Senior CJ Thurlow received the unexpected honor that no other student has had. While usually the technical director, Mrs. Katie Murphy, designs the sets, this year she let CJ expand his creative horizons.
Mrs. Murphy says, “For his senior year, I wanted to give him an opportunity that allows him to reach another level that very few students get to achieve. Being able to design the entire show really shows how much we in the department trust and value his talent.”
CJ originally got involved with the theatre department his freshman year. At first he was unsure of how he felt being on stage, so he decided to try the tech department.
“Well I was pretty shy at first so I did not really do great on stage. So I decided to try tech and I actually enjoyed it quite a lot,” CJ explains.
CJ has done tech for every musical and even though he was skeptical about being on stage, he decided to give it a try anyway. So far he has been in Out of the Frying Pan, Greek Mythology, Olympiaganza, Gossip, and The Election.
He began designing the sets two weeks before Christmas. The process for designing the set was lengthy and difficult considering he had never done anything like this before.
CJ explains, “I first went back and looked at past shows and looked for what looked nice and didn’t. After that, I looked at the movie and looked for anything in there that I could bring to life in the show. After that I mixed the two and created my own version of things.”
During the whole process, there were several ups and downs, but two specific parts stuck out in CJ’s mind.
“The most difficult part in my opinion would have to be finding pieces I have missed or having to changes things to make sure everything works properly. As I go along and we get closer to the show I keep finding things I either missed or need to change so other pieces work, CJ explains.
On the other hand CJ prefers to look on the bright side. CJ says, “Easily the best part would have to be seeing the projects get finished. As the projects come together you can see the show coming to life and the emotions you feel when you see how amazing the projects look and see that your visions are coming to life, it’s extraordinary!”
While it may not seem like a difficult task, there is more to it than simply coming up with the design. Mrs. Murphy explains, “You have to really pay attention and figure out each set piece and how it will work in our space. It can be very difficult to take what the script says and make it fit to our specific theatre.”
However, no matter how difficult, CJ has proven that he is capable of any
task set before him.
“CJ has a great eye for detail and has really come up with some amazing ideas. I don’t know how many students could handle the amount of pressure this type of responsibility has. I trust him completely and I cannot wait for the public to see what he has envisioned. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do without him next year.”