Take a walk through the Ransom Everglades Upper School campus and you’re bound to experience a variety of artwork in different media: ceramics projects in the library, drama posters on the walls, Rock 4 Relief open mics in the quad, and photographs in the cafeteria and Ludington.

However, RE’s technical theater program often falls under the radar. Whether running assemblies, mixing sounds at Rock 4 Relief concerts, or building sets for upcoming musicals, members of RE Tech are heavily involved in laying the groundwork for the performing arts at Ransom Everglades.

“Every single thing that happens in the theater gets teched by one or two students,” said Kathleen Stanton-Sharpless ’22, a student in the Technical Theater class. “It’s not just theater — it’s everything.”

Students who take the Technical Theater course learn how to create props, work with power tools, program lights, and mix sound, along with a variety of other skills. The instructors are Mr. Quincy Knowles and Ms. Flor Ancewicz, RE’s Technical Director and Assistant Technical Director.

“You’re getting electrical knowledge, carpentry knowledge, programming knowledge, and architecture and drafting knowledge,” Mr. Knowles said. “It’s really a great place to get some amazing skills that you can take out of here and use for almost anything.”

When students are assigned programs to tech, they often become part of the creative process, designing lights, sound, and other parts of the production. “Tech is so wonderful to me,” Mr. Knowles said. “With a change of lights or sound, we’re able to make the audience feel a certain way.”

The tech program is strongly connected to the tech class and club, but is always expanding to include more students with interest. For this year’s spring play, “Murder’s in the Heir,” Jamie Lockhart ’21 organized a costume crew to work alongside tech to design and collect costumes, fit cast members, and do makeup during tech week and show days.

“I’ve always been interested in costumes,” Lockhart said. “I had this idea already, and I wanted to integrate it into our school’s system. . . . Even if you don’t want to be onstage, there are loads of opportunities to get involved.”

RE tech’s main challenge has always been in its lack of personnel. This can be especially challenging during tech weeks, the days before a large show when all aspects of the show — the cast, band, and tech — come together to make it into a complete and presentable work.

“It is so much work, and every second you think you’ve completed something, there’s 50 other things you’re supposed to do,” Mr. Knowles said.

“There are some people who want to help,” Shelby Sanders ’21, incoming Vice President of Tech Club, said. “But since they haven’t taken the class, they don’t have the tools to.”

In an effort to combat this lack of experience, Tech Club has organized workshops to teach students outside of the elective how to work with light boards, power tools, the fly system, and a variety of other key components.

Mr. Knowles emphasized that students have a “tremendous amount of influence. . . . The shows would not happen if the students were not involved.”

Still, he added, “We’re building something here. . . . I see a lot more student involvement — we just have to keep pushing.”