Rafe Telsch

 The Board should be a leadership committee that maintains Showtimers’ reputation for quality community theatre in the Roanoke Valley. This means honoring the legacy Showtimers has held for decades and also opening a clear path to secure the future of Showtimers for decades to come. Too often people join leadership boards to put the spotlight on themselves, but the Board’s role really should be to keep the spotlight on Showtimers as an organization, preserving its past and ensuring its future, regardless of who is on the Board at any given moment. 

 As far as theatre experience goes, the desire to tell good stories is practically baked into my DNA. I’ve been involved in stage or performance since I was in high school. Since then, I’ve been creative director for the Roanoke Valley Shakespeare Festival/Renaissance Theatre Festival at Virginia Western, directed children’s theatre for several years (also at Virginia Western), and worked on a number of shows at Showtimers and other Roanoke venues. I have acted, directed, produced, served as running crew, run sound, and designed and run lighting for more plays than I can easily count over that time. Even when I wasn’t active in physical theatre, the desire to entertain and tell good stories led to my work on a variety of audio dramas released as podcasts.  My history in serving on a board has more of an educational foundation, but still illustrates my experience in working with others in a community/collaborative leadership environment. I was on the leadership board for the Virginia Association of Teachers of English (VATE) for five years, serving as the board’s liaison to the state superintendent’s technology committee and VATE webmaster. Additionally, I was on the conference-planning committee for the Virginia Society for Technology in Education for four years, helping to plan and execute their annual conference. All of these experiences involved some form of community leadership and instilled in me the importance of listening and compromising to do what is best for the organization. 

 Working on the technical side over the past few years, it’s become pretty apparent that there are some infrastructure issues with the building that need to be resolved. I would like to help develop a long-term strategy for fixing and securing the infrastructure so we can put on shows that aren’t plagued by weird technical hiccups and random buzzing sounds.