Wybron Helps Student Theatre In Need

In February of 2007, Buffalo-based Trinity Catholic Academy's main water pipes broke and flooded the entire school. Everything in this pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school had to be thrown out.

Trinity's insurance policy covered almost everything in the school but nothing in its performance space. Following the disaster, the dean had a request for the school’s volunteer lighting director, Jim Missall: "Get me lights for our kids!"

A little later, Missall was cleaning up Trinity's stage when he heard the student choir performing a cappella. "These kids really inspired me to do the best I could to help them get the school's theater back up and running," said Missall.

Faced with such overwhelming damage, Missall decided to reach out to the lighting community, sending e-mails to many different equipment manufacturers.

Wybron, ETC, and Silvania responded to the call.

Wybron donated three Nexera profiles, five 4-inch Forerunners, and all necessary gelstrings – plus all the cable necessary to hook everything together.

"These manufacturers helped us out far more than we ever expected," Missall said.

Ever since Missall started volunteering at the school, he's had to borrow or rent lights.

"You can just imagine the wow factor these donations had on us all," said Missall. "Even the Lancaster Opera House, a professional theater here in Buffalo, doesn't have as many first-rate new fixtures as our school has now."

Trinity is a unique school in western New York. It promotes academic excellence while nurturing its students' artistic interests. Its curriculum prepares students to go on to performing arts high schools and colleges as well as careers in the theater. To secure acceptance at the local performing arts high school, students pursuing this path must maintain an A average, test well in music performance and writing, and learn how to install theater fixtures, create costumes and scenery, and perform in Trinity's productions.

Missall has been volunteering for the school for about five years now.

"I started working with Trinity right after I attended one of my own kid's performances. During that production, I noticed the students had created a spotlight out of a porch light covered by cellophane paper," Missall remembered. "Well, of course, the plastic started to melt and the room got pretty smoky. Since I took a lot of technical theater courses in college, I knew I could jump in to help the students learn how to rig and operate real entertainment lights for their productions and improve the performance space."

Trinity teaches its students that the best way to learn about the performing arts is to participate in all aspects of the theater. The school puts the students in charge of their own productions and encourages them to create their own set designs, lightin,g and sound.

"We are trying to prepare them for the performing arts academy in Buffalo and beyond," added Missall. "The principal is extremely involved and expectations are quite high for our students."

Following the disaster, Trinity partnered with St. Bonaventure University of Olean, NY, a liberal arts college with a strong performing arts program. Graduate students from St. Bonaventure worked with Missall and the students to install all of the new lighting fixtures donated from Wybron, ETC, and Sylvania.

"The beautiful thing about having the new Nexeras lighting the stage is that the students can learn to transition the colors in the scene," Missall said.