When the lights go down, the sound comes up, and the show starts, all eyes turn to the stage. Suddenly, the audience is immersed in a new world, transported to a different age, transformed by a sensory experience. This is the magic and allure of the performance arts.
Whether an opera singer, actor, dancer, or indie rock musician, the job of a performance artist is to bring this world to life for their audience. But for every performer who takes the stage, there’s an army of people behind the scenes bringing the production to life—the people who really make the art world move.
Every person behind the scenes knows that they’re to be anywhere except in the spotlight. As audio specialist John Rosefield observes, “I’ve always said that if I’m running a show, if the audience or people that came to the show didn’t know I was there, then I did a good job.”
Rosefield has worked for years on live theatrical and musical performances. From hauling gear off trucks to mixing the sound for a show, work in AV can be equal parts physical and technical. But for Rosefield, it’s much more than that: It’s a creative outlet.
The action in many behind-the-scenes jobs occurs long before the stage is set
“I like the immediacy of live sound. You have to make decisions in the moment and do the best you can with what you’ve got,” says Rosefield.
A passionate live music fan, Rosefield says he’s always loved to be behind the scenes. Even when playing in a band, he chose the drums, shielded from the spotlight on stage, but still able to connect to the audience— and to the sound.
“In a way I feel like I won the lottery in careers, because I just really do love doing it. It’s what I do in my spare time anyways,” says Rosefield.
Now, his job is to help give artists the confidence they need to rock their performance.
“When you get it to that spot where everything just sounds great and the audience loves it and the band loves it, there’s a bit of magic that happens there. That’s a great feeling. That’s super rewarding,” says Rosefield.
While jobs like Rosefield’s focus on the immediacy of performance, the action in many behind-the-scenes jobs occurs long before the stage is set.
Robert Shannon is the coordinator for the Bachelor and Masters of Fine Arts Theatre Design program at the University of Alberta. Reflective of the reality of the competitive and small industry, the program admits only a handful of students each year.
He admits that his is an industry that’s far from lucrative, but for those who love performance, he says the work can fulfill a calling.
“Talk to most of us and we will have been obsessed with building things, drawing, and imagining our whole lives,” he says.
While a visual artist will often work independently, taking their cues from those who buy and criticize work, a theatre designer must be a team player first, responding to a director’s needs and understanding that their masterpiece is just one part of the whole, says Shannon.
Theatre design applies fine arts skills to massive installations. From lighting, to costumes, to the set itself, a designer’s concept will often start with a sketch, but when the curtain drops a designer’s work can colour the entire show.
And watching their vision come to life is anything but beige. “It’s thrilling, it’s sometimes disappointing. It’s never neutral,” says Shannon.
With so many jobs behind the scenes and, by comparison, very few on-stage performers, backstage work can also be a fallback opportunity for those who prefer life in the spotlight but didn’t quite reach that brass ring. They can still have a career in the arts backstage.
A producer’s job is to weigh the risks
Chris Ralph’s first passion has always been acting, but to sustain his lifestyle he’s developed a breadth of roles in the industry. Three years ago, he co-founded the Acting Company, a small recreational drama school in Ottawa.
“In Ottawa, there are not enough jobs to sustain you as a full-time actor. There’s no film or television in this city, so every actor has some other kind of job,” says Ralph.
Despite the fact that running the business is a seven-day-per-week commitment, Ralph also finds time to work as a producer at a local theatre. A far departure from his work on stage, he says this position has more to do with crunching numbers to determine if a show will sell.
“A producer’s job is to weigh the risks,” he says. But while the wager is high, this position can offer ample rewards. “I like the challenge. There’s always something new involved. Every single aspect of every show is different.”
While behind-the-scenes work offers such a diversity of roles, a number of threads weave together to make any production possible.
Those who succeed in the industry feed off a passion for performance and share an ability to apply their creative energy to a technical trade.
“You’re doing this because you love it and find it a worthy way to live a life,” says Richard.
