South Texas College stagecrafter gets technical with theater
McALLEN — When Gilberto Martinez decided to major in “drama,” starting his college career in the middle of a pandemic wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
But “the show must go on,” as they say, and despite the challenges, Martinez said his experience in the South Texas College Drama department “ran pretty smoothly.”
“I think it’s an amazing path you can take going to STC for your first two years,” says the tech-savvy artist, who fired up his passion for set design and technical theater as a jaguar in drama. “In the end, it worked out really well. Everyone has been welcoming in the program.”
Nothing could stop Martinez’s passion for prop-making. For one, most of his theater classes were hybrid, which kept him on the scene and engaged.
“‘Medea’ was the first production that I helped with,” the student recalls. With a small cast and filmed performances, drama majors were still able to put on a play — even in the thick of last year’s social distancing restrictions.
Though “Medea” was written thousands of years ago by the Greek playwright Euripides, Theatre Support Services Coordinator Roberto De Hoyos gave it a metahistorical twist by setting the stage in ancient Aztec times. Martinez was on board from the beginning, ready to make the director’s vision a striking reality.
“He was very, very, interested in props and scenery,” De Hoyos recalls about Martinez. “I was like, ‘Great, I’m creating this new world, so you can definitely help me.’”
Volunteering to study ancient Aztec artifacts and culture, Martinez helped create an authentic set and props.
“Because of COVID, we were doing this for You-Tube,” explains the instructor, who appreciated how Martinez made the items look as real as possible. The student used hardening clay to replicate Aztec knives, arrowheads with the symbols of sacrificial gods, and even period jewelry, all carved with precision. As De Hoyos said, “A lot of the filming was very up close, so it had to be really detailed.”
Martinez says it was a fun challenge to help with the Aztec production, and his hard work is immortalized in the three-episode miniseries on YouTube.
More recently, Martinez assisted with lighting for the horror play Richie Goes Gray this past October.
“We sold out completely, which is amazing,” beams the stage tech. Rehearsals only lasted for one week, so Martinez had to get the hang of things pretty quickly. Overall, he’s proud to say that it was a “delightful” success: “The lights and the show went smoothly, and everyone laughed and got scared.”
And keep your eyes peeled for Ghost Sonata, a coming attraction in which Martinez is looking forward to being the prop master and helping out with set construction and painting. The play is about a creepy apartment complex where ghosts walk in broad daylight, and a closet-dwelling woman becomes a mummy.
In fact, Martinez now has extra time to devote to stagecraft as a new work-study student for the Drama department. “I’m really able to get more involved,” he says. “I also work as a theater consultant for a high school, so I’m here managing two jobs and being a full-time student.”
It’s a lot of commitment, but Martinez says it’s worth it to work closely with both his high school mentor and De Hoyos at STC.
“Roberto De Hoyos, he’s an amazing person,” says Martinez. “Whether it is set construction, a prop, a costume, or a book, he has shown me a lot that can really help me out in my career path.”
According to the professor, who runs STC’s two performance spaces and shops, work study students like Martinez get a lot more “play” time than the average learner.
“I’m teaching them how to do the hardest things, which are construction, rigging and lighting — the things that most twoyear students will not get the chance to learn yet,” says De Hoyos. These advanced skills aren’t usually offered until junior year at university, so he says Martinez is “getting a leg up.”
But work study isn’t the only way to enter the theater arts center stage. As Martinez says, “What I love about STC’s theater program is that it’s connected with the South Texas Theatre Auditions.”
The STTA aren’t any ordinary auditions. About 15 to 20 colleges from across the country come to STC to scout for talent from as far away as California, Chicago and New York. High school seniors and college transfer students can audition directly to big-name universities right in the Rio Grande Valley.
This year’s STTA are slated for Monday, Nov. 15, and Martinez is enthusiastic for the challenge to present his technical theater and design know-how.
“You get to really showcase your abilities,” says the sophomore, who already has his eye on the prize: “A lot of good universities that have amazing theater programs come in. I’m trying to go to UT Austin for sure.”
South Texas College spearheads the event in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin and the local high school district. For De Hoyos, it’s the ideal setup: “Students come and audition for free, which is even more of a reward.”
As a member of the very first graduating class at STC, De Hoyos has a unique perspective on such opportunities.
“When I was here, we didn’t have this possibility at all,” he recalls. “If you wanted to apply to the 15 schools that we have now, there was no way that you could have done that individually back then.”
The event is a one-of-a-kind chance to save on fees, streamline the application process to fouryear schools, and network, which the instructor says is crucial for a theater career.
This year, Martinez aims to transfer and earn his four-year degree in theater with an emphasis in design, with an eye on big cities like New York, Chicago, and of course, Austin. And once he’s there?
“I want to help out building sets, doing the construction, and behind the scenes in creating a story,” says the technical theater enthusiast.
And while Martinez is understandably nervous about the upcoming auditions, his instructor knows he’ll break a proverbial leg.
“He’s a very dedicated student, and honestly, wherever he ends up, he’s going to be an asset to that program tremendously,” says the pleased professor.
“I have no worries about him making it in this industry.”
Story Courtesy South Texas College