The slate kitchen countertops, hard wood floors and cherry wood cabinets in Kurt Thoma’s Ypsilanti home reveal something of the Hill Auditorium house technician.
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Thoma, who sometimes runs sound and lights at Rackham Auditorium, the Power Center for the Performing Arts and other University venues, appreciates quality. This translates to his day job, where he works to get sound and lighting right for hundreds of concert or lecture-goers.
“I can stand here and whisper and someone listening in the back row can understand what I’m saying,” Thoma says, strolling along the hardwood stage of the Hill Auditorium, dedicated in 1913. “This was built before they had mass public address systems. I appreciate what they did and how they did it.”
Thoma’s road to U-M started when he was in high school in Monroe, where he began performing in school plays. After his family moved to Roscommon, his theater experience included stage production. Thoma established the Acting Up Theatre Company in Grayling to present children’s plays.
“Whenever you start something you have to learn every aspect. Someone says, ‘Hey, can you help us with this?’ and it goes from there.”
Thoma’s growing technical knowledge brought him to the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts and Northwood University in Texas, which led to a job as technical director with Three Men and a Tenor, a vocal touring group. Thoma, who has studied theater production at Kirtland Community College and Eastern Michigan University, started work as house technician at U-M in 2002.
“You’re working with people, creating something that wasn’t there before, something people maybe haven’t thought about as possibilities,” Thoma says.
He recalls the time before a Three Men and a Tenor show when a spectacular sunset unfolded. Inspired, Thoma tried to recreate the color and feel as he prepared the stage lights for the evening show. People noticed and remarked on the similarity. “It’s moments like that that are kind of fun,” Thoma says.
Of the celebrities Thoma has met through work, he was most excited to meet Maya Angelou.
Thoma recalled an incident at Hill Auditorium when the prize-winning poet’s microphone stand kept slipping down, which made it hard for some to hear. “I came up and adjusted the microphone stand and she thanked me by name. As I left the stage she said, ‘That took courage.'”
Yo Yo Ma was fun to work with, he says. “When he’s backstage and no one can hear, he likes to make up ridiculous sponsors; he was telling jokes and is very easygoing,” Thoma says. “He did three encores and between each encore was just bouncing like a schoolboy.”
Through his stage work, Thoma has gotten a close up look at Richard Gere, Bobby McFerrin and other well-known performers, and has traveled the United States and Europe. He has a striking memory of German villages. “There was respect for great workmanship and the artisans who created great artwork and buildings hundreds of years ago,” Thoma says. “They were well maintained inside-and-out and everything is done with care.”
On Holmes Road just down a ways from the landmark Chick Inn, Thoma and fiancé Janine Woods — she is technical director for the Performance Network — have been working to renovate a fixer-upper home. They’re also helping to rehab his family’s 1876 centennial farm near Monroe, where the couple will hold their wedding.
Thoma says the most gratifying thing about his job is creating memories for groups who use Hill for a performance or public presentation.
“When they walk in their eyes are wide open and their jaws drop,” Thoma says. “They’re amazed they get to perform here. We work through the day to make an amazing performance they’ll remember the rest of their lives.”
The weekly Spotlight features staff members at the University. To nominate a candidate, please contact the Record staff at [email protected].
