Finding the Drama: Backstage with Jordan O'Donnell

Seventeen-year-old Jordan O'Donnell knows where to find the drama—at least, the drama that relates to the theatre. During play rehearsals at her high school, Jordan can be found backstage, ensuring every detail is in place for a smooth performance.

Jordan, who is also an active member of her school's Gay Straight Alliance and Social Justice League, first stood on her school's stage in the fifth grade, when she played a small part in The Jungle Book. Even though she had a role as a performer, she said she remembers noticing technical details.

“The other kids weren't talking loud enough for the [technical crew] to hear them, and they were missing their light cues!” The very next year, she decided to go behind the scenes to help with the technical piece of theater.

No sooner had she gotten comfortable working on the light crew for the next two plays, however, than she was called on to save the day as an actress. Two weeks before the opening night of a play called Alien Cosmic Nightingale, one of the lead actors backed out of the show. Since Jordan had been at all the rehearsals and knew all the lines, she knew she had no choice but to put on the alien costume.

“They made us wear cone heads held onto our heads with this stuff called spirit gum,” she laughs. After that performance, however, Jordan was ready to return behind the scenes, where she says she belongs. Each year she has increased her responsibilities, and this year she is the lead stage manager of the production of The Government Inspector. Her duties include keeping track of actors' blocking (as in, where they need to be on the stage), making lots of copies, collecting microphone equipment, calling light cues, and assisting actors with their lines.

 A good stage manager also needs to be ready to fix any surprise predicaments. Jordan remembers last year, during the final production of Little Shop of Horrors, when the flower shop began to collapse. Jordan knew she had to act fast.

“We had to get all the tech people backstage, holding the shop up so it wouldn't fall on the actors. They basically fixed it with duct tape.”

Jordan's non-theater family includes her two moms, her older brother, two dogs, and two cats. Jordan says her parents like her to experience lots of different things, even outside of school and theater, so they've traveled to many parts of the country.

One of Jordan's favorite visits is her annual trip to Concordia Language Village's Spanish Camp, where she attends eight weeks of intensive Spanish language instruction. She especially remembers a class about Colombia, where they learned traditional dances and dishes from the country. Another highlight was a class taught by an Argentinean who hopes to open a restaurant someday, who shared his cooking skills and recipes with the students. Jordan may continue to travel to the Language Village every summer, even after she's done being a learner.

“I'd love to be a counselor some day,” she says. She's made some lasting friends at camp too. Some of them even came to see The Government Inspector.

Jordan isn't sure if she wants to pursue theater in college, but she says it's a possibility. Right now, she knows it's where she wants to be.

“It's all so much fun. The tech people and the actors all get along. We're like a big, happy family.”