Jackson Garcia

Lead of Set Design/Construction and Rigging at Capistrano Valley High School

About Me

Hi, I am Jackson Garcia. I am a senior at CVHS and have been working in their theatre program doing construction and set design for four years. I have been a part of ten productions that my school has put on, and have been the lead of set design for seven of them. I've always been interested in the art and hard work that happens behind the scenes, specifically all of the technical aspects of theatrical art that truly bring a production to life.

The Play That Goes Wrong

CVHS Fall 2022

What needs to go wrong? Everything. The Play That Goes Wrong has to go wrong for every show. Building a set that needs to fall apart every night, but that also needs to be rebuilt for multiple shows was no easy task. Being such a technical heavy show as The Play That Goes Wrong, the design and construction involved a lot of trial and error. Testing whether a door could become completely unhinged in an instant, rotating an entire bookcase, or creating an entire set built to fail, the production was a test of not only our construction team but for myself as a leader. Learning more every day about how to communicate and be an effective role model so that I could push my crew to the best of its abilities helped my team and I construct a show we were truly proud of and one that would marvel the audience.  

Attention to Detail 

    Because the play consists of constant gags and a set that falls apart on cue, there were many things that we needed to engineer into the construction of the set. During the show, a mantlepiece needed to fall (top left.) It was completed by using convenient hand holes in the wall and two handles for a running crew member to hold onto. And on cue, they let go of the mantle and it would fall.  Some elements needed more precise details, such as the door hinges (bottom left), because the ensemble running crew needed to take the door off as fast as possible, the original door hinges were removed and replaced with 3-inch screws that could easily be popped out.  

Learning New Skills

This show involved many new technical elements that I had never worked with before, such as piano hinges for the falling walls and an angle grinder to slice them to size (pictured.) I also learned how to be a better leader, making sure to take input from the members of my crew and giving them the freedom they needed, while also making sure we were a productive workforce and that we weren't getting too off-topic. Throughout this play, I definitely grew as a person and the skills I learned, physically and mentally, truly helped in the success of this production.       

Behind the Scenes

 What's more difficult than building something to fail is building something so that it can be safe and functional but also fail. After some trial and error, my crew and I decided that, in order to keep the walls safe and sturdy for almost all of the play, the walls would be secured with hook and eye pins that are held taught and at tension. In addition to that, the large header pieces above the walls themselves needed to be safely secured. My solution to this was to attach both the anchored frame on the bottom and the header frame to a strong wooden beam and attach them both, binding them together.

CETA Theatre Festival Winner

Building the entire set was no easy feat in just about three months, but leading the construction of the entire set in just 5 hours was even more of a challenge. Because The Play That Goes Wrong won Best Production in our specific district, we were given the opportunity to take it on the road and perform for 1500 high school theatre students at the CETA Theatre Festival. My crew and I had to wake up at 4:00 am to build the entire set again for a curtain call at 10:00 am. Leading the build was a big learning experience for me, high pressure and so many moving parts meant that I had to oversee everything at once- making sure walls were in the right spot and that everything was structurally sound. It was a test of my own abilities as well as my hardworking crew, and we were able to put on a show that propelled us to win Audience Favorite of the weekend out of the three other straight-play productions. The whole experience was a mix of excitement and stress, but in the end, it turned out to be a huge success for everyone involved. 

Puffs

CVHS Fall 2021

My first production coming back from the Covid-19 shutdown was Puffs. This Harry Potter spin-off story was a warm welcome back into the theatre where I started my set design career. Though it was not a construction-heavy show, we still gave it our all where we were able to. Adding a brick facade and coloring the doors to match the color of the houses. This was my first chance to lead a crew inside of a theatre, and with a larger team, it gave me a new challenge to learn how to better lead our group to success.

Urinetown

CVHS Spring 2021

Urinetown was the first large-scale production that I was put on as the lead of set design, which in itself offered a large array of new things, but with it also being an outdoor musical due to the Covid-19 restrictions, nobody was able to teach us on how things are usually done, the whole production was a lot of "new". Not being able to store anything outdoors meant that we had to move everything inside every night after a crew or rehearsal day, this led to a lot of lifting and moving. This show let me start to open my mind to set design and all of the creative things I was able to do, such as the waterfall-inspired platform design (top right.) Though we were restrained on what we could do, due to the pandemic, I was still able to learn what it's really like to lead, problem-solve, and come up with solutions because of the unique circumstances.     

Clue

CVHS Fall 2019

The first straight play that I was able to work on was Clue. The set for this play was designed by the crew-head at the time. It involved a large turntable that spun around to reveal other rooms in the large manor.  Because I was a freshman and new to the program, my peers and I were put on constructing door frames for the set. This production was so impressive that it won CETA for our district, and I was lucky enough to go with the production and build it in 4 hours, similar to The Play That Goes Wrong. I've been lucky enough to work on two award-winning shows in my high school theatre career. This show made me feel like I could truly be a part of this program and that I could achieve something, which is why I stayed in that program throughout my high school years. 

List of Achievements: