All the World's a Stage from the Lighting Booth Cindy Hong

An electric current of energy surges through my veins. I want to jump or scream, but all I can do is move my index finger an single inch along the sliding button. The house lights dim as my finger slides the lever downwards. From the lighting booth, I look down on the rapt audience and the stage, humming with anticipatory energy. The show has begun.

Running the lighting booth in my role as Technical Director is the final stop in my high school involvement with technical theater. On this, the closing night of our spring musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, I chuckle to myself over the ridiculousness of the situation. A shy, physically small girl with the power to control a show at the touch of a button. But then again, this seemingly diminutive person has a fiery passion inside - a blend of artistic creativity and leadership skills that enable her to add to the show without taking even a single step onto the stage.

My love affair with theater began at age ten, in the warm embrace of Boston's Wayne Theater. The show was Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera. Not only was I enchanted by the haunting music, melodic lyrics, and suspenseful plot, but the mood created onstage transported me to the labyrinthian world of...