A few years ago, Heritage’s theater looked very different.
There was another director, different technology, different backstage staff, and two of the sound and lighting designers now indispensable to every show, were in college or working as freelancers. Today, lots is new, and in these past few years, the theater program has probably changed more than ever before.
After the end of the 2022 season, a new director stepped in—Mr. Clay Cartland. With this change in leadership came a big change in almost all aspects of the theater. The minute Mr. Cartland took the chair of the fine arts director, he was immediately looking to spice things up.
“I was like, ‘Cool, what fun stuff can we do (in a show)?’, ’ What interesting things can we do?’ … I like to really push the envelope and see what we can make that hasn’t ever been seen yet,” he said.
Before that came Mr. Johnpaul Moccia, a much more ‘traditional’ director. “And Mr. Moccia and I were very different people,” Mr. Cartland said. “He was in his 60s, and was in a much different school of thought to me.”
A lot of the disparity between these two directors was caused by differing backgrounds. “Because I didn’t come to the arts from the directors mindset, but more of a performer’s, because that’s what I was first.”
Before Mr. Moccia left, the two only got to work together on one show. Even beforehand, there was a bit of conflict on the choice of show—before Mr. Cartland and his push for silliness finally convinced his fellow director to decide on “Mamma Mia!”
“And the thing I noticed [about Mr. Moccia] was he would read the script and be like ‘This is a great story. How do I tell it as well as I can?’ He would see the story for what it was: A script, 120 pages—this is what the playwright wrote. He would see what the best way to tell the story was through a performance medium.”
“I would look at the same thing, and I would say ‘What can I get away with?’ or ‘What can I do that’s not in the story?,’” Cartland said. For him, it all came back to his experience as a performer. “You’re always playing a role that undoubtedly somebody’s played before. The key isn’t just to do a show … but I always thought of how I can do it to set myself apart from the tens of thousands of people that have done it before.”
For him, it’s about bumping up the story to another level, whether that be by adding silly bits to a show, twisting the mood of a show like the steampunk take on “Into the Woods,’ or by having special involvements like a student choreographer for “Footloose.”
“I don’t want you to go to, say, North Broward Prep and tell them ‘Yeah, we just did Footloose the musical.’ I want you to go to North Broward Prep and say ‘We just did Footloose the musical, and we had a student choreographer, and, you won’t believe this, there was this whole stupid bit with a boombox where it kept turning off and on again–so funny.’”
Also in the past few years, student involvement in more technical aspects of a show has been expanding. Now, “A student can say, ‘I kind of want to do sound (for a show).’ Well, now you’re designing sound for an 800-seat [theater],” Mr. Cartland said. “And we haven’t always done it this way.”
Technically, lots has also changed.
“‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ was the last show we could do with the old, original speakers,” Mr. Cartland said. “They were blown, they weren’t positioned properly—they were a dinosaur. The board was the last analog board, I think, in the state of Florida. People would come see it and be in awe that it was still in operation.
Now, we have a new digital board … The lobby got remodeled, we’ve got new colored LED lights … and we haven’t had subwoofers that actually work in the theater for probably the last 10 years,” Mr. Cartland said.
Mr. Cartland sees it as an ease of storytelling. The nicer the sound, the better you can hear actors and understand the plot. With more lighting options, it’s easier to immerse an audience into the world of a show.
Behind the scenes, technical staff have also been refreshed, with there now being an individual sound and light designer rather than one person working on and teaching both.
“The technology is getting more complex,” Mr. Cartland said. “We have two spaces with brand new speakers and sound systems in them, and we’re getting new lighting instruments in both spaces. And since we handle a good amount of events on this campus, it just helps to have [separate roles.]”
Student involvement in theater has also changed over the years, “And it’s sad,” Mr. Cartland said. With more and more stress put on students to do more, and with so many opportunities on campus, it makes it hard for a student to give one thing—like theater—their 100%.
“I literally just saw five people in the hallway that didn’t audition for [the spring musical], and they were like ‘Yeah, I want to, but I have this,’” Mr. Cartland said. “I don’t think that interest in theater has changed, so much as the span of interests has grown. Thirty years ago, you’d be either in the drama club, sports, or an academic. Now, you’re in the drama club, or pre-med, pre-business, pre-law, you’re on the dance team, and you’re in the marching band. You know, there’s so much.”
So, though interests haven’t waxed or waned, the need for theater “is exponentially higher,” Mr. Cartland said. “Especially with [cellphones].” He brings up the point that, all day, between every class, everybody’s staring into their phone.
“And being on stage, or being in a musical together, it just forces you to talk with each other and collaborate and share ideas … It’s just become so much more necessary because it brings people out of that shell.”
Mr. Cartland also has a lot of visions for the future, like immersive shows, something site specific— like something outside—and maybe even bringing back a few Shakespeare classics for a show or two.
“I’d also love to one day be able to add pyrotechnics, like fireballs—or like,sprinklers. There’s also a lot of shows that I’d like to do that are a little more edgy. But, at the end of the day, I’d love to have more interest from the whole school [in the theater.] When we announce a show, I would love to see buzz not just from this building, but from the rest of campus.”
This year’s theater features new light and soundboards, new speakers, and new LED lights. “The mic quality is 10 times what it was,” Mr. Cartland said. “In terms of lights, the lights we’re going to bring in over the next few years don’t give off as much heat, so it’ll be more comfortable for the audience.” (Photo/Daniel Harper)
