DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM An opera director,
technicallyIf it's on stage and not breathing,
Gordon Svec is in charge of itI'm the technical director for Hawaii Opera Theatre. If you describe it, it's got to be the most boring job in the world. But when you're in the middle of all the chaos it's a lot of fun.
I'm in charge of all the things that don't breathe. The jury is still out on what happens if a tenor dies on stage. I'm not sure whether I'm in charge or not.
I don't design sets, but I engineer them. I make sure they're going to support cast member traffic. The set we're using for this show, La Boheme, was built in Utah. We own one third of the set. We are sharing it with Arizona Opera and Opera Memphis. When none of us is using it, we hope to rent it out.
My job is logistics. Getting stuff and making sure everything works. On a good day, my job is to make sure things go smoothly. On a bad day, it's to take the rap. If the opera's running like a dream I don't touch anything.
I've been doing what I do for a living for 32 years and I've never been a waiter. I'm very proud of that.
I've spent my whole working life in theater. I worked for Diamond Head Theatre for 15 years and I've worked for just about every theater in town in some capacity. This is my sixth season at Hawaii Opera Theatre. This is theater on a grander scale. It's great. I could go work for a bigger theater company in Hawaii, but there aren't any bigger theater companies in Hawaii. We're it.
But, I'm not really an opera fan. My whole thing with opera is when I was a child every time I heard the music Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck would show up. And then I went to an opera and I kept waiting for them to show up and they never did. I found that very disappointing.
I'm one of a staff of about 14 who work for Hawaii Opera Theatre year round. Right now we're in season, so we're in the throes of it, but we plan a year ahead, so I work on planning for costumes and sets and the like year round. It's a surprisingly nine to five job outside of the season. Or eight to four, or whatever it takes to get the job done. There's a lot of talking to people in other time zones, so you have to account for that. I get to meet people from all over the world.
During the opera season we never see the light of day. I've got to thank Hawaii Opera Theatre for making sure I don't get skin cancer. It's been about two weeks since I've been outside. Actually, I went hiking yesterday. I was like "Wow, what's that big shiny thing in the sky?"
But truly, I love it. My ex-father-in-law said I'm the only person he knows who does what he loves for a living. That's true.
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