{"id":244,"date":"2023-05-05T14:54:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=244"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:41:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:41:13","slug":"long-time-marshall-director-of-theatre-facilities-stages-his-last-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2023\/05\/05\/long-time-marshall-director-of-theatre-facilities-stages-his-last-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-time Marshall Director of Theatre Facilities stages his last commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you\u2019ve ever attended a Marshall University event, be it a dinner, commencement, a theater production or the annual fountain ceremony, chances are you\u2019ve seen the design work of one of Marshall\u2019s most talented creators.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Jamez Morris-Smith at Marshall’s Spring Commencement on April 29, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jamez Morris-Smith, director of theatre facilities at the university for nearly four decades and who has put his magical touch on hundreds of events, has decided to retire this summer. His professionalism and love of all things design will long be remembered at Marshall.<\/p>\n

Earlier in April, Morris-Smith\u2019s Facebook profile recorded the \u201cstrike\u201d of his last official theatre set, \u201c25th<\/sup> Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,\u201d with photos and accolades from friends and colleagues who admired his design and technical skills,<\/a> as well as his easy-going nature. Words like fantastic, magic, talent, inspiration and awesome were used when describing the man and his work. The dismantling of a set is always bittersweet in the life of a theatre family, but this time, for the Marshall community, it was the end of an era.<\/p>\n

Morris-Smith is a West Virginia native and a 1980 Marshall University graduate, one of the first to complete the university\u2019s Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre production and design. Known to many on campus as the \u201cMartha Stewart of Marshall,\u201d he has a flair for the fantastic and an eye for the unusual. Equally important, he has served as the keeper of notes and memories for nearly every university-wide occasion.<\/p>\n

\n\t“I might add Old Main is where my heart is. I can walk the halls and still feel a connection from 30 years ago even though the theatre is no longer there.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Jamez Morris-Smith<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

\u201cI was somewhat groomed to do this job by my mentor and professor Bruce Greenwood<\/a>,\u201d Morris-Smith remembers. \u201cHe gave me the responsibility early on managing outside rental events, but everything changed when we moved into the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center in the summer of 1992. Suddenly I was staging dinners, art shows, galas, drag shows, receptions and ordering linens, flowers and tents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jamez
Jamez Morris-Smith and students in class in 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuing with his thoughts, he reminisces about the old days in the university\u2019s original theatre, located in the administration building known as Old Main.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very different from the events staged in the Old Main theatre,\u201d he said. \u201cI might add Old Main is where my heart is. I can walk the halls and still feel a connection from 30 years ago even though the theatre is no longer there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of his favorite events included the grand opening of the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, the first show in the playhouse and the ribbon-cutting at the Bill Noe Flight School at Yeager International Airport. Similarly, the saddest event Morris-Smith coordinated was a funeral service for Dr. Paul Ambrose,<\/a> a Marshall University graduate who perished in the 9\/11 attacks. And it\u2019s always Jamez who carries the flowers from the campus fountain ceremony to Springhill Cemetery where some of those lost in the 1970 tragedy are buried.<\/p>\n

\"Jamez
Jamez Morris-Smith and Marshall University Registrar Sonja Cantrell- Johnson after the 2018 Commencement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do you capture the success of a theatre designer in a word or two? Morris-Smith says it\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetails, details, details, communication, communication, communication,\u201d he says, while also sharing his gratefulness for longtime team members, Kevin Bannon, Deb Carder-Deem, Jeremy Wright, Emily O\u2019Neal, Gavin Spievak, Jimi Lawson and Devon Wright.<\/p>\n

On event days, Morris-Smith can log upwards of 20,000 steps, but never seems to stumble. His zest for the production, the show, the concert or commencement is always the top priority, and he is relentless in his pursuit of making things right. Show days are incredibly long, sometimes upwards of 14 hours, and often filled with tension, stress and last-minute snafus. But those pesky issues are simply seen as challenges for Morris-Smith who can troubleshoot on the fly and \u201cMacGyver\u201d as needed.<\/p>\n

\"Stage
Scenic design for Crimes of the Heart 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Jamez Morris-Smith prepared to \u201cstrike\u201d his final commencement set, he\u2019s also preparing for the next stage of life. The artist plans on spending more time with his husband, Sam, walking and taking fitness classes and in true Jamez fashion, \u201ccontinuing to be a Son of Marshall and be of service where needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bravo, Jamez. Bravo.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever attended a Marshall University event, be it a dinner, commencement, a theater production or the annual fountain ceremony, chances are you\u2019ve seen the design work of one of Marshall\u2019s most talented creators. Jamez Morris-Smith, director of theatre facilities at the university for nearly four decades and who has put his magical touch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}