Meghan VonVett’ 03:
Meghan VonVett’ 03:
The Show Must Go On
BY EMMA DEANS
Meghan VonVett’ 03 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center where she serves as Technical Director.
Audience members walk across a marble floor, up a spiral staircase, and settle into red velvet chairs. They stare up at a sparkling chandelier. As the lights cue, the curtain rises and the show begins. The auditorium, which seats 2,586, was originally built as part of New York State’ s cultural participation in the 1964 – 1965 World’ s Fair and formerly housed the New York City Opera and Broadway musical revivals. But tonight the stage is for dancing and a woman behind the curtain readies the performers, ensuring everything is going as planned: Meghan VonVett’ 03.
VonVett is the Technical Director at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, home to the New York City Ballet and host of visiting dance companies. She coordinates all of the logistics that help a performance succeed from start to finish— everything from scheduling groups years in advance, balancing cost-effective budgets, and communicating with truck drivers, to managing stage tech and set crews. She specifically works with touring ballet and modern dance companies like American Ballet Theatre, Russia’ s Bolshoi Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.“ From the moment they arrive through the very last performance, I’ m with them every step of the way,” she said.
VonVett earned a BFA in Stage Management and Production Management from the State University of New York Purchase College in 2007. She then interned on Broadway and worked at New York City Center before moving into her current role at the Lincoln Center. VonVett attributes her love of performances to her roots in Thornton Academy’ s theater program where she was a member of the TA Tech Crew for The Crucible and Hamlet and participated in the One Act Play Festival.
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To anyone interested in pursuing a creative and technical field, VonVett advised,“ explore as many different aspects of your passion as possible... try it all! It provides a different perspective of the industry as a whole” and“ you never know who you might meet” in doing so. She enjoys New York’ s cultural offerings, and attends Broadway shows in her free time, but she still loves and misses spending time in the great outdoors.“ I have fallen in love with the city, but I definitely feel my Maine roots,” she said.