When you sit in a theater, watching a play, typically you don’t think about the enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes.
Everything from building and painting sets to making sure the stage lights are working.
While women have made inroads into theatrical design, by and large, technical teater crews traditionally have been male and mostly Caucasian.
Seattle’s Intiman Theatre wants to change the paradigm.
This spring, Intiman’s inimitable Jennifer Zeyl has spearheaded a new technical training program for high school students.
“I’m cultivating the crew I want to hire!” Zeyl cheerfully admits.
In partnership with Sarah Smith of the youth training program Sawhorse Revolution, Zeyl has launched the as yet unnamed program in Seattle’s Franklin High School. Several of Intiman’s technical staff are pitching in as instructors. The local chapter of IATSE, the union that represents technical theater workers, is also participating indirectly.
“IATSE has a fund called the Western Washington Training Trust,” explains Zeyl. Sometimes the money is used to provide special training opportunities for union members. This Spring, the money went to train the Franklin High School kids.
Zeyl says the kids who stick with the program will qualify for entry level backstage jobs this summer; jobs that could pay as much as $20/hour.
Zeyl and her colleague Sarah Smith have no idea how many hours they’ve devoted to getting this training program off the ground. They plan to take a hard look at the numbers after the high school production (The Wedding Singer) closes in mid-May. Possibly over a bottle or two of good wine?
When you ask Zeyl how she’ll judge its success, she has a simple answer:
“Jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Intiman has committed itself, onstage and off, to racial and gender equity. That’s been visible in the company’s artistic choices, but Zeyl says it’s been much harder to achieve backstage. The high school kids won’t be ready for professional jobs anytime soon, but the program is a start.