From the Ground Plan Up: Spotlight on Madeira Stagecraft

January 1st 2025

Madeira Stagecraft Teaches Hands-On Skills

If you stop by Madeira’s auditorium on a Saturday afternoon, you might expect the building to be silent and empty. In reality, it is quite the opposite. On most Saturdays from September to February the auditorium is filled with the sounds of saws buzzing, drills whizzing, sewing machines whirring, and students laughing. Madeira’s Stagecraft class is responsible for the cacophony of noise as they build the sets and construct costumes for each theater production.

Stagecraft has been at Madeira for decades under a variety of course names and iterations. The course has grown in popularity and complexity over the years. Fifteen years ago, Tech Activity (the old name of Stagecraft) had only six students enrolled. It now boasts a class of 25 with a long waitlist each year. “I think the popularity of the class has grown because it appeals to a broad range of students and teaches practical skills that students can use long into their futures,” says Sasha Newman, Madeira’s Artistic Director and one of the Stagecraft teachers.

Stagecraft is a truly interdisciplinary course that champions the values taught in Madeira’s STEAM initiatives. The course covers everything from reading technical drawings, to safely using power tools, to hanging and focusing lighting equipment, to sewing patterns, and more.

At the helm of this immersive course are Ms. Newman and Production Manager Ms. Adalia Tonneyck (“Ms. T,” to her students), who have a combined 40-plus years of professional experience in the theater industry. “To give the students a well-rounded experience, we aim to expose them to industry artists so they can benefit in learning from those in the field of theater,” Ms. Tonneyck explains.

Student Leadership and Technical Training

Students will often repeat Stagecraft over multiple years at Madeira, with several striving to take the class from freshman through senior year. These students have the unique opportunity to tackle a leadership role as they progress. The formalized leadership positions range from Scenic Charge, Props Master, or Master Carpenter up to Assistant Technical Director and Assistant Set Designer. On the costuming side, students move from leading the Wardrobe team during the show’s performances to designing costumes alongside Ms. T as the Assistant Costume Designer. These leaders teach other students and serve as assistants throughout the school year for Ms. Newman and Ms. T.

“Stagecraft opens up so many avenues for creativity and learning,” shared Charlie Harris ’25. “As the Assistant Technical Director, I have the opportunity to lead my own projects and teach other students how to use a wide variety of tools, all while improving my skill set. Every day I arrive at Stagecraft excited and ready to build and learn with a group of passionate, talented people.”

Tech Skills Help Build a Career

It might be rare to find a group of students who would happily dedicate their weekends to building scenery and sewing costumes, but for Madeira’s Stagecraft students, they wouldn’t be anywhere else.

So much so, in fact, that some alums return to the skills they learned through Stagecraft and even make them a career focus. Christine Sorrentino ’11 credits the Madeira program with setting her on her career path. “Madeira helped me recognize a passion for entertainment and develop the communication and prioritization skills I’d need to be successful in the industry.” Sorrentino has since made her career as a mechanical engineer in the theme park industry, working on the team that develops and builds new attractions for the Universal Studios theme parks and, most recently, joining a ride and show mechanical team at Walt Disney World.

When asked to reflect on how her current career parallels working in a theater, Sorrentino responded, “ In theater, there’s a term used to describe the week leading up to a show opening where everything is in full technical and dress rehearsal. Nicely, it is called ‘tech week’; unofficially it’s dubbed ‘hell week.’ It’s when all the pieces come together for the first time, so everything seems to go wrong all at once. You learn how to prioritize and how to move past perceived failures because the show must go on and opening night is not getting rescheduled. In the theme parks, it can be weeks or even months depending on the scale of the project, but the skills are the same: function in disaster, finish in style, and remain calm in the center of it all.” Madeira’s motto continues to resonate for our graduates, even years after leaving campus.