STAFF SPOTLIGHT
If you’ve volunteered with us in recent years, you might recognize these familiar faces —Vicky Vail and Lorne Kelley are back! Lorne is stepping back into his role as QCT’s Technical Director and Vicky Vail will be acting as our Development Coordinator. Get to know a little more about them!
1. What was your most memorable moment working on a production at QCT?
Lorne – Every show is a unique experience and has so many moments it’s hard to choose.
2. If you could play any role in any play or musical, which one would it be and why?
Vicky – I would love to play Anita in West Side Story because I absolutely love the strength and sass that she has. I love how she fights for her community and pushes those around her to challenge themselves. I love how it tells of both the joys and the struggles that the Latinx population experienced in building lives for themselves in this country (which hits home for me since my mom is a first-generation American). I would love to one day get to pay tribute to my heritage by playing that character.
Lorne – Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls, and eventually Arvide from the same show (once I’m old enough…) I have already had the opportunity to play Nicely-Nicley Johnson, Harry the Horse, and Sky Masterson in different productions of Guys and Dolls so I’d like to try some new roles.
3. What’s the funniest mishap you’ve seen during a live performance?
Vicky – At a Shakespeare Theatre that I worked at in grad school we were working on a production of Hamlet when a bat started flying around inside of the theater. The productions were all performed with the lights on, so the audience and the actors were totally aware of the bat. What was hilarious was that the actors went off script and the gravedigger said the line “Here is a man. There is a bat. Here is a man who does not like bats.” He broke the tension in the room, we all laughed, and then the bat proceeded to fly backstage. I was both terrified and so entertained at the same time.
Lorne – Watching a cast mate sing out the Meow Mix ditty while acting like a lost kitten in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
4. How did you first get involved with QCT?
Vicky – The first show I got to work on was Bye, Bye Birdie in the summer of 2019 as the Stage Manager. I got to see the beauty of how QCT brings together community members from all different ages, backgrounds, and ways of life. I have been hooked ever since!
Lorne – I stepped into the role of Technical Director with QCT in 2017.
5. If our theatre could produce any show with an unlimited budget, what would you choose and why?
Lorne – Unlimited resources is a daunting concept, an all-out production of Man of La Mancha or The Scarlet Pimpernel would be incredible.
6. Do you have a favorite spot or hidden gem in the theatre that most people don’t know about?
Vicky – My favorite place to sit and watch a show is in the lighting booth. I love getting to see how a production comes together from up there and I love listening to the stage manager call a show.
Lorne – I like to lay flat on my back looking up at the grid center stage when the deck is empty and only the ghost light is on.
7. What’s one thing you wish the audience knew about what goes on behind the scenes?
Vicky – My favorite part of making theatre is the camaraderie that develops backstage. The relationships that are forged through the process of creating art together, figuring out how to make a costume change work, connecting with your scene partners, or that time you all hit the chord perfectly for the first time; those are memories that I will cherish so deeply for the rest of my life. That is why, for me, theatre is worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes both literally, as well as figuratively)! That is why theatre will always be the place I call home.
Lorne – Everything…if only they knew.
8. Who is your favorite playwright or composer, and what’s your favorite work by them?
Vicky – My favorite playwright is Tennessee Williams and my favorite play he wrote is Streetcar Named Desire. Even though it is full of some really difficult themes, it is such a powerful story about the complexities of navigating different cultures, families, and expectations.
Lorne – That is too hard to pick.
9. What’s the best/most memorable costume or set piece you’ve seen or worked with here?
Lorne – Helping to put together the Giant’s costume and stilts for our production of “Big Fish”.
10. If you could have dinner with any historical theatre figure, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Lorne – Moss Hart. Just to hear the stories he could tell.