A Stratford Season (Page 2)

Peter McBoyle, BMus'93, MMus'95, on the other hand, never actively set out to be at Stratford. Instead, Stratford found him. McBoyle, 32, graduated from McGill's rigorous sound recording program and fully expected a career in film or the music industry to follow. Many of his classmates are still working in those fields.

Stratford's main stage, the Festival Theatre PHOTO: Helen Dyer

McBoyle, unlike some of his colleagues, says he likes to go to opening nights of his shows. He's worked hard and wants to see the end result. But there is always a fear of the unknown and the uncontrollable.

"If a lighting cue doesn't quite come up in the right place, or if a light burns out, not many people in the audience will be aware of it. They might think that it's a little dark on that part of the stage, but chances are they won't notice," McBoyle says. "But if all of a sudden a toilet flushes instead of the dog barking, or the car crashes instead of a music cue, people know. It becomes quite the stressful gig."

No more stressful, perhaps, than what he did at McGill to get to where he is today. The on-campus recording studios were in use 24 hours a day, so students would regularly have night sessions booked and then have to show up for classes the next morning. McBoyle says McGill professor Wieslaw Wosczczyk was a terrific mentor and was adept at picking students who fit the program and shaping them while they were there.

"I look back on it now and I'm amazed that I didn't get run over by a bus walking home in the middle of the night," he laughs. "Having said that, it was the most incredible training for what I'm doing or what I could be doing in this industry, because it prepares you to adapt everything you've learned and apply it to new situations."