Thomas Gardner, Photo Courtesy of www.thomaspgardner.com
Have you ever sat in a morning meeting or a play and wondered who sets up and makes sure that everyone can see and hear the presenter? Well, it’s your fellow students from the theater tech class, and their teacher, Mr. Gardner. If you don’t know who Mr. Gardner is, that’s okay, because not many people outside of the theater department do.
For as long as he can remember, Mr. Gardner liked theater. However, he really started to get involved with it during his high school years. “I was a theater nerd; I could sing and tap dance. I was going to be on Broadway.” He didn’t end up on Broadway however, in fact he didn’t even get into a big acting school in New York City. This is because during his senior year, he was dating a girl in the grade below him and believed he was in love. Not only was he overloaded with anxiety, but this typical high school love story also meant that he procrastinated on his applications and ended up never finishing them before they were due. So he went to Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Sadly, the relationship didn’t last.
Chloë Wendler In the 2019 Jemicy Production of “Into the Woods” with Lighting By Thomas Gardner. Photo Courtesy of www.thomaspgardner.com
During his time at CCBC, Gardner was an actor. From there, he planned to transfer to one of the acting schools in New York. However, since he had started to get into the technical aspect of theater at CCBC, and had “Meh” grades, he decided to transfer to Towson for technical theater.
Andrew Spriggs – Jemicy Production of “An Act of God” 2019, lighting By Thomas Gardner Photo Courtesy of www.thomaspgardner.com
Luckily, on his first day at Towson while students were registering for classes, the lighting professor at Towson, Jay Herzog, walked in and recognized Gardner because he had done lighting design at CCBC, and Herzog got him into the advanced lighting course right off the bat. Because of this interaction, Gardner was able to start lighting design at Towson incredibly quickly; this also allowed him to get a lot more out of Towson as he essentially skipped a year of classes. He planned to go to graduate school at Yale after Towson. But even though he was highly sought after, his anxiety got the best of him, and much like during his senior year at high school, he got overwhelmed and ended up not getting into Yale.
Shortly thereafter, while working at a theater named Iron Crow, he met the one and only, Mr. Elias. From there he started doing lighting design for the Jemicy productions, and a few years later, got hired as the technical director for the Jemicy theatre program.
Ethan Lifson-Book – Jemicy Production of “Peter and The Starcatcher” 2018, lighting By Thomas Gardner. Photo Courtesy of www.thomaspgardner.com
In retrospect, If Gardner had gotten into one of the big acting schools in NYC, he still thinks that he would have eventually stopped acting and done tech. He says that he likes being a creator, he likes the production meetings and the brainstorming that goes into each show. He also noted that he despised some parts of being an actor, mainly costumes, makeup and the tight pants. Whereas he likes “every single part of lighting design, even the paperwork.”
Throughout his life, Gardner dealt with anxiety. It is important to note that even though his anxiety sometimes got the best of him, he still is very happy with where he ended up. He says “It’s just an example of how sometimes life doesn’t go exactly as planned, but that isn’t always a bad thing.” Besides, Gardner still does professional theater in his free time.
Andrew Spriggs, others in Jemicy Production of “The Laramie Project ” 2019, lighting By Thomas Gardner. Photo Courtesy of www.thomaspgardner.com
Gardner also said that the one thing he wished he knew back when he was in high school and college is that being “Unironically enthusiastic about something is cool, it is cool to care.” He ended with a quote that he lives by every day “Always try to be nice but never fail to be kind” -Peter Capaldi.
MOOSE PRINTS 