In the theater world, it’s not often that someone gets double billing on the coveted playbill title page. But this year, Tuacahn’s Technical Director Brendan Baker will be listed on the Jersey Boys playbill as both technical director and set designer!
Theatrical designers are the creative force driving the look and feel of a production, and usually, these important roles are filled by designers who live across the country and are brought in because of their extensive experience, often on Broadway. Brendan, on the other hand, has never been a set designer before. He also lives locally, working in his office at Tuacahn each day, fulfilling his very important job as Technical Director for all the Broadway musical productions.
So how did he become the set designer for Jersey Boys? Just like any big break, it’s usually a lifetime of small steps that lead up to it. For Brendan, it started back in middle school with his participation in robotics club. “Rather than drawing and artwork, my background is more in imaginative design,” he explains. “In middle school I was a part of the robotics club. We had competitions where there was a problem to solve and you had to envision how big the robot would be, what it would use to move things, and how it could ultimately solve the problem. I did robotics all the way through school and served as a team mentor while in college.”
After studying engineering in college, Brendan worked in fabrication for a time, building everything from boat racks and custom cars to art installations and electronic/mechanical things that took advantage of his robotics knowledge. In 2019, when he came to work in Tuacahn’s set building shop, he had a wealth of building experience, but had only ever seen two theatrical productions! Now, he’s a converted theater fan. “Since I’ve been at Tuacahn, I go to shows whenever I get the chance,” Brendan says. “I love all types of live entertainment.”
For two years Brendan worked on the set construction crew for Tuacahn’s Broadway musicals and was also entrusted with the design and construction of all the robotic components of Maurice’s invention for Beauty and the Beast. After the 2021 season, he took a drafting position with a different company, but it wasn’t long before Tuacahn hired him back, this time in a new role.
“The Assistant Technical Director role is more of a drafting position. It’s making all of the blueprints for the shop to build off. I was thrilled to come back to Tuacahn for this. I love being a part of the shows here, and now instead of hands-on building, I was doing more of the technical part of the design, which I enjoy.”
After only one year, the Technical Director position opened up, and Brendan was a natural fit. While it still requires drafting blueprints for the shop, his position is now one that is largely management. As Technical Director he oversees the departments of Props, Special Effects, and Scenery, making sure they are staffed properly and that they meet budgets and deadlines. As he explains, “I oversee anything anyone stands on, anything they hold, and anything that blows up or makes things very exciting!”
His unique background gives him an additional advantage in the theater world. “I come up with a lot of the technical stuff,” he acknowledges. “We’re going to be getting some amazing new automation this year, so I’m hoping to pioneer that for Tuacahn and see what direction it takes us in.”
His role also has him working directly with the individual designers that Tuacahn brings on for each Broadway production. “I take all of the designs we receive from the creatives and estimate the costs and time requirements for us to pull them off. Then I go back and tell them if they are over or under budget and time constraints. If they’re over, we try to find ways together to simplify, while still keeping the magic intact.”
The idea to try his hand at set design came naturally while participating in discussions about finding the right person to do the job for Jersey Boys. Other set designers had plenty of professional experience designing for Broadway productions, but none had Brendan’s intimate knowledge of the capabilities of Tuacahn’s shop crew and of Tuacahn’s massive Outdoor Amphitheatre stage.
At home, after a long day of work and dinner with his wife and young daughter, Brendan threw on the Jersey Boy ssoundtrack and dove into the research: reading the Jersey Boys script, studying historical photos of locations featured in the musical’s script of 1950s and 1960s New Jersey, and using what had been done before on the smaller Broadway stages as a starting point.
When the time was right, Brendan presented his work to Tuacahn’s artistic team. “I decided it was time to throw my hat in the ring,” he says with a broad smile. “I pulled up the conceptual design sketches I’d done on my iPad, and they absolutely loved them. Next, they had me go over them with the show’s director, Aaron De Jesus, and he loved them as well. They were thinking of a couple different people for designing Jersey Boys, but overall, my designs pulled ahead.”
Once Brendan was selected, the work began in earnest, collaborating with the director to accommodate the direction he wanted to take and significant details, like the number of actors on the stage at a given time. He also worked with the other creatives, such as when Lighting Designer Nick Van Houten said he needed more lights in a certain area. Brendan could then alter his designs to meet those needs. The team of creatives worked this way until they had a completed storyboard of designs for every scene in the script. With a finalized storyboard, Brendan turned his sketches into 3D models with actual dimensions, so that everything would turn out to be scaled correctly.
At this point in the process, it was time for the set designer to begin working with the technical director. For Brendan, that was one and the same. “I always joke around about it,” he says with a laugh. “I tell myself that on Monday I have to give myself drawings, and then I can spend a week bidding them out, figuring out the costs and time requirements, and then I have to send it back to myself and say, ‘You’re over budget. You have to figure out a new solution.”
Despite having two key parts in the production, Brendan is extremely humble about his role. “I’m really excited for the antique cars. Ultimately, the beautiful cars and the music are going to be what draws people to the show. Really, I don’t even need to do a scenic design because the music is so awesome!” he says, with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Come see the results of Brendan’s hard work for yourself this summer! Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons is about four New Jersey teens who go from singing under streetlamps and scraping for gigs to becoming an international musical phenomenon. The show will run in the Outdoor Amphitheatre from July 13 through October 19. Individual tickets go on sale during our 72 Hour BOGO Sale February 6-8, but season packages are on sale now! Get the most savings and the best seats by buying a 2024 Season Package today! Visit www.tuacahn.org or call the box office at 435-652-3300 for more details.