It’s easy to estimate that in the last three decades there have been hundreds of plays produced at the University of SC. It’s also a safe bet to assume that the talents of Andy Mills have been integral to bringing most of those shows to the stage.
A native of Wabash, Indiana, Andy spent four years in the Army before another four-year stint in Atlanta, where he took classes at a community college part-time. He moved to SC in the late 1980s to finish an undergraduate degree at Clemson University, then came to USC in 1991 to obtain his MFA degree in Scenic Design.
Fate stepped in after graduate school when an opening in the scene shop led to Andy becoming an Assistant Technical Director for the department in 1995. He joined the faculty in 1997 and was promoted to Technical Director in 2006.
And now, over 30 years since coming to Carolina, Andy is retiring.
Below, he talks about his unexpected theatre career, passing on his knowledge to students, and many years of USC theatre memories.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Was your undergraduate degree in theater?
No, it was architecture, but I had a work study job the whole time [at Clemson] working for their theater department building scenery.
So, your dream back then was to become an architect?
Well, I like design. That makes perfect sense to me. But what I realized while I was there is architecture is very much a business, so you're not going to do a lot of designing per se. Like, say you need to design a strip mall. Well, what are strip malls looking like these days, because that's what you're going to do times ten. There’s not a lot of freedom of expression and I wasn't interested in that. In theatre design, you can be more creative. You don't care whether the roof leaks or not.
Why did you choose to come to USC as a graduate student to study scenic design?
One thing is I was close to Camden in terms of commuting distance, but I also checked out UNC Chapel Hill and somewhere else I can't remember. What I really liked about USC at the time was that the design faculty was all pretty young, and at that point I wanted a program that had some vitality and energy to it. Also, Dennis Maulden [resident scenic designer at Flat Rock Playhouse since 1985] was here as the scenic design professor, and he was amazing. I am in awe of his work. That man can pick up a stick off the ground and draw the most beautiful drawings. He can sketch in scale. He can look at any color and tell you exactly how what colors go together to make that one color. He's got an eye that's just amazing.
Are there certain highlights you remember from your time as a grad student?
I can tell you my all-time favorite show I was in awe of. In my first year as a grad student, we did School for Scandal and Dennis Maulden designed it. It was all painted backdrops, just a very old-fashioned drop show, and that's my favorite kind of scenery. We've never done it since, but it was a huge amount of work. We weren't doing all-nighters, but pretty close. To this day, I'm just in awe of that show.
How did you come to be hired as a technical director?
There were three people working in the scene shop then, just like there is now. There was a TD and two Assistant TDs and, right when I graduated, one of the Assistant TDs left. Thorne Compton was chair at the time, and he said, “You want a job?” And I said, “Oh, I have student loans. Sure, I'll take the job!” It just worked out for me to get that job.
Looking back on the time that you've been in the department, how do you think it's different now versus then?
Honestly, I don't see a huge amount of change other than the number of faculty we have. One thing I was thinking about the other day is how we've gone from paper technology to everything being computerized. That didn't even occur to me until I was cleaning out my office, going through file cabinets. All the paper was out the door in one day, and I thought, “Well, that was easy.” But then I had to sort through everything on my computer, and that took, like, a week to document.
I remember being a grad student. You stood in line over at the Coliseum to sign up for classes and it was all on paper. And then you had to wait a couple days to see if you actually got in those classes. I can't take a class now because I don't know how to sign up anymore!
Has technology changed the art of scenic design or construction?
Well, the biggest change to technology is not in scenery, it's in lighting. When I started, we were just one step above a two-scene preset board. Like, here’s your lighting instrument, here's your cable – plug it into the circuit and that's it. That's how simple it was. Now, a light board is a specialized computer, and it's going to continue to change and just continually get better.
The technical director is all about how to engineer it, make it safe, and make it function the way it needs to function. I feel the good thing I brought to the table is that I could help student designers make good decisions.
In addition to being a technical director, you’ve also done scenic design for several USC shows, starting when you were a student.
Well, being a graduate design student then was just like it is now – you have to design three mainstage shows. I did design a few shows every now and then over the years [as a faculty member] but usually it was to fill a hole – and I didn't mind that. I never felt like I needed to design a show to be a fulfilled human being because I understood the program is here for the students. It's not about me and what I want to do.
The designer doesn't necessarily care about how it's engineered or how it's put together. The technical director is all about how to engineer it, make it safe, and make it function the way it needs to function. I feel the good thing I brought to the table is that I could help student designers make good decisions. I could ask them questions, like, “We can build it this way, but it'll affect your design that way. Or build another way and it will affect the design accordingly. What do you think you want?” And they don't always know. But I could ask them those kinds of questions and help them come to something that they actually wanted, as opposed to, well, “What do you want it to look like?”
When you think back to the young adult who came out of the army to be an architect and found himself in the theatre, what lessons has that kid learned?
Dennis Maulden said to me repeatedly when I was a grad student, “You have experiences as a human being that you're bringing to the table that no one else has, so you need to learn to trust yourself.” And it’s taken me a very long time to believe that. But now finally, in the past 10 years, it’s like, you do have a brain in your head, you do have life experience, and you do know what's what. So, it's OK to express your opinion or it's OK to tell people, “No, you can't do that. You can do it right.”
Also, it’s not about what you want. It’s about helping the director tell the story they want to tell. That's a big lesson I've learned over the years, and I think it's important that students hear that to help take ego out of their work.
What are you proudest of in your career?
I can tell you that I'm always surprised – and I have heard this several times over the years – when a former student says, “You know, you said something that always stuck with me,” or “You taught me this skill I’ve used a lot.” Even in these past few weeks, some of the faculty have said some really nice things to me, and I had no idea that I had that kind of impact on people. Being recognized as having contributed to some degree to other people's lives… you don't think about it when you're going through doing your daily activities, but I guess that's pretty cool because in our business it's all ephemeral. You do it and then it's done and gone. Like, all the work I ever did is in the landfill somewhere, right? It's hard to be proud of or say, “Look what I did 50 years ago.” It’s not there anymore.
What is next for you personally that you want to share?
Well, right before we started this, I was washing windows [laughs]. It's like all the usual stuff you do when you retire. I want to travel. And I’ve got all these chores that I haven't done for a million years… all that stuff. It'll be nice to go see theatre that I'm not involved with. It will be nice to buy a ticket and sit down and just enjoy the show and not know anything about the back story of how it got on stage.
So, you don't see yourself volunteering at another theatre in the near future?
No, no… I am theatre-d out. That goddess has beat me over the head and I'm tired. [He laughs and takes a perfect comic beat.]
I think, if I were to do more theatre, I want to do puppet theatre because the scenery is much smaller!
We'll miss you, Andy!