Hannah Fox’s Arrival Lights Up Theater Tech

On September 15th, rather than working in the CFTA, the E-period Theater Tech class met in the CIS for the first time ever, crowding more than thirty students in tiny Room B to talk about their set design ideas for the 2023 Fall Play: “Clue: On Stage.”

The Theater Tech class is different this year because Hannah Fox, the new CIS Studio Manager at The Athenian School, joins as the Set Design Coordinator.

“Clue: On Stage” brings elements from the classic board game to the stage. “A couple of rich, high-class guests [are] invited to a house. It’s a murder mystery with a couple of twists,” said 11th- grader Ziyan Wen. She is the Production Manager of Theater Tech and the actor who plays Mrs. White.

“[My job includes] working with Build and Props to make sure everyone is using the best practices for building things,” Hannah said. “When it comes to the actual set building, I would be there to supervise and make sure that everyone is working safely, and that we are building something awesome.”

Hannah is not only good at using power tools but is also passionate about theater. “I used to work in theater, all the way back in high school. My friend was the costumes head in high school, and I worked as the co-head of costumes in undergrad. When I was in grad school, all of my work was in installations, so that’s where I really started to cross over my theater knowledge with set design,” she said.

So when Hannah was hired by Athenian, the admin- istration decided to combine her role as a studio manager with her theater interest in the Theater Tech class.

Now Hannah is helping the Build and Props crews create the set. She has shown them a slideshow with other artists and production companies’ designs for inspiration and helped them make miniature models to test out ideas. “We take a drawing and scale it down, and we make it into a little model. That way we can work out design problems before you start building it in wood, [which] is harder to go back and make changes,” Hannah said.

The crew will continue to build the set, creating everything from doors to foam chandeliers from scratch.

Misty Ty, the theater director at Athenian, is also very appreciative that Hannah has joined the Theater Program.

“I am absolutely thrilled that we have new staff in the theater. It has been something that we have wanted for a long time,” Misty said, “and [it shows that] Athenian really wants to help the Theater Department grow and be more solid and efficient.

“It makes students feel great to know that everyone believes in them and wants [them] to succeed,” she said.

Having an additional teacher makes it much easier to accomplish the tasks at hand. Because Hannah is managing the Build Crew, Misty has more time to work with other crews. “We can now construct more costumes and props,” Misty said. There is now the flexibility for creative designs rather than merely buying props and costumes from elsewhere.

Theater Tech has also become more structured, allowing students to understand better what they should do. There is a self-check attendance sheet on the front door of the CFTA and daily task schedules on the Canvas page. These were not utilized in previous years.

“It’s a lot more like a typical class,” Ziyan said. “This year we did a lot of sitting down and listening, unlike last year where the E-period was mostly [students] coming in, going to workstations, and immediately starting to do what [they] want to do,” she said.

“We sit together in the beginning and at the end, 11th-grader Bia Rodrigues de Lima, the Stage Manager of the play, said. “I like this part; I am super excited for the play. I think this is the first time that we are organized for the show and doing everything on pace,” she said.

Members hope to finish on the stage as quickly as possible to be prepared for the tech week and the show. Last year, the paint crew was putting paint on the sets just a few hours before the opening night, which the tech team would like to avoid this time.

“There are really positive changes happening, and it’s very evident,” Misty said.