Alumna Takes Her Passion for Theatre to Longwood Gardens

As senior performing arts technician for Internal and Rental Events at Longwood, Sarah wears many hats. She handles technical needs and serves as performing arts liaison for plays and concerts at Longwood’s Open Air Theatre. She manages corporate rentals in the garden’s Conservatory. She serves as Longwood’s master electrician and maintains, runs, and helps to design the Illuminated Fountain Shows that are one of Longwood’s main attractions.

Sarah’s skills and interest in theatre go back to her time working with the SRTC stage crew. Though she loved the experiences, she didn’t know when she entered college that they might turn into a career. “I stuck with chemistry for a few months before I realized that I couldn’t sit in a lab for the rest of my life and thought I would give theatre a go,” she said.

“I felt like these experiences definitely helped me initially when I first started at Longwood, but they also created a great base for me as I’ve grown in the company as a technician and a leader.”

Sometimes Sarah even sees familiar faces from her early days backstage. This summer, she collaborated with Sanford Performing Arts Department Chair Clint Williams and fellow alumna Maddy Gondek ‘10, who were both part of the Brandywiners production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast held at Longwood.

“Working with Sarah this summer was wonderful as she was incredibly professional and so accommodating,” said Clint. “Flexible, friendly, and ready to help out wherever needed, I was in awe of her ability to handle everything that came her way. I'm so proud I was able to call her a colleague this summer.”

Sarah says that Clint takes credit for sparking some of her interest while she was on stage crew at Sanford. “I know Clint prides himself on being the one who got me into pyrotechnics because I did that for Into the Woods,” she said. Clearly, it worked, because Sarah ran one of Longwood’s fireworks shows this past summer. “To know that you are the one that makes everything go is so cool!”

Sarah’s job is so enviable that even the famous musicians who perform at Longwood want to take a stab at it. “Yo-Yo Ma was really cool,” she said of the world-famous cellist’s visit to the gardens. “He jokingly asked me if we could trade places and I go out and play the cello and he stay backstage and do tech.”

There’s still time to catch the restored Longwood Gardens Fountains, and appreciate the hard work of a Sanford alum, before the end of October. More information is available at https://longwoodgardens.org/. Best wishes to Sarah on many more successful seasons at Longwood!