Children of Eden was the very first play I ever worked on in high school. With the exception of Once Upon a Lily Pad, it was the first real play I ever participated in. Sure, I took a few acting classes at the Artschool, some of which had performances, but those were mostly developed from improvisation, and of a relatively anemic quality.

Children of Eden was different. It was a musical--a huge musical for a big stage. It premiered in London's West End, and has still never been produced on Broadway. At Hanes Theatre, though, it was good.

I was one of four Follow Spotlight Operators. The others were all juniors; I was the lone freshman. Children of Eden probably changed me more than any play ever has before or since. It was my initiation as a techie. After Children of Eden, I was of a coarser breed. I was also addicted to the theatre.

The intoxicating part of theatre is difficult to put down. The headset is certainly intoxicating, but so is the hands-on nature and the teamwork and the stress and action and pace of it all. All of these came together in my first theatrical experience.

The play itself was probably one of the best I've ever worked on. The music is incredible, the casting was dead on, and everything felt real. Jesse Darden and Aurora Marra, especially, amazed me with their vocal power. The story was based on the first seven chapters of the book of Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, which I, of course, have never read. I was familiar with the stories, however; who isn't? Adam and Eve get kicked out of the garden of Eden, Cain slays Abel, and Noah takes a bunch of animals and his family on a boat while it rains a lot. Stephen Schwartz makes it all quite secular and extremely powerful. It was one of my parent's favorite Hanes Theatre plays ever.

Of course, the coolest technical part of the play was the pyro. The charge was placed at the beginning of every performance right under the floor. Our pyrotechnician, Ellie, flipped two switches (ike nuclear launch keys, both switches had to be toggled in order to close the circuit and ignite the charge) underneath the center platform at precisely the right instant, sending an extremely bright orange flame eight feet into the air for a brief fraction of a second. The flame startled the audience and was extremely effective. So far in my high school career, Children of Eden has been the only time that we've used pyrotechnics.

As a followspot operator, I learned from the best. One seasoned techie warned me that using the spotlight while stoned was inadvisable due to reduced stability. The general use of the instrument is fairly straightforward; a novice quickly absorbs the use of lamp, fan, damper, shutters, iris, and color insertion levers. However, mastery of the device takes a steady hand and a finesse that few develop.

Since the four of us on follow spotlights were all male, the headset conversation was of a coarser and more lewd nature than might otherwise be observed. This was only exacerbated by our female boss, to her chagrin. Of course, I was an innocent FNG, so I just turned off my microphone and did my job.

And I loved it. Even though my immediate superior was difficult to work with, I had the time of my life as a Children of Eden crew member. And a seed was planted.