John Traxler Theatre Scholarship

Growing up, one of my biggest challenges was finding something I enjoyed and sticking to it. Whether that be a hobby or extracurricular activity, I have always bounced around trying to find something that suited my wants and my mother's financial abilities. In my 6th grade year, I took a theatre course to fulfill the fine arts credit that I was required to have for graduation, I was not a very talented actor, but I liked the idea of doing interesting lighting effects. Towards the end of my 6th-grade year, I was asked to do some really basic lighting for our school's talent show; despite the absolute simplicity of it, I was infatuated with it. This was the first time in a long time that a hobby had me so in love with every aspect of it, everything from the idea process, the construction of the set and designs, to the actual performance itself. I came to adore every part of it. I then joined the technical theatre program at the middle school, where I fell even deeper in love through being given multiple stage management and design opportunities, and it was through all of those opportunities that I decided to continue to pursue this in my future, maybe even as a long-term career. In my high school technical theatre journey, I discovered my love for lighting design and technical direction. I have been given multiple opportunities in regard to lighting design, whether that be through a class scene design project or designing lights for one of our official shows, and it has completely drawn me in; the absolute gratification that comes with completing a well-done lighting design that is not only applicable to a scene or song but also something beautiful is one of the greatest feelings. The technical direction aspect of my technical theatre journey came a bit later with our school's annual horror attraction, The Zombie Experience. For my assignment on this "show," I was a technical lead on a designated area of the attraction, meaning I had complete technical control over one area and oversaw its technicians. This was the first stepping stone into what has led my senior year in my being the assistant technical director for our entire nine-show season. My love for technical theatre is best said by a former director of mine, "The satisfaction you get is from taking nothing and turning it into something absolutely beautiful you can be proud of."