By Jeffrey Levine
Some children dream about becoming astronauts or musicians or teachers or doctors, but John Rickus didn’t happen to be one of those kinds of kids.
“Probably the earliest memory I have of an interest in stage was back in third of fourth grade,” Rickus reflected. “I was in the auditorium watching a musical concert being put on by the school and the chorus was singing a song about rainbows. Then as they were singing, the stage lights began to turn different colors. It’s a relatively simple effect but as a young child I was enthralled to see the different combinations of lighting. It was so interesting that they could match what they were singing about with what was onstage. Lucky for me, the person doing the lighting was a neighbor of mine in high school and I was able to speak with him and get a tour of the booth.”
Call it love at first sight, but that performance was a seminal moment in young John’s life. The son of a Lutheran Minister, John’s family moved to Buffalo from Missouri in 1976 and once here, John had a chance to work on his high school’s stage crew as well as join the AV club. When it came time for college, it was no surprise that the boy who took apart all of the electronics in the house - even though he admitted he never got that good at putting them back together – chose to pursue a degree at Valparaiso in communications with a major in Television Theatre Arts. It was a choice, however, that would soon get overshadowed by live performance.
“To me, television and film always felt fractured,” Rickus explained. “You never really have a feeling of continuity in television and as a worker you never felt like you were part of the whole production so to speak. If you’re going to work in that industry you have to be okay with not knowing what the final product will be. You just do your job that day, which is probably fine for a lot of people. But over the course of a college career I definitely developed a real affinity for the liveness of theatre. Having things happen in real time is something I value. It’s all about being involved in events that actually happen in front of a real audience and the collaborative aspect that comes from the experience.”
Taking his show on the road, both literally and metaphorically, John came back to Buffalo after graduation to hone his craft with Indigo Productions full time. Working upwards of 50 to 80 and sometimes even 90 hours a week, the years of loading, unloading, setup and breakdown began to wear on John, prompting his transition to one established venue.
“I’m not saying that as I got older I wussed out but I got tired of working outside in the cold,” Rickus explained. “Coming to the Center was a big change but it was appealing to come to the same venue and not have to build it from scratch everyday. The people there at the time were also a big draw. It seemed like a really good collaborative team that I could fit into and it still feels that way.”
Having earned his stripes at Indigo, John translated his first opportunity at the Center, a temporary position filling in for someone on leave, into a full time gig. Working his way up through the ranks with hard work, unflagging dedication, and creative troubleshooting, John was promoted to head carpenter and now manages the collaborative team that he had always wanted to be a part of.
“The title of head carpenter is a bit of a misnomer because there’s not a lot of carpentry involved in what I do,” Rickus said. Basically, it’s a title that’s been around for a long time and it refers to the person on crew who is the chief for the show going on. What I’m really in charge of is coordinating logistics between departments. In other words, I help figure out when’s the best time for everyone to do what they need to do.”
While there is a very practical side to what John does - keeping everyone on schedule, coordinating setup and breakdown, building his own custom contraptions – philosophically he chooses not to divide the disparate production teams into their own separate entities. Instead, John instills in his crew, about 80 percent of which is comprised of students, to think of all the different elements existing together in what he titles with air quotes as, ‘the show.’ It is this dedication to the whole that brings all of the unnoticed and intangibles of backstage to the audience and the performers.
“As I look back at it, the hours that you work in this business can get really, really long but it’s something that everyone puts up with,” Rickus explained. “We all realize that what we’re doing isn’t necessarily brain surgery which is not to downgrade what we do as artists and designers. If we can help audiences enjoy a performance and if we can make an enjoyable live event for them, then there’s value in that alone.”
