Arts Student of the Week Maddie Myers

In a big theater production, there are so many moving parts-props, actors, sound-that the theater technicians are never surprised when something unexpected happens. Niwot High School senior Maddie Myers knows, especially after the first show and the last show, the relief of getting through the production without too many surprises. She also remembers many stressful moments in the show where things weren't going quite as planned.

That was the case during a November 2024 NHS performance of "Murder on the Orient Express." "There was a problem with one of the microphones," Myers explained. "It wasn't connected. And at the start of the show, the actor's microphone wasn't working. That was stressful, because the theater technicians weren't sure what was wrong, but we figured it out."

The tech team came up with a quick solution. "It would have been hard for the audience to hear if we started the music that was supposed to play during the opening. But since the microphone wasn't working, we decided to cut the music for that part so the audience could hear."

The problem was an issue with the cord connecting the mic pack to the microphone. As soon as the actor was on stage, the techs fixed the problem quickly, and the rest of the show went smoothly, in no small part because of Myers.

NHS teacher Jason Watkins, who oversees the high school's theater productions, nominated Myers as Arts Student of the Week, and said Myers is "Quite capable, artistic. Maddie never ceases to amaze me....She has become one of my trusted techs to ensure that gigs are done smoothly and are their best."

With the exception of playing King Tut's wife in an elementary school production, Myers' only experience working in the theater has been at NHS.

During her sophomore year, she took a production theater class which included making puppets and learning to sew certain stitches which she developed into the skill of costume repair. "Maddie has lent their skills to our shows," Watkins said, "being a member building our dragon for 'Shrek' as well as other props for other shows. [Maddie is] one of the hidden gems of our crew."

Working as a theater technician has been rewarding for Myers. "Technical theater is everything but the acting," she explained. "The theater technicians work with the sound. They pick up the microphones and play the music. We do the spotlights and lighting design. We build the sets, handle props and costumes and pretty much everything but the acting. Mr. Watkins shows us the basics of everything at the start of the year, and then, once I have my assignment for the show, I can learn more in depth about what we're doing.

"For 'Murder on the Orient Express,' which was the play last semester, I was on sound, and so I learned a lot about how to use the sound board. My job was muting and unmuting microphones, and at call time, I helped set up the microphones by putting in the batteries and getting the mic pack connected to the microphone. Then, I have an annotated script, with notes where I have to unmute and mute certain people's microphones."

Although Myers has also painted sets, she prefers the actual construction, drilling and cutting the wood. "Everybody works on building the set," she said. The students work on stage when building the set, because there is not a workshop. "Our scene shop has all our tools, but there's usually not enough room to build the actual props or set pieces in there. We use different types of saws, like a circular saw, table saw, jigsaw, and other basic tools, wrenches and screwdrivers, the nail gun, a staple gun. Sometimes it's a little scary."

"Jason has set design ideas," Myers explained. "And this year, the students also have a student technical designer. Usually, they make a little diorama of the set, so the theater technicians know what it's supposed to look like as the finished product. And they'll have dimensions on a piece of paper. And then the theater technicians work through those."

Myers came to NHS as a freshman, and she feels a strong connection to the school through clubs, and especially through technical theater. She is a member of Key Club, the Knitting Club, and the Film Club.

Key Club members have volunteered at the Niwot Easter Egg Hunt and the Halloween parade, and they have created a Halloween haunted house. "In the spring we also make homeless kits which contain non-perishable foods, granola bars, sometimes hats, gloves, things that will hopefully help people, and then we hand them out. And there are some smaller projects throughout the year. We just finished a canned food drive, and we do thrift store donations." Last year Myers helped set up the haunted house, and ran a face painting station outside.

Myers helps organize the Knitting Club and its service projects. "Last semester, the students... made little hearts, and we were planning to put them around the school to help spread awareness about suicide," Myers explained. Myers and the other students crocheted and knitted the hearts but have not yet been able to place them around the school. However, this semester they plan to fill baskets with the hearts and put them on campus. "They'll just be free to anybody that wants one," she said.

In Film Club, the students come up with an idea for a film, ten or fifteen minutes in length, workshop character names and traits, write the script, and then go out and film it. "Auditions for being in the film are being held sometime in the next couple of weeks. It's already been written," Myers said. "I'm more interested in filming or editing the pieces of the film together. I don't want to be in it," she admitted.

After high school, Myers would like to attend community college, possibly at Front Range, to complete her general degree requirements. "I know I want to do something with technical theater, but the professional environment is going to be a lot different than the school environment. I was thinking of applying to a local theater to work there."

As she thinks about what she has learned in life so far, Myers offers these words of advice. "Be yourself. That will go a long way. In the long run, it's not going to do you any favors to be someone you're not."