Shop Assistant

Casey Goggin, ‘19

Concentration: (potential) Government and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
House/Dorm: Greenough / Cabot
Employer: Office of the Arts (Agassiz Theater)
Official Title of Job: Shop Assistant

“Coming into college, I was very interested in learning more about technical theater and being involved with it outside of my academics,” says Casey Goggin when asked about his decision to work as a technical assistant for the Office for the Arts. “When I learned that I could pursue this interest as a paid job, it was an easy choice to make.”    

student working at shop assistant job
For students within the theater community, the importance of well-trained shop assistants is well understood. These paid undergraduate workers make the technical theater experience at Harvard safer and more organized for student technicians in all sectors of behind-the-scenes theater. Casey, who chose to work as an Agassiz Theater shop assistant for the OFA because he was “very interested in learning more about technical theater” his freshman year, has picked up some valuable “hands-on” training while working under Liz Dean, the technical supervisor for the theater space in which Casey, along with a handful of other students, are employed. 

“My job primarily entails maintenance tasks around the Agassiz Theater, such as taking inventory of the lighting gels and checking the sound cords in stock to make sure they are all functioning properly. I also do a lot of work in the shop, which holds all of the building materials for productions that go up in the theater. When a show goes into residency at the theater, my job mostly entails working on that particular show by helping the technical design and build crew,” says Casey of the position itself.

 “I also need to be sure that shows in residency are taking care of the all the technical equipment the Agassiz Theater allows them to use.” This can be quite a large task, as the Agassiz Theater typically hosts an average of 3-4 student residencies each semester--including the Freshman Musical in the spring and the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ fall and spring operettas. Casey, however, is up to the task, primarily because of his dedication to theater. “I cannot fathom being a good academic without the arts.”  

Outside of his job as a shop assistant, Casey is involved heavily in the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and the Y2Y Shelter. After graduation he plans to attend law school.