Mark and Lisa met each other in the nineties at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto while on the job. “He was the production manager,” Lisa says, “[it] took about a year and a half, we got married and it’s been twenty years!” They hosted their wedding in the theatre between one show being loaded out and the next show being loaded in. The couple decided Hamilton was the best middle ground between theatre gigs across southern Ontario and moved to the city in 2006. Since then their work takes them all over the region. 

While both Mark and Lisa have worked in managerial roles, they enjoy the hands-on nature of practical work best. “Both of us were built to be boots on the ground, we’re workers,” Lisa shares. On the technical side of things, Lisa mostly does wardrobe, sometimes she’s a dresser and occasionally she’ll load a show in or out. Mark works predominantly as a lighting, audio, and video operator. At the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020, “we were coming up on spring and summer when things really start to cook,” Lisa shares. Mark was going to be working at the Stratford Festival and Lisa was scheduled for the Shaw Festival. The pandemic had other plans and, “the doors closed. Full stop,” says Lisa. Mark notes that “working successfully in an industry and then being told to stop,” was incredibly difficult. 

The transition from their busy working lives to the reality of lockdown at home was hard. Lisa turned to gardening and Mark went on long walks to cope. For Mark, the initial work stoppage was about four months long, and in July 2020 he was able to pick up a few gigs for live stream events. However, it was the second lockdown in December 2020 that was most difficult, “It’s always harder to jump out of a moving plane the second time than the first,” Mark says. “I became a little stir crazy..listless and bored.” It was the second lockdown that prompted Mark to make the switch over to film.

“Film has the money to be really really really COVID safe,” says Lisa. Unionized productions test their film staff at least once a week. When working near actors on set, they’re tested even more often. For additional COVID safety, technical staff work in ‘pods,’ and are not permitted to interact with other departments to minimize possible exposure. Wearing masks all day is difficult as the work can be physically tolling. Simple tasks like sharing tools have become more challenging with COVID protocols. Mark notes the importance of keeping film sets active during the pandemic. “If you’re going to lock down a populous, you gotta give them something to do,” he says.  “You’ve gotta give them [something] to watch,” Lisa adds.  

Despite COVID safety in the film industry, the couple desperately misses their theatre community. “Our jobs technically don’t exist at all, that’s the most challenging thing, waiting for the theatre industry to come back,” says Lisa. From the adrenaline of live productions to the ‘backstage shenanigans,’ and the camaraderie within the community, they miss theatre dearly. They share that many of their theatre friends are still unemployed due to the pandemic. Out of necessity, some returned to school for additional training, others turned to retail work and some took early retirement. “I have no intention of staying in film when my industry kicks back in,” Mark notes. 

On the whole, Mark and Lisa are grateful to have made the transition to film while much of the theatre community is still on pause. They’re hopeful that once it’s safe to gather again, that theatre will make a comeback. “I really want to see my theatre family again...I’m hoping that enough of them hung on long enough that we all get to do our thing again,” shares Lisa.  For Mark, theatre is important because it's a socially rooted art form, and Lisa looks forward to the day everyone can take off their masks again. Despite the uncertainty, Lisa says, “throughout history, theatre comes and goes but it always comes back. I do believe that it will come back.”