Student spotlight

University theater technician discusses craft

Note: This article originally appeared Sept. 11, 2014 online at the website for The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

The technical aspects of theater production range from scenery, visual effects and costumes are commonly known as design. Viewers watching a play are drawn to the action of the actors onstage so they may not immediately notice the effort by designers working behind the scenes of what they’re watching. Propmaster Giovanni Salinas is one of those technicians.

“Every little note I do reflects the world that is being built and I have to ask myself, ‘what do I need to help make this work as one cohesive piece?’” the 20-year-old said. “Props are small items that not many people will notice, but I can make them and add details that make it personal for the characters and I’ll be happy leaving them there for people to discover.”

The Edinburg resident is currently working as a technician for the upcoming University Theatre production of Richard III, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s more than 400-year-old play about the rise of power and reign of Richard III of England. The play, scheduled to run Oct. 8-12, is set in a post-apocalyptic future where society is trying to rebuild itself following a nuclear fallout. Salinas works with three other designers and focuses on creating the props to be used onstage from weapons to personal tokens each character carries.

To prepare for the props, the senior consults with the script to see what kind of items would be found in a post-nuclear world. He plans on travelling to a local junkyard to scavenge for items that fit the scenery as part of his research.

Aside from his stagecraft, Salinas works as a facility manager at the Wellness and Recreational Sports Complex and usually takes 18 hours a semester. His only source of personal time, he says, are the hours of midnight to 5 a.m. when he gets to sleep.

“Theater is practically my other job,” he said. “What I do as a designer is part of a jigsaw puzzle. Without us, there wouldn’t be a play, but we need the actors as much as they need us so that we can have something to revolve our work around. It all adds to one cohesive whole.”

Since he joined UTPA two years ago, the theatre major has been involved with the university theatre program and has worked in lighting design and as a stage manager. He held the position of stage manager when he worked for local theater group Thirteen O’Clock Theatre before stepping down this past summer. However, Salinas enjoys operating light design.

“Light affects the way we see things,” he explained. “Obviously the lighting can’t work without the set or costumes on display, but our job is to make those things shine. It’s fun seeing how we can experiment with it to see how we can accentuate those things and yet still make it our own.”

Over the summer Salinas won a scholarship to attend a nine-week-long class with the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas. At the institution, Salinas learned advance stagecraft techniques in several fields such as audio and visual effects. The class also held weekly trips to the Las Vegas Strip to see a show.

“I was exposed to a lot of very different shows and I was reminded of why I love working in theater,” he said. “It’s all about that little thing of my own that I put in (the play) that will make me happy. When I considered a career in high school, I knew I didn’t want something that would cause me to live the rest of my life waking up every day and saying ‘Ugh, I have to go to work.’ I’m not like that with theater because I love it.”

After Richard III, Salinas will work as the lighting designer for the University Theatre production of the musical Evita, based on the life of former Argentine First Lady Eva Perón. It is scheduled to premiere March 2015.