I attended Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario from 1979 to 1983. I was not a successful student. I have dyslexia and I had no idea where I would go after high school. In my second year of high school, I took some technical courses--metal shop, auto shop drafting and electricity… and then I noticed that a drama course could fit into my schedule. It was through the drama course that I found out about the sound and lighting crew. Could there be a career for me in the theatre industry, I wondered?

In 1983 I graduated from high school and was determined to find a positive path forward. It had become clear to me that what engaged me most were experiential classes that got me on my feet and out of a chair. I auditioned for the then-named Ryerson Theatre School as a performer and was accepted. With some encouragement from a high-school friend, I applied and was hired as a seasonal theatre technician at Canada's Wonderland Theme Park that summer. The show was The Best of Broadway and my high school dramatic arts training enabled me to function as a flyman. The show was a fast-moving musical with lots of scene changes and pulling the scenery on cue so it landed perfectly with the music was second nature to me. In 1985 we installed a show called Fantasy in Canterbury Theatre at Canada's Wonderland. The show had trapezes, slides, and a rope drive turntable. I worked alongside a circus rigger from the Big Apple Circus in New York and built each stunt under his direction. I learned an incredible amount and was responsible for the operation and maintenance once the show opened. That same summer, my friend and I were asked to travel to a theme park in California to install The Best of Broadway there. I was hired as a flyman.  

In September I transferred into the technical program at Ryerson and created a hybrid educational path for myself, working in theatre and also attending class. I soaked up everything I could: sound, lighting, rigging, carpentry, prop building, radio and television arts, costume design, as well as some art history, English, and text analysis courses. I had hands-on opportunities with digital control protocols and equipment while also assembling the most advanced equipment available.

In 1986 I was made aware of an organization that represented professional stagehands in Toronto. They wanted to organize those of us working at concert venues, encouraging us to form a union and so I committed to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).  

In 1987, I left theatre school without a diploma and took all the work that came my way. It wasn’t long before I got an electrical maintenance call from the scene shop at the National Ballet of Canada. They had just returned from a tour of Western Canada and there was a big overhaul to get ready for the next season. I recall being presented with a pile of lighting instruments that needed repair and as I plowed through them, my boss asked if I had learned how to do repairs at Ryerson. “Nope, I learned this at high school” I replied.

As an apprentice, I had to go where I was told and build competency in all departments. I started to acquire a reputation as a lighting guy, well-versed in analog and digital control protocols. I learned every lighting console available and started getting positions outside of my seniority. I was rigging all the concert tours at Maple Leaf Gardens and Exhibition Stadium, loading trucks, building scenery, setting orchestras, and focusing lights for ballet and opera companies.

Through it all, I was still in contact with high school friends and college friends but the work/call schedule resulted in challenges to maintaining relationships. Events were during holidays and on weekends or in the evening. You work all day and do shows at night in this industry. 

In 1988 I married Kim, my high school sweetheart. Six months after our wedding I was hired as the assistant electrician for the National Ballet of Canada. In the span of seven years, we completed seven Canadian tours, five American tours, two European tours, and one Asian tour. It was a busy time. In 1990, I passed all of my apprenticeship exams and became a full member of the IATSE Local 58.

By 2001 the ballet was not touring much, but theatre in Toronto was booming. I had become a beta tester for automated fixtures and consoles with many of the lighting manufacturers and I was busy. I also taught light console programming to members of the local film industry and worked as a production electrician for the film Chicago in 2002. In 2003 the Canadian Opera Company offered me a production electrician position. In 2006 I was hired as the head electrician at the newly-opened Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. That was the only time when I had one employer in a calendar year and I stayed with the opera company until 2012.

For the next 10 years I was the lighting board operator at the Ed Mirvish theatres. Every show contained multiple networks, large video systems, intricate automated lighting rigs, ethernet routers, fiber optic transmission, as well as spmte timecode and MIDI interfaces. My most recent show as head electrician was the Toronto 2022 production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

In December I was running the followspot for The Nutcracker. Running followspot, I move in unison with the dancers, stopping when they do… fading up and fading out with the music…adjusting intensity as the overall look changes on stage, smoothly and efficiently…with all three operators silently and perfectly fading as the curtain comes in. 

I use the basic principles of theatre every day. Exposure to performance and theatre craft inspires me. Is it like running away to join the circus? Maybe, if we find it. I think technical theatre is the land of lost toys. Maybe it finds us?  Did I mention that I was not a successful student?