Matt Carr

I never saw myself as a theatre kid, but I’ve come to love it all, the smell of fresh cut wood for the sets, the blinding intensity of the stage lights. The proud feeling of saying, “See that? I did that.” I thank one man for those feelings, Matt Carr, the theatre director.
Matt is the theatre tech director, his job is to oversee all of the activities that take place in the space. He also is the head set builder for the drama department, which is daunting. One of the most important things that Matt does is teach, however. Teaching in stage crew is 95% hands on -- there are very rare times where we are not rearranging the shop, moving set pieces, or hanging lights, which keeps people interested for longer amounts of time.
Matt is able to do something amazing -- he teaches in a way that makes learning fun. There’s no homework and definitely no grades. Matt has amazing skills, the most impressive the ability to motivate with great ease. Personally, without the push of Matt, I never would have managed the final Broadway show of this year.
He brings the fun into the task at hand -- maybe more fun than it should be. I remember vividly the time while cleaning the shop, Matt came across some rope that was close to the thickness of a golden dollar. So, being the fun guy that he is, Matt decided we should play tug of war. First it was one on one. Now, Matt is a bigger guy, he served in the military, so not only is he combat ready, he’s also hard to pull across the line. But I managed, across he went, tumbling over the line, my hands up in victory, his head down in defeat. Not a great use of time, but it was able to re-energize the crew so other tasks could be finished faster.
Personally, I don’t talk to my educators about personal issues. However, Matt is one that I do. He is easy to connect with and gives advice whenever possible. If you need to talk out an issue, he can help and will try his best to resolve it. Not only is he putting others before himself, but he is also making sure there is a mentally stable group of students behind him. So when a crew member is having a difficult home life, or just gone through a rough breakup, he offers as much input as he can.
When it comes down to it, Matt knows what he’s doing, and can make the people involved genuinely interested in what he is teaching. For instance, when it is lighting day and he has to make his speech about safety cables and the proper way to hang a fixture in a way that it will not come crashing down on the actors below. Most people would think Oh great, another safety speech but as soon as he starts talking, we know there’s more to learn. And the fact that he makes it easy to learn is astonishing. Who knew learning about something as simple as plugging and unplugging fixtures could be fun?
I am nominating Matt Carr for educator of the year for both the amazing skills he has and his ability  to teach those who are willing to learn. He is able to make learning the ins and outs of theatre interesting, and beneficial for everyone, even if the endgame is not theatre full time. Matt goes above and beyond staff and students’ expectations, both in the way he teaches and is able to quickly solve any problems that occur.