It was opening night of the University Theatre’s production of “The Big Knife.” As the stage manager, Dyrud was responsible for managing every sound, lighting and set change from the dimming of the houselights to the closing of the final curtain. The senior theater major from Klamath Falls wanted everything to be exactly right.

“There’s no perfect show,” Dyrud said. “But I couldn’t get it out of my head that night. Everything had to be perfect.”

Ruth Ames

Dyrud, 22, donned a headset and called for the houselights to dim – the first cue of the night, starting the play. Seated next to her, light board operator Evan Howells pushed a button to bring down the lights. But nothing happened.

Howells tried again. Still, nothing. The clock was ticking. The actors were ready. A packed house waited. Dyrud and Howells scanned the 20-year-old light board for anything out of place.

“You can never show any panic or fear,” Dyrud said. “That’s a sign of weakness. No matter what happens, you have to pick up and move on. Nothing can stop you.”

Dyrud’s calm exterior has helped make her the latest in a line of UO students whose strengths lie not in acting, but in the technical aspects of theater, such as lighting, set, costume and sound design, as well as stage managing. Several College of Arts & Sciences graduates have moved on to prestigious backstage positions in New York, Orlando, Fla., Palo Alto, Calif., Seattle and Portland. Dyrud, who has applied to at least one esteemed graduate program, dreams of someday working on traveling productions before landing a permanent job at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

“A lot of people in design and technical theater in our program find jobs after graduation faster than our actors. Claire’s going to work in this business,” said theater arts professor John Schmor, who worked with Dyrud on a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Caitlin Anderson and Lilli Turner

Quick problem-solving skills in the face of pressure are what employers – not just in theater – so value, said Janet Rose, a senior theater instructor who has known Dyrud since she was a freshman.

“Great stage managers like Claire have a real passion for theater,” Rose said. “Otherwise, they could be running IBM. That’s the kind of intelligence and leadership the job takes.”

A good stage manager can pull everything together, allowing actors, designers and stage hands to do their best work, Rose said. It can sometimes be a thankless job that nobody notices until something goes wrong.

“There’s no Tony Award for stage managing,” Rose said. “But when people win Tony Awards, they always thank the stage manager.”

Claire Dyrud

A Tony Award was the last thing on Dyrud’s mind on opening night of “The Big Knife.” That night, she had a light board to fix and a play to manage. Howells eventually punched a series of buttons, which dimmed the lights, allowing the play to finally start. But that didn’t solve the entire problem. Throughout the play’s first half, Howells had to enter lighting commands manually, instead of pressing a single button to set in motion a pre-programmed lighting sequence.

“It was like a math equation,” Dyrud said. “Sometimes you have to step away from a problem to solve it.”

The light board problem continued to eat at Dyrud, even as lighting, costuming and sound all came together. Then, during intermission, Dyrud and Howells noticed that a single button on the aging light board hadn’t been pushed, making it impossible to use the automated system.

With that taken care of, the play’s second half came off smoothly. Dyrud’s ability to stay cool prevented a minor glitch from turning into major one.

“You never quite know what’s going to go wrong,” Dyrud said. “But with every play it gets easier. You can focus and trust yourself more every time, until you just know that everything will work out. That’s what makes it so special.”

—ZB