Home

Home. It can mean so many different things to so many different people, and yet despite what you or to me or anyone else might visualize when we think of home, I think the feeling that we each feel is probably the same - a sense of belonging...a sense of peace...a sense of safety.

I had a less than stellar childhood. My “home” was never a place I felt like I belonged, and I rarely ever felt a sense of peace or safety. School was not much better. Growing up in rural Iowa as a young man with zero interest in sports or hunting or fishing made me just a little “too different” to fit in and as someone who was a sophomore in high school before he broke 100 pounds, an easy target for bullies.

And then I found the stage. It was the end of my 8th grade year, and I had a music teacher intent on pulling me out of my shell. She got me to sing for the variety show (by threatening to fail me for the quarter). I was terrified...for about a minute. Then it hit me, and it was in that moment I knew I wanted to perform. I was home.

My first experience on stage was transformative. I found a place where I belonged. I found a place where I could be me. It didn’t make the problems at home or the bullying at school go away, but for that brief time onstage, none of it mattered.

Our current production of “Honk Jr” is a musical adaptation of “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Anderson. I don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers when I way that the ugly duckling isn’t really a duck and  transforms into a beautiful swan by the end of the story. That’s what stepping out on stage the first time felt like for me, and I think that’s why this production is so special to me. I’m honored to be able to work on it for my first show as Production Manager and to watch the work involved from start to finish.

A play comes together and transform much like the ugly duckling. Discarded clothes and stacks of material become incredible costumes. Piles of wood and cans of paint spring to life as the set designer’s vision becomes a reality. A flawed and well-worn story gets new life breathed into it and becomes something beautiful though the creative vision of the director and the hard work of the actors involved.

That feeling of home - those feelings of belonging, peace and safety? That’s why I’m involved in Story Theater Company. Being able to be a part of an organization that gives that same safe space to the current generation of young actors (my own included) is a blessing and a responsibility I don’t take lightly.

I am so excited to see how far Story Theater Company has come, and I’m even more excited for the future.

Todd
Production Manager