. I wanted to get beyond that. Scenic design and construction was brought in-house, and we started "flaunting" our technical capabilities. I would show up at Club fairs with moving lights and fog machines. That drew a lot of interest and after a year or two, Crusader Live had 40 to 50 applications for being on the crew. Getting students excited and intrigued is half the battle!

How many students work backstage behind the scenes to make a production possible?

It depends on the show and the season. For the latest production [Disney’s High School Musical] the crew was 14 students, smaller than some shows we have done. they work in the theater five to six days a week, depending on where we are in the production process.

Wow. So when our community members are watching the show, a lot of the things are being created, or operated by students?

As much as possible, yes. That's the goal. We have three staff members, including myself, who support the theaters, and we all will work with the students to train them in the areas that they're assigned. We let the students tell us what they're interested in, so if one wants to operate the soundboard

for a musical, we're going to have them doing a couple other shows and other roles in order to bring them up to that level. But as much as possible, we will use students. For a show like Les Misérables, which happened just before COVID. I think we had 16 student crew members for that show, which included the backstage crew for follow spots, sound audio mixer to microphone technicians, because we put 24

wireless microphones on 42 actors, and so they were changing microphones throughout the show. We'll get as many students involved as we can.

What kind of skills do you think students develop when working on this type of production?

A lot of soft skills. Of course there are the hard skills that are construction and working with their hands and technical skills, programming and all, but the hard skills of production don't matter without the soft skills.

Communication is key - Being able to communicate together as a team to make sure that nobody gets hurt first of all, but also to make sure that the production happens as it is designed to. Teamwork, they have to work together. We never have students working alone. Part of that is safety. Part of that is just to be able to support one another and to get through tasks. What we like to do is give members who have been in the crew for multiple years responsibility for a small project, and pair them with younger crew members to help them build their skills.

Last question, of all the productions who've been involved in at SFS, which one has been your favorite?

There's been a couple. Is that fair? Les Mis is the most recent one. I just thought the production value of that show was way up there for our school all around: scenically, technically, musically, the kids who were on stage. It was an all around top show. I also thoroughly enjoyed Aida, another high school show. Similarly, that was just a very high caliber show as well.