Brian Miranda, Alison Castaneda, talk what goes on behind the scenes of theater
University of Rhode Island sophomores Brian Miranda and Alison Castaneda have shown that when it comes to theatre, you don’t have to be in the limelight to be a star.
Both Miranda and Castaneda are theatre tech students at the University with Miranda having a concentration in design and Castaneda having concentrations in design and technology.
The sophomores knew early on that acting and being onstage just wasn’t for them and theatre tech served as a great way to stay involved without being the main focus. They may not be who the audience sees performing onstage but their work shines for them whether it be through their sets or lights or designs.
After acting in a middle school production of “Footloose” when Castaneda was in the sixth grade, she didn’t expect to be involved in theatre again.
“I had no fun,” Castaneda said. She remembered thinking, “I don’t like theatre, theatre kind of sucks.”
Luckily for anyone who has ever seen the work she has done from backstage, she gave it another go in the eighth grade because of a group of friends and never stopped.
Miranda also shared a similar experience. Outside of his required drama course in middle school, he never acted like his sister did.
“I knew that I can’t memorize lines to save my life so I knew that acting was out,” Miranda said.
However, once he became a high school student, he started to take stagecraft and ended-up taking it for years. “Once you’re in the system, you’re in it for good,” Miranda added.
Through the University’s theatre program, Miranda and Castaneda have been able to explore multiple aspects of theatre and broaden their skills and knowledge of what goes into a production and how to put on a production.
Miranda said that if he could give advice to any student who is looking at theatre tech as an interest or potential career, he would tell them, “be open to different opportunities and experiences. If you know that you want to do set design, still pursue that, but you might find that costume design is also fun.”
Castaneda has taken advice like this and run with it, having a double concentrate within the major.
“It’s important to be aware of all the things that go into theatre,” she said. “I’m more aware of what’s needed for tech and design from the other groups.”
It wasn’t until her sophomore year of high school, after having been head of her school’s set construction crew, that Castaneda realized what she was doing could be a career and that it was the career that she wanted to pursue.
“I started to love theatre, but obviously I never enjoyed the performance aspect for myself,” Castaneda said.
Choosing theatre tech still allowed her an ability to be a part of something and have something come to light without being in the limelight.
While this was a great discovery for her, it did not come without challenges. While she was clear about not wanting to be onstage and in the limelight, she struggled with the feeling of validation for her work because of it.
“A week’s worth of work can be in a scene for two minutes,” Castaneda said. It may have taken some time to feel that validation but she came to know that people who know and understand theatre will notice and value her work.
In fact, she said, “the biggest compliment that people can get in tech is that they don’t notice it,” due to how natural it seems.
Miranda feels the support and comradery from his fellow theatre tech students and for him, that’s his favorite thing about the work and being a theatre tech student at URI.
They both currently work for theatres outside of the University over the summer, with Miranda working at Theatre-By-The-Sea in Wakefield, Rhode Island and Castaneda traveling further north to work at the Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, New Hampshire.
This semester, Castaneda will serve as lighting designer on “Daughters of Lavinia” which will be performed on April 23 at 7:30 p.m. while Miranda is going to be running sound for the musical “A Little Night Music” which will have performances April 18 to 20 and April 25 to 27 at 7:30 p.m. along with a 2 p.m. matinee on April 28.
Castaneda and Miranda both have dreams of working their way up through the theatre tech ranks after college, with Miranda hoping for a major design opportunity and Castaneda having a goal of being a tech director wherever she winds up.