Ray Ward (They/Them)
About Me
I am a technician with 8 years of experience working in technical theatre in various forms. In May of 2023 I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design and Technical Production from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC.
I have worked with North Carolina Theatre Conservatory (2017). Additionally, I spent two summers working as an ASM and Lighting Designer for Carolina Academy for the Performing Arts (CAPA) and have worked with Porthouse Theatre as a dresser. I worked on 11 productions with UNCG, working in various roles throughout. I have worked with Music Theatre Wichita as their Asst. Production Manager for their show Rock of Ages. From 2023 - 2024 I was the Lighting & Sound Apprentice for Actor’s Express in Atlanta.
Currently, I am based in Naples, FL as the Full-Time Electrician for Gulfshore Playhouse.
Back to home
Fall 2021
Role: Asst. Stage Manager
UNCG Theatre
Flora & Ulysses
Director: John Perine Stage Manager: Texas Singleton
Costume Designer: Brianca Robinson Set Designer: Annabelle Leibering
Photography: Becky VanderVeen
Flora & Ulysses is the tale of a young girl, named Flora who encounters a squirrel one day, and promptly sees her neighbor running him over with a vacuum. However, rather than what you would expect, the vacuum has given Ulysses the ability to fly, and has gained sentience far above squirrel average. Flora and Ulysses quickly become friends, as Ulysses is just like the superhero's Flora reads about in her comic books (see Fridge photo). Together the two go on an epic adventure, and discover many secrets along the way.
Flora & Ulysses is a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) production.
I worked on Flora & Ulysses as their 2nd ASM, and I ran Stage Left during the run of the show. I handled the paperwork for the tracking of the Puppets Ulysses and *insert Cat name here* and handled the Props and Costume tracking for the production. I was originally only supposed to handle the costume tracking, and the props tracking was to be handled by our 3rd ASM, however between Covid and personal emergencies, was not able to be present during the rehearsal process enough to do complete tracking.
Back to home
Fall 2021
Role: Asst. Stage Manager
UNCG Theatre
Tracking Paperwork
Prop Tracking
Puppet Tracking
Back to home
Spring 2023
Lighting Designer
UNCG Theatre
Roe
Director: Kristy Dodson
Stage Manager: Alex Oaks
Costume Designer: Taylor Gantt Scenic Designer: Caitlyn Baldwin Sound Designer: Keenan Harmon
Photography: Becky VanderVeen & Ray Ward
*This Portfolio was made for my "Capstone" (Final Production Credit to Graduate) reflection, It contains an overview of my Design Process for Roe.
Please pause to read at certain points, as I did have to speed up some areas in order to get my timings right as the video is many items layered over one another.
Roe (written by Lisa Loomer) is a docudrama yet not a docudrama. The show balances telling the story of the two women behind the infamous and (now overturned, which made this show even more relevant) that tells the Roe. v. Wade court case. It follows Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued Roe. v. Wade and Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe for which the case was named for.
Back to home
Summer 2024
Role: Lighting & Sound Designer
Actor’s Express
The Cycle Breakers
Director: Aliciona Strothers & Connor Maguire
Stage Manager: Katie Hurst
Costume Designer: Mary Gaines Set Designer: Ramey Ward
Photography: Olivia Hackney
The Cycle Breakers is an original play written by Atlanta playwright Kira Rockwell. She crafted the play over a period of 6 months for the showcase that happens annually for each Actor’s Express Apprentice class. The Cycle Breakers is a piece that follows three siblings, one of which who has passed away and is attempting to cleanse the afterlife of a “dark cyclone” that is about to trap him for eternity, and he needs his living siblings to assist him in cleansing the dark cyclone.
This show was very heavy on both lighting and sound elements, and I spent a lot of time conversing with the directors on how they wanted the “cyclone” to appear, as well as the direction of the sound design was what they wanted. I used howling wind and storm sound effects for the cyclone, as well as light effects that flashed or gave movement to the lights. I made an effort to not go overboard, as the cyclone itself did have choreography I didn’t want to take away from. I had 85 light cues for this hour long show, and 52 sound cues for this show.
Furthermore, for this showcase, I had to use the light plot for AE’s main show that was running at the time, Cabaret. With that, I faced the unique challenge of lighting a show with a plot not meant for that show. Additionally, it was my first time lighting a show in an Alley configuration. Despite those challenges, I am proud of my design.
Back to home
Winter 2024
Roles: Asst. Lighting Designer & Light Board Op
Actor’s Express
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Director: Freddie Ashley
Scene Designer: Jonathan Nooner,
Lighting Designer: D. Connor McVey
Costume Designer: April Carswell
Photography: Casey Gardner Ford
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a fun and heartwarming musical about a 16 year old named Jamie New, who wants to be a drag queen. Follow Jamie as he navigates school, friendship, family struggles and the adventure that is being a drag queen in Sheffield.
I really enjoyed working on this show, the music was fun, the cast was great, and the Electrics team I worked on were all incredibly kind and talented people.
For this show, I assisted with Hang and Load-In at the Conant Theatre at Oglethorpe University, who Actor’s Express partnered with to put on this production. I worked in their catwalks hanging lights and running cable. I assisted with programming focus palettes for the Lighting Designer, as well as worked on other programming items with the Associate Lighting Designer, Matthew Sand.
I was also Light board Operator for this production. Which included helping the Stage Manager and Lighting Designer troubleshoot the intelligent fixtures when they kept strobing and then wouldn’t turn on 20 minutes after the show was supposed to start. We eventually had to run the show that night without intelligent fixtures.
Back to home
Summer 2024
Role: Asst. Lighting Designer
Actor’s Express
Blues for an Alabama Sky
Director: Amanda Washington
Scene Designer: Seamus Bourne
Lighting Designer: Ben Rawson
Costume Designer: Ricky Greenwell
Photography: Casey Gardner Ford
Blues for an Alabama Sky is a captivating drama that follows the life of 4 individuals living in Harlem, NY in 1930. Life turns upside down for one of them, Angel Allen, when she catches the attention of one Leland Cunningham. A gentle soul from Alabama. Audiences can watch as their love blossoms and tensions clash between the 4 turned 5 individuals in this riveting play written by Pearl Cleage.
This show was such a fantastic learning opportunity for me. On top of assisting with Hang and Focus for this production, I had the opportunity to program and do paperwork for the fantastic Ben Rawson. A seasoned Atlanta Lighting Designer known for his phenomenal work.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Roles: Asst. Lighting Designer & Wardrobe Supervisor
UNCG Theatre
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Director: Mya Brown
Scene Designer: Dani Vanasse,
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lake
Costume Designer: Ketti Shum
Photography: Becky VanderVeen
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare’s classics, and a tale beloved by many a theatregoer.
One of love and magic and Puck's shenanigans causing confusion all throughout a single night. Our version was a condensed version, so it was not 5 hours long and all 5 Acts.
On our first design meeting, our director told us she was inspired by Anime, Yoruba culture, Ancient Greece, and the streets of LA. Which resulted in a Studio Ghibli meets modernized Ancient Greece aesthetic.
As the ALD, I attended design meetings all the way up to working through tech, so I got to watch this beautiful show come to life. I was also the Wardrobe Supervisor on this show, so when dress started, I switched over to backstage on the Wardrobe side of things, which means I was able to know the show quite literally front to back.
I had 16 dressers as Wardrobe Supervisor, with around 50+ costumes, and one multi cast member change at the end of the show.
Whereas I was a part of a 4 person Electrics team, with around 300 fixtures to hang and focus. It was a difficult process, as our catwalks, where many of the fixtures were hung, is not easily manueverable. It requires one to crawl, as well as crawl over or under steel support beams about every 10 feet or so. Suffice it to say I pulled muscles I didn’t even know I had during this process. (It was fun though!)
I also enjoyed learning Lightwrite, and running Focus for a show this large was a large responsibility, but also a fun one.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Roles: Asst. Lighting Designer & Wardrobe Supervisor
UNCG Theatre
Check In/Out Sheet: Wardrobe
Change Tracking: Wardrobe
Tracking Paperwork created in Google Sheets
Back to home
July 2021
Roles: Lighting Designer
& Production Manager
Carolina Acadmey
of Performing Arts
Into the Woods
Director: Melanie Prince
Scene Designer: Laura & Tim Manhardt
Lighting Designer: Ray Ward
Costume Designers: Kaleen Holdaway & Kasey Flowers
Into the Woods was a production I did with Carolina Acadmey of the Performing Arts (CAPA)
I worked in a variety of roles on this production,
My most difficult role was likely that of the lighting designer, because of the ancient system I had to work with. Furthermore, that system only allowed 50 total cues to be created. Which is obviously difficult for a show like Into the Woods. I was also the Sound Designer on the show.
Given the limitation of the system I had to get creative. Originally, I was instructed to only play the cues in order up and down each column, as this kept the lights from flickering oddly, but I couldn’t do that if I wanted more than 50 cues. So I did my best to keep my cues in order, and carefully worked the different cues to keep any odd flickering to a minimum.
I spent many hours with the local expert on the system to make sure I could keep the lights as neat as possible, and also that I wasn’t messing something up in the process. We did end up somewhat revolutionizing the way they used the system going forward, which I thought was cool.
Back to home
July 2020
Role: Stage Manager/Lighting Designer
CAPA
Newsies + Annie
Director: Melanie Prince
Lighting Designer: Ray Ward
Costume Designer: Kaleen Holdaway
Newsies and Annie were the two shows I did with Carolina Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) in July of 2020. We were in a smaller church venue, and Annie was CAPA’s junior show (12 and under) and Newsies was their upper level show (13 - 18).
Officially, I was employed as a jack of all trades intern, whose roles turned into that of Stage Manager and Lighting Designer as the month progressed.
I chose simple Lighting looks for Annie as this was my first Lighting Design and I was still familiarizing myself with the system from 2000.
I went brighter and bolder for Newsies, I actually added two source 4s on a vertical boom on SR and SL to be able to fully light the stage with the entire cast of Newsies.
I also created the playbill for both of these productions. I used Adobe Acrobat, which I had never used prior to this show. So that was a fun learning opportunity.
I took blocking notes and aided the director throughout the rehearsal process as SM.
Back to home
May 2023
Role: Asst. Production Manager
Music Theatre Wichita
Rock of Ages
Director: Eric Sciotto
Scene Designer: Michael E. Downs
Lighting Designer: Bentley Heydt
Costume Designer: Abby Stroot
Projections Designer: Michael Commendatore
Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical full of 80s Rock and Roll classics. Following two teens in Cali who fall in love while trying to get their own big breaks.
This musical was at an outdoor theatre in Wichita, Kansas.
As the Asst. Production Manager I oversaw the assembling of the set along with the Technical Director, as well as sitting in on production meetings and transcribing notes for them.
Below is an example of a report from a Production meeting following a night of Tech for ROA.
Back to home
April 2022
Role: Wardrobe Supervisor
UNCG Theatre
The SpongBob Musical
Director: Erin Speer
Scene Designer: Annabelle Leibering
Lighting Designer: Kelly Sandoval
Costume Designer: Caitlyn Louramore
Photography: Becky VanderVeen
The SpongeBob Musical was an absolute monster of a show to do. I pulled many a 15 hour day during the course of this process trying to sort out the quick changes and paperwork and over 100 costumes that are used in this production. (My change tracking for my dressers was 30 pages long)
One of my favorite antidotes from this show is when Squidward’s “foot” (pictured to the right), the one that’s attached to the back of the actor’s shoe, came off 2 minutes before we were supposed to start the show. I had to act very quickly and drill the shoe back together. I had only had this process demonstrated to me once before, so I was working off of limited knowledge. I informed the stage manager we would have to hold as I needed more than 2 minutes to repair the shoe. Luckily, I was able to quickly, calmly, and safely repair the broken shoe for Squidward, and we only had to hold house for 5 minutes. Plus, as it turned out, we would’ve had to hold for house anyways, as we still had patrons filling in. While it was a stressful moment for me at the time, it is one that fills me with pride as I look back on it.
In this show, there’s a period of about a minute and a half where every single member of the ensemble has to quick change out of their pink robes and back into their costumes. My job was mostly to supervise the entire exchange and jump in where I was needed. One performance, one of my dressers passed out 1 minute before they were supposed to do that QC. I helped the dresser, made sure she had water and went to rest, and then did the change myself. Another tense moment, but the dresser was fine and the change went off without a hitch.
Finally, my most stressful yet most fun moment in the show was when I had a full clothing quick change involving roller skates that was about 45 seconds, Then, as soon as that change ended I had to turn around and complete Squidwards 20 second quick change. It was very nerve-wracking, but I never messed up during any of the performances, and for that I am very thankful. (The outfits in question are pictured with the large Squidward sign)
To the right is a picture I took of me using 4 screens at once to keep up with all of my paperwork for this show.
Back to home
April 2022
Role: Wardrobe Supervisor
UNCG Theatre
Check In/Out Sheet: Wardrobe
Check In/Out Sheet
Change Tracking
Back to home
Spring 2021
Role: Wardrobe Supervisor
UNCG Theatre
MFA One Acts
Hear Our Voices/The World on A Hill
Director: Karen Sabo (Hear Our Voices) & Chris Gilly-Forrer (TWOAH)
Stage Manager: Dawson McHarg
Every semester the MFA Directing students would put on two shows that we dubbed the “MFA One Acts” and in Spring of 2021, those were Hear Our Voices and The World On A Hill. They were simple shows, where the actors wore one costume, and occasionally took off articles of clothing to signify different characters. (For Hear Our Voices, since it was many characters and only 4 actors) but still, those costume pieces were considered props for this show, so my job as Wardrobe Supervisor was still fairly small.
I made check-in and out sheets for my dressers for these shows, and laundry instructions. I unfortunately do not have copies of them as they are still on the communal show drive for my college.
Hear our Voices
The World On A Hill
Back to home
Fall 2022
Role: Wig Artisan
UNCG Theatre
The Wild Party
Director: Jim Wren Stage Manager: Delaney Smith
Costume Designer: Brianca Robinson Set Designer: Randall McMullen
Wig & Makeup Designer: Savannah Willis
Photography: Becky VanderVeen
The Wild Party is a show about a couple in the 1920s who throw a wild party. With alcohol, music and 1920s dancing all thrown together, it’s a high-energy musical with a surprising twist ending.
I was a Wig Artisan for this production. One difficulty we encountered on this production is that not only was there a lot of dancing, there was a lot of jumping, lounging on beds, and rolling around on the floor. We used so much hair gel and hairspray for this production. Those wigs were rock solid in their styles by the time we finished with them.
The top image to the right is a vertical roller set I did. The bottom image on the right is a classic finger wave style I did. I did a number of fingerwaves for this production.
Back to home
Spring 2022
Role: Wig Artisan
UNCG Theatre
Peter and the Starcatcher
Director: Chris Gilly-Forrer Stage Manager: Phebe Pickard
Costume Designer: Karsen Greene Set Designer:
Wig & Makeup Designer: Savannah Willis
Photography: Becky VanderVeen
Peter and the Starcatcher is a the origin story of Peter Pan and his mysterious friend, Molly. Together they encounter bands of pirates and thieves, including the infamous Captain Hook, though he’s just known as “Black Stache” during the play. They also encounter mermaids and fairies and “the lost boys” and band together to save the world from evil.
I worked on Black Stache’s mermaid wig for this play. To the right is my roller set for this wig.
I spent about two weeks working on this wig, as I had to sew in purple wefts into the wig, and steam and style it very thoroughly.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Victorian Hairstyle
Front View
Side View
Reference
For this assignment, we were tasked with styling 1-2 hairpieces and attaching them to a human model,
drawing inspiration from the Victorian era hairpieces. I used large rollers for the bottom hair piece, and large rollers for the piece at the top. This entire styling took me about 5-6 hours from start to finish. Please see the powerpoint for photos of my process from beginning to end. As well as additional reference photos.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Brick-lay Roller Set - 80s Hair
Front View
Side View
Roller Set
For this assignment, we were tasked with doing a basic brick-lay roller set. How we wished to style the wig afterwards was up to us, and given that my wig was a tad unruly, I chose to style it in a 80s Dolly Parton-esque hairdo. I worked hard on the bump and the bangs, and given that this was the first wig I had styled in a number of months, I‘m quite proud of it.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Gibson Up-Do
Front View
Side View
Reference
For this assignment we were tasked with creating a “Gibson Up-do” a classic hairstyle from the late Victorian era. I used larger rollers for the outside of the style, so that I properly place the hair into that “rolled over” style, and used smaller rollers for the curls in the center, so that I could place them together and there would be smaller tighter curls in the back rather than larger, looser curls. I opted for this as I thought it looked more pleasing than the bun in my reference above. This took me about 4 hours.
Dutch Braid
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Handlebar Mustache
Front View
Side View
Mustache on Block
Reference
For this look, I styled a Handlebar mustache using a marcel iron. Then I let the mustache cool on the block with pins to help it keep it’s shape.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Fantasy Ponytail
For this assignment, I was tasked with creating a “fantasy look“ so I decided to try and emulate the high ponytail of a fantasy video game character I admired. This turned out to be a very long and difficult process for me as I did not strucutre the ponytail with anything other than the wig itself (no trash bags, wire or anything) and it took a lot of hairspray, time, steaming and love to reach the second image shown above. I also attempted to do “cosplay spikes“ but those are currently a talent I am still working on, though I have improved since this wig.
Back to home
Fall 2022
Class: Wig Styling with Jehann Gilman
UNCG Theatre
Dutch Braids
Fresh out of the bag
Front View
Side View
For this assignment, I was tasked with creating any kind of braided hairstyle I desired, and since I was proficient in doing fishtail, french, and regular braids, I decided to learn how to dutch braid, which I did not know how to do before this assignment. My professor told me that I had the most even sections of braids she‘d ever seen. If I were to do this assignment again though I would sew in wefts sideways that I then braided in, so that the base of the wig could not be seen. This took me about 2 hours.