Behind the Scenes with Matt Kizer

Behind the Scenes with Matt Kizer

Emily Holleran
For The Clock
ejholleran@plymouth.edu

Matt Kizer is the scenic and lighting designer for Plymouth State University. He holds a BA in theater from Indiana University– Purdue University Fort Wayne, and an MFA in design from Ohio State University. Kizer has been the head of the design and technology program in the theater program since 1966, and teaches a multitude of classes to PSU students.

The Clock: How would you describe what you do?

Usually, I describe it in terms of anytime you go and see a live performance on stage, and there is scenery and lighting that has to be designed, it is normally produced by a staff of technicians, carpenters, electricians, and different sorts of engineers. My role to them is the same as the architect to a contractor. I draft, do all the AutoCAD work, produce drawings, diagrams of where lights need to be, what color lights, and what lights are controlled by the computer board, stuff like that.

The Clock: And you design the backdrops too?

Yes, that’s kind of a separate thing as well, but I design those. I also do a lot of projection design as well.

The Clock: What or who influenced you to take up this profession?

Oh boy, well that goes back a ways. I’d say in high school, I was very active in theater, and I knew even then, that what I preferred and was best at was everything to do with not performing. I did perform, but I didn’t really think of that as a career.

The Clock: What major did you pursue in college?

I actually got accepted to Purdue as a physics major, and I was very interested in optical physics, among other things. However, one day, I saw some shows in Chicago, some Broadway type productions, and it just finally entered my head that people were making really nice careers out of doing just sets and lights, which was a very attractive thing to think about. So, when I went to register for my first semester at Purdue I switched my major from physics to theater with the intention of just doing what I do now.

The Clock: So, would you say you thought, ‘This is where I’m meant to be’ after switching majors?

Yeah, I mean, I guess there are other things in this world I could do, but this is a pretty cool job.

The Clock: What classes do you teach?

I teach a lot of different classes. My most commonly taught course is Intro to Theatre Design, which all the theater majors take, and it is a little sampling of set design, costume design, lighting design, along with design in general as being problem solving. In addition to that, in the springs I have another core course I teach called Technology for Theatre Professionals, and it’s not about design. It’s more of a career course about using technology and the Internet
to brand ourselves and get our names out there.

The Clock: Since you do so many things, which is your favorite to do?

Well, first of all, there are different hats you wear like the set designer, or the lighting designer, sometimes I’m painting, or designing projections, or working with students. In my pure form of just being a designer, that’s more of my professional work outside PSU in the summertime, the reality is I like the variety. That’s one of the wonderful things about working in the theater. No two shows are the same. You’re working with different budgets, different spaces, different
companies; it just varies all over the place.

The Clock: During the summertime you work for other performance companies?

Yes, I’m a regular designer up at Jean’s Playhouse up in Lincoln. Sometimes I do other things as well, I’ve worked in Europe different times, there’s a company in Alabama that hires me sometimes to work for them, and there’s different companies here like Barnstormers Playhouse so there is always stuff to do.

Set Matt Kizer helped put together for "Jean's Playhouse"

COURTESY PHOTO/FACEBOOK/MATT KIZER