Alumni Story

Give yourself the opportunity to explore different avenues and find out what you do and don’t like because you don’t really know until you try.”

Zac was in second grade when he was cast in his first show at Piedmont Players Theatre in Salisbury, sparking his love for theatre. Growing up in Salisbury, Catawba College was well-known to Zac. It had always been part of his life. His mom was a Catawba grad, his dad attended Catawba; his parents met at Catawba.

When it came time for Zac to consider college, initially he didn’t pursue theater or Catawba, at first he attended another college for a year and a half. Then, after working in construction and building mobile homes, he realized that was not what he wanted to do and reevaluated his path. With his interest in theatre in mind, he knew he wanted to apply his skillset in construction to designing and building sets, fabricating scenery, and working with lighting, sound and the technical elements that bring performances to life. At age 25, he returned to college, this time at Catawba as an online student while he sought to build his GPA, preparing to transition to on-campus classes.

Zac is very appreciative of Catawba theater arts professor Beth Homan, who was his advisor. She was encouraging, reminding him that he was capable as he dealt with school as well as life’s challenges. “Being a returning student is hard,” he notes. “The whole department was supportive.”  He was onstage for one show freshman year and worked on eight or nine shows behind the scenes. “Those are the best memories, all of us in there trying to get it done, late nights and sometimes early mornings.”

While studying at Catawba, Zac worked at Lee Street Theatre in Salisbury, as master carpenter, then as assistant technical director. When he left Lee Street, he worked the summers of 2024 and 2025 as technical director for the Charlottesville Opera in Virginia. Zac feels that the practical experience bolstered and helped solidify his education.

Zac returned home after working for the Opera for the summer of 2025 and was looking for jobs when he saw the assistant technical director position at the University of Virginia (UVA). It seemed like the perfect fit. He got the job. In mid-November, Zac hit the ground running at UVA, preparing for dance shows as well as a large upcoming show in the spring. “We have a big support staff, so the load is less on me than it typically would be in a theatre environment. We also do the Virginia Theatre Festival in summer.” Zac is looking forward to that. He is in a dual role as assistant technical director for the Virginia Theater Festival as well as for UVA. “It’s a premier theatre festival. We do three shows in summer, bringing in professionals from out of state and around Charlottesville.”

With several performance venues at UVA, there are productions going on all the time.  Zac is getting acclimated to all of it. At UVA, he knows his schedule far enough ahead that he feels he can have a personal life, which allows him time to follow his sports teams, play golf and basketball, go hiking, and enjoy time with his girlfriend, his two dogs and cat.  Having that balance is helpful, Zac explains. “Theater is a 100% all-or-nothing career. You are either all invested or it will eat you alive.”

As assistant technical director, he is involved in budgeting, determining the cost of building sets, and choosing the path forward. He handles shop maintenance, and individualized training with work-study and other students, including teaching welding and carpentry. Zac is pleased to be learning new skills too. “I consider myself a lifelong learner anyway. Any opportunity that I get to continue growing is always going to be a big thing for me.”

He is enjoying his colleagues and the larger scale of the theater department at UVA. “The people I work with are great. We have a myriad of specialists on staff: sound, lighting, two costumers, and a props person. There are also eight to ten faculty members. They are all people to lean on if something comes up and it’s not your area of expertise.”

He urges theatre majors to get hands-on experience with the equipment, working on shows, and how things work. In technical directing, Zac explains it is important to have understanding “of what kind of problems can arise and how to troubleshoot those problems when they do arise. The only way you can do that is through experience.”

While at Catawba, Zac was scenic designer for all but one of the Blue Masque shows. He worked with a different director and group of students for each show. “That helps me understand how to communicate with people and talk through problems that might come up, based on what they want for their show. I tell people all the time, in my line of work, safety is the number one thing. Maintaining safety protocols, make sure everything in the shop and onstage is safe as it can possibly be.” 

“Take advantage of the opportunities at Catawba,” Zac encourages. Going to the Southeastern Theater Conference (SETC) with Catawba’s theater department, he met the director of the Charlottesville Opera, opening the door to the summer job there. That is also how he learned about the job at UVA. “Some students feel like going to SETC is a long trip, they don’t want to do that. But give yourself the opportunity to explore different avenues and find out what you do and don’t like because you don’t really know until you try.”

“One of the biggest benefits you get from the Catawba theater program is well-roundedness. That comes from the top down, the professors wanting us to explore and try things in a controlled environment.  Learn what you do and don’t like. Gaining a multitude of experiences was the big thing that I took away from Catawba. It opened so many doors for me.”