Thomas Vecchione
BFA in Theatre – Scene design/technical production, 2008
vecchionet@leviathan-avc.com
Thomas got into theater while he was a student at King George High School. He says that they had a fantastic theater instructor, but like so many programs, no true technical theater instruction or curriculum in addition to out of date equipment. Thomas says, “I was lucky to play sound effects in that space. The mixer was a rotary knob mic mixer from the 1970’s, 4 channel. Lighting was an old, analog two scene cross fader board with some very basic programming to it.” Although not her area of expertise, Thomas’ drama teacher, Wendi Black, encouraged him and others to get into tech, so students took over tech for shows and got a ton of hands-on experience.
After high school graduation, Thomas supported himself for a few years by working retail and other gigs. He had one computer tech job at Mary Washington and “absolutely hated it.” When his girlfriend (now wife, Laura) applied to VCU, he decided to apply as well. Liz Hopper (Professor Emeritus and alum newsletter contributor) conducted Thomas’ interview for admission to the department. He laughs, “Liz, for some reason, accepted my awful application. I still don’t know why… but I’m not complaining.” Thomas credits Liz, Lou Szari (former Head of Lighting), Ron Keller (former Head of Scene Design), and John Anderson (former sound instructor) as being fantastic faculty.
The first show that Thomas designed was VCU’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile (“Thank god it happened in college because it was a bad design”) and his last was Dracula, both directed by Barry Bell (MFA ’05, former acting faculty). Thomas also co-designed The Civil War musical with fellow student Derek Dumais (BFA ‘06). He recalls an accident during the run, “the power supply blew on the board halfway through one of the shows at intermission.” Thomas and Derek tried to fix it, but there was nothing to be done in the moment. The band and actors had to do the second half of the show acoustically, no amplification. They then had to redesign the show to put on a loaner sound board from University of Richmond for the rest of the run! Derek will actually be coming back this spring as a Guest Sound Designer for our spring musical Disney’s Descendants.
After graduating in 2008, Thomas continued summers at Santa Fe Opera for a few years, freelanced, and started consulting on sound systems. He also worked at Atlee Church, first as a Sound Tech, then as Technical Director. That’s when Ron Keller reached out about teaching for the department in 2010—Thomas has been teaching here ever since. Thomas is now Production Manager at Altria Theater (previously The Mosque or Landmark Theater).
Thomas is excited to see the growing support of sound studies in the department and school of the arts. EJ Cho has been teaching sound design classes for several years now, VCUarts has an interdisciplinary sound design minor, and the department just hired alum Weston Corey (BFA ’16) as a full-time technical position that will focus on lighting and sound. In addition, he’s glad to see talented guest sound designers work with students on mainstages, each with their own unique workflow and perspective (including some alums from years past!).
Compiled by Liz Hopper (professor emeritus), Jerry Williams (BFA ’71), and VCUarts Theatre for the August 2023 Theatre Alumni newsletter