By Aubrey Frey

The stage is a place where dreams are made. When it comes to acting, center stage, single-spotlight is the ideal position to be. But Kai Yamanishi prefers to be the master of the show behind the scenes.

Yamanishi, a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School, is a theater tech for many of Mount Vernon’s community plays and musicals. He started participating in theater during first grade when his mom said he has nothing better to do during the winter months. Even though Yamanishi got a minor role in an Odyssey production, he loved being on and around the stage.

Yamanishi specializes in lighting, but he also assists with sound, run crew, and building sets. He has helped with many outstanding performances; most recently, the high school’s spring musical, “The Little Mermaid,” and Odyssey Theatre production of “Peter Pan.”

Yamanishi has spent countless hours in the theater helping to put together these shows. “For Odyssey,” said Yamanishi, “we usually come in every time the actors come in and then some. Odyssey is a very long process.”  Odyssey is a summer and winter theater program for many of Mount Vernon’s young actors. Over the summer, Yamanishi spent over 90 hours hanging lights, building sets, and programming the light board for the show “Peter Pan.”

After all of the hard work is done, Yamanishi can finally relax and enjoy the show. During a performance, Yamanishi controls when the lights change during a show. Although the process may be tedious, Yamanishi finds a way to enjoy himself on the night of a show. “What’s fun is talking to people in the booth during a show,” said Yamanishi. “Just hanging out with people during the process is what keeps the show moving.”

Spending long hours with the same people has given Yamanishi the chance to form strong relationships. Sophomore Jasper Rood is one of Yamanishi’s closest friends, whom he met during his first show in first grade. “We call ourselves techies,” said Yamanishi. “We have a lot of really fun people. It is one of my favorite groups of people to hang out with.”

Being in theater, and in tech specifically, has taught Yamanishi some very important life lessons. “It’s helped me with seeing what having a real job would be like,” said Yamanishi. ”It has also taught me how to make friends quickly because you never know who is going to be on a show or who is going to show up.”

Yaminishi enjoys tech and is thinking about starting a career in theater tech. “I want to go into some engineering field or maybe something to do with computers, but of all of them, technical theater sounds like the most fun and rewarding option,” said Yamanishi. He primarily wants to specialize in lighting.

Mount Vernon’s Odyssey, high school, and community programs are always looking for new members to join their team both on stage and off.  “We always recruit,” said Yamanishi. “We welcome new people. New people are great.”