Little-known theater jobs: deck automation operator

Ask Steve Stackle if he always knew he wanted a career in the theater and he’ll tell you: “I wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up and started college as a pre-med major.” But after taking a few theater electives and serving as the lighting operator for “Little Shop of Horrors” at University of Wisconsin, a mentor convinced Stackle that it was possible to earn a living in professional technical theater. 

“I moved to New York a month after I graduated from college [in 1991] and was supporting myself as a full-time theater professional in less than a year,” Stackle said. He had found his place. 

Beginning in 1993, Stackle served as part of the lighting crew and subbed as a light board operator for productions by Roundabout Theatre Company, back when the nonprofit operated out of the Criterion Center. In 1995, Stackle landed his first job as a deck automation operator for a James Lapine play called “Twelve Dreams” at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse. 

Stackle was ambitious and pulled double duty: While working the performances of “Twelve Dreams” at night, he also worked for Hudson Scenic Studio’s set electrics and automation departments by day. In 1997, the studio won the bid to build the automation and much of the scenery for Disney’s “Lion King,” which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Nov. 13, 1997. Hudson Scenic’s owner, Neil Mazzella, introduced Stackle to the venue’s head carpenter, Drew Siccardi, who invited Stackle to join the crew for the musical’s out-of-town tryout. Since moving to Broadway with “The Lion King,” Stackle has held the role of deck automation operator at the New Amsterdam Theatre through its runs of “Mary Poppins” and now “Aladdin,” the latter for which there are approximately 40 pieces of automated scenery controlled by Stackle.

Here, Stackle explains what deck automation operation entails, the skills required to succeed and his most memorable moment at “Aladdin.”