From set design to starring roles, the team at Brazeway has become intertwined with the legacy of Michigan’s oldest theater.
When Brazeway’s co-founder, Charlie Hickman, stepped in to purchase the historic Croswell Opera House in 1967, he envisioned the building as a place where the community of Adrian, Michigan could gather for live theater. He never dreamt it would fuel the creativity of his company’s engineers and scientists.
Brazeway’s employees are experts at turning aluminum into refrigeration-grade tubing and no-frost evaporator coils. But their ingenuity has also helped make a car fly for a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and turned a box of tin scraps into a functional Tin Man costume used in the Wizard of Oz.
Ilustración de Veronica Grech
“Innovation, diversity of thought and creativity are core tenets of Brazeway,” says Jeff Adams, senior vice president of operations at Brazeway and president of Croswell’s board of directors.
“Engineers tend to flex the muscles in the left side of the brain. The arts and theater can play a large role in stimulating the other side of the brain,” he says.
Originally opened in 1866, the Croswell Opera House is Michigan’s oldest theater and among the oldest in the country. While Brazeway’s employees may not be theater buffs, Adams notes there is a sense of pride in helping make the Croswell a success. The collaboration between extroverted actors and actresses and introverted engineers and programmers speaks to the community-minded mission of both the Croswell and Brazeway.
Chuck Force, Brazeway’s Vice President of Administration, jokes that as an engineer, he’s analytic, detail obsessed and anal. “I used to look at my shoes a lot when I talked to people,” he says. “Most theater people are not like that. They’ve certainly helped pull me out of my shell.” While you couldn’t pay Force to jump on stage, he happily heads-up fundraising projects for the theater and helps at rehearsals and cast parties, largely to support his wife, Michelle. “Our contributions may be different—mine fundraising and my wife’s performing—but the Croswell is an icon we both think makes the community better and I like that we can share in that.”
Ilustración de Veronica Grech
Like Adams and Force, many Brazeway employees become involved with the Croswell because they have family members who love theater. Adam’s son, Cooper, 16, has been in nearly 24 shows. Adams joined him on stage in Oliver [Twist]. When his daughter, Jaqueline, 22, was stage manager of Billy Elliott during her senior year of high school, Adams joined the show as an extra to spend more time with her. “My dad just waltzed right in and became a part of this community of actors and singers as if he’d been there the whole time,” says Jacqueline. “He fit in seamlessly. As a bonus, he always came on time and knew all of his lines.” Jacqueline’s work at the Croswell inspired her to pursue a career in theater. She recently graduated college with a degree in stage management and technical theater. “Without the Croswell, it would have remained a hobby,” she says.
And Jacqueline is not the only one. Jere Righter, the theater’s artistic director, proudly notes that a remarkable number of people who started at the Croswell have gone on to achieve great success in the arts. An Adrian-native, Righter supported her theater degree by working summers on the factory floor at Brazeway. “The Croswell wouldn’t be the organization we are without Brazeway,” she says.
“It’s a really special and unique opportunity for people to be able to play as an adult. That could be acting on stage or it could be stretching your brain by figuring out how to make a car fly. The people at Brazeway are just the cleverest. And they are unmatched in their willingness to help others.”
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Jere Righter
Croswell Opera House Artistic Director
Despite being a nonprofit with half the resources of major production houses, the Croswell puts on ten to twelve big-name shows each year and is consistently voted one of the region’s top theaters. “Our budgets are small,” says Righter. “We start with an empty stage and build everything here. That takes a lot of thinking and planning.” A professional theater would have 25 people to figure out how to put Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the air, notes Righter. She had the brains of Brazeway’s Senior Programmer Analyst, Salu Joseph.
“Without much notice I was asked if I could help get the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car to work,” recalls Joseph. “I found the controller board on the car and realized that the programming language was similar in syntax to the “C” programming language that I used at the UT school of engineering. Using a programming platform on a laptop I was able to understand the code, test, recompile and correct the problem. We had the car working in about three hours.”
To execute a successful production typically takes between 100 to 125 people, says Righter. “We couldn’t do it without Brazeway,” she says. Brazeway employees have had roles of all sizes, from the lead in Singing in the Rain to volunteer ushers and backstage costume designers. Mel Herbert, Brazeway’s Director of Manufacturing Engineering found himself unexpectedly playing the role of costume designer when Righter walked into his office with a box of tin, leather pieces and a pair of old silver boots. “It was the remnants of a Tin Man costume and she told me the actor couldn’t move in it,” recalls Herbert.
Ilustración de Veronica Grech
The tin had cracked, and pieces of the costume were no longer connected. “I realized if an actor needed to move around in this costume, the elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles would need to articulate,” he says. Herbert used bolts with lock nuts set loosely as hinge pins that allowed each piece to pivot without restriction and shot all of the tin with galvanized paint to match the original.
“At Brazeway, we strive to improve the form, fit and function of the products we produce,” says Herbert. “The Tin Man was an extension of this.”
The costume looked and functioned so well Righter was able to later rent it to other theaters.
When the curtain goes up, Brazeway employees may not consider themselves part of the show, but Righter notes their contributions, whether moving props to storage or helping backstage, is what has made the theater such a success over the years and is what keeps Brazeway on the edge of innovation. “It’s a really special and unique opportunity for people to be able to play as an adult,” says Righter. “That could be acting on stage or it could be stretching your brain by figuring out how to make a car fly. The people at Brazeway are just the cleverest. And they are unmatched in their willingness to help others.”
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