Stories of Engagement
Again and again we have been struck by the breadth and depth of our theatre’s connections to our community, the ways in which those connections ripple out into the great world, and the ways in which they ripple back. So we invited artists, staff members, students, board members, teachers, donors, business owners—anyone really—to write stories about their engagement with People’s Light. Whether the writers have been involved for three years or thirty years, the thoughts and feelings expressed in these stories are the same: People’s Light has had a profound impact on people’s lives.
We will be featuring new stories here. And we plan to continue adding to our collection of stories; not only do they record our history and commitment to community; they inspire our future. We would love to hear your story! To submit one, you can email the Marketing Manager, Abby Suchting, at suchting@peopleslight.org.
David Bradley
Company Member
Having a vibrant artistic company that’s engaged with the region in various ways has allowed People’s Light to build relationships that continue to engender vitality for the organization.
Over the past few years, several artistic company members and frequent guests have taught, directed or designed at Arcadia University in Glenside (about 40 minutes from the Theatre). Long-time company member and Artistic Associate Kathryn Petersen has become a full-time member of the Theater Department faculty at Arcadia, while still contributing significantly to PLTC as a playwright, actor, teacher and artistic staff member.
This connection with Arcadia (itself an example of the kind of artistic and educational contribution PLTC seeks to make to the broader region) has spurred many relationships, many of which continue to grow. We have hired several Arcadia graduates at the Theatre, one of whom works full-time in our Education Department (Sara Waxman). Others (Melissa Paolercio, Delanté Keys, Kat Schadt) have taught with us on a recurring basis.
Greg Miller
Master Electrician
Every once in a while someone asks me “How long have you been at People’s Light?” I usually snap back to February 2002, when I became Master Electrician. But that’s not wholly accurate. Neither is August 2001, which was when I started as Assistant Master Electrician. I suppose that’s a good enough starting point from a strictly business perspective; it’s when I became a full-time employee, and when the clock started ticking on things like health coverage and such. But it doesn’t answer the wider how long.
I think the how long starts at the beginning of the 1998-99 season, when I began working in the Box Office. That was during the first year of my pre-midlife career redirection and paradigm shift. I’d left the editorial staff at Suburban Publications and returned to freelancing, so I obviously needed other work as well. Once I started working at PLTC I recused from reviewing PLTC productions for the paper and the Barrymore nominations committee. I eventually ended up writing about PTLC again, in a different context, when Mary Bashaw had me writing press releases.
For the next couple of seasons I bounced around PLTC in various capacities—Box Office, front-of-house, overhire, hawking tie-in merchandise and People’s Products during Christmas Carol intermissions—as part of my juggling of freelance theatre work and part-time jobs. Then in the summer of 2001, while I was doing the tech program and designing at Upper Darby Summer Stage, came the fabled Week of Job Offers. Inside of one week, Casey Gallagher offered me the position of Box Office Manager, Rick Blake offered me the Assistant Master Electrician job, and Harry Dietzler offered me the Technical Director position at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center. (Okay, it may not have all been in one week. Maybe ten days, twelve at the most.) If you want to feel the most pressure in a decision-making process, set the time limit during the crunch of teching one show and building another two shows at once.
My recollection of my thought processes at the time is a bit blurry, but I seem to remember thinking about what I wanted to be doing and where I wanted to be doing it. The where part leaned toward PLTC. The what part pointed straight at production. If I’d really been thinking about The Future and placing more weight on those considerations, I might have taken the job with Upper Darby; there were more known quantities there; it would have been a more practical, safe choice. Part of what personal paradigm shift had to do with safe, though? Don’t stick with what feels safe. Follow what feels right—you might just end up someplace you never could have pictured clearly enough to call a destination until after you’d found yourself there.