Technical director's work in spotlight at COD theater
While Michael Moon says he's never longed to be in the spotlight, his work is always center stage.
That's because Moon is the technical director of College of DuPage's theater. And his latest work is on display in Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's current production of Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom's stage version of "Tuesdays With Morrie."
Moon was responsible for designing both the set and the lighting for that production - a challenge considering the show's episodic structure.
"Tuesdays With Morrie," following the structure of Albom's best-selling book, revolves around the weekly visits the author made to an old professor in the twilight of his life. In the process, both men learn valuable lessons about friendship and life.
"The play consists of so many scenes and so many monologues, in a variety of locations: Morrie's study, his bedroom, his office at the college where he taught," Moon explains. "You have to decide how you are going to represent these locations."
Moon and company decided it was better to create a design that evoked the feeling of the location, as opposed to detailed sets of each place.
"Because I am also the lighting designer I can control what the lighting looks like," he says, adding that is a luxury most set designers do not have.
Moon's love of theater dates back to high school in North Carolina. He was 14 when he worked his first show, and then went on to major in scenic design at the University of North Carolina.
"From an early age I had been an artist, drawing and painting," Moon says. "I realized this was a way to do art and get a regular wage."
Even before he graduated he was doing professional work, taking care of props and designing sets.
But after more than a decade of living the vagabond life, moving from show to show, theater to theater, Moon was ready to settle down and raise a family. So he gave it all up and used his extensive training as a draftsman to land a job at an engineering firm in Chicago.
He moved his wife here, started a family and then, as fate would have it, was laid off in the early 1990s.
Suddenly unemployed, he was scanning the newspaper want ads one day when he saw a notice for a props designer at the College of DuPage. He sent in his resume. The next thing he knew, he was back in the theater.
That was 1993. Two years later, he was made the technical director, in charge of the artists responsible for the backstage part of the theater - everything from sound and lighting design to the day-to-day running of shows.
Moon is coming up on his 20th year working at the College of DuPage. Does he now wish he was the person standing front and center, getting the applause?
Nope.
"I have never had a real desire to be onstage," he says.
Moon is the kind of guy who would rather run the spotlight than stand in it.
“Tuesdays With Morrie”
Location: Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, (630) 942-4000 or
Showtimes: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Sunday, May 27
Tickets: $25-$33