DAY 9, Aug 24: ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Today was a day of play practice, a beautiful outdoor dinner, and intense games of charades! Enjoy the pictures and the following interview between Nancy (with a few insertions from Izzo) and one of our stage tech volunteers, Nate:
NC: Hi, I'm Nancy Connelly and I would like to ask you a few questions for our camp blog.
NW: Great. Hi Nancy, I'm Nate Wiessner.
NC: Nate, what do you do for a play?
NW: For a play, sure. So my title is Operations Manager, here in the 62 center, which has a couple levels. So one of the things I do for the play is support the physical infrastructure of the building. So I make sure that the lights are working, and the power is working, and the AC is working, and the doors are unlocked. So that is one aspect. And then I also support making sure that the lights are hung properly and focus properly so actors and performers can be seen. And I also manage people, to make sure that we have the light people present for recitals and performances, and doing all the work that we have to do to get ready.
NC: Is it interesting to do?
NW: It is interesting. I do like my job quite a bit. I have been working here at Williams for 16 years. I did a little bit of waiting tables as a college student, but other than that the only job I've ever had is working in theatre. It's been pretty good, I like it quite a bit. There's something different all the time. I get to work with new people, new ideas, and new material, so that's pretty engaging.
NC: What's your favorite thing to do on the job?
NW: On the job, my favorite thing to do...I really like hanging a light plot. It's really satisfying to work with people. It's not very pressured. Or at least the way we do it, we make sure we leave ourselves enough time. It's a really satisfying project because you start with an empty room, and you end up with a lighting plot that works, and does what it's supposed to do. But as I said, we're always able to leave ourselves enough time for it. So it's a time where we can work together calmly, and make jokes, and listen to music, and it's not a stressful time because all the steps just sort of go one after the other. So that's a good feeling.
NC: And off the job?
NW: Off the clock, I have a six year old son. I love spending time with him, reading, hiking, swimming, so that's my favorite off-the-job activity.
NC: How did you hear about our camp and our play?
NW: Yeah, Mike Leon and Nathanial Baschgould are alums from Williams College, and I was working here when they were students here. So I’ve known them for 15 years or so. And they reached out first to our department chair to sort of initiate the idea of ‘would this be possible’, and he reached out to me to figure out if we’d be able to work to host you here this week.
NC: Thank you!
NW: Yeah, you're welcome!
NC: And why did you want to work with us?
IO: Other than the fact that it's your job and you have to...
NW: [laughs] It's nice to be able to support local and not local people with anything, but particularly this seems like a really great group to work with. I personally actually used to work at a camp for people with physical disabilities and mental challenges as a teenager, as did my brother. We worked at a camp down in Warwick, New York in the summers and winter weekends. So this actually is something I was engaged in in my past. And so when it came up it was even more something that I said ‘yes let's figure out how to make this work.’
NC: [excited noises]
IO: That's amazing. We're also trying to organize more weekend trips and other events throughout the year. Well, thank you so much for your time, we really appreciate it.
NC: Thank you!
NW: You're more than welcome. And lovely to meet you both. And I'll see you around the rest of the week a little bit!
NC: Yay!
