Over the years Carlsbad High School has put on countless amount of shows in the Carlsbad Arts Center. The performances are brought to life by our actors, choir, dance and ASL students. If you have ever seen any of the performances at our school, you’ve seen all the light work, the sets, and have heard sound effects, but have you ever wondered who’s behind it all. Technical Theatre is a class offered to students at CHS, here students learn everything they need to know about backstage work and how to manage plays.

   In the class students learn about everything that is needed in a play like all the lights that are used during performances and how sound is controlled. The students work together to make sets for the performances and everything that makes the performance possible.

   “Technical Theatre is a little bit of a language class. It’s a little bit like an art class, an engineering class, and it’s a little like a physics class,”  Theater teacher Mrs. Hall said. “So if you’re good at a little bit of something, you’d be good a tech theatre. There is something for everyone, I love watching the students light up when they realize that this is something that they are good at and that they can do this with their life.”

   Students take the class to fulfill the art requirement but continue with it because they love doing their job and meeting new people. They find a passion in working backstage and working with actors as well as learning new things every time they work a play.

   “I took the class at first to fullfill my art requirement but in the end I stuck to it because I really enjoyed it,” senior Juan Santos said. “I got to meet a lot of different people and it’s really fun. Currently my job is Sound Head, so I basically hook up mics around the stage, I control the amount of sound the stage gets and the amount of voices that can be heard.”
         If there is something that the students of technical theatre have learned is to clear their schedules during the time of the musical, it gets very busy. Although this class needs a lot of commitment and hardwork it is a place where the students get along and make bonds that will last for a very long time.