The History of the Techie Gospel

This first entry is just to correct something I've seen on the internet. Some websites show the author of the Techie Gospel as "unknown". The fact is, I wrote it. In a future entry I'll post a full copy of the original version. I know that others have added to it, and created variations of it (including the UK Rock Challenge who uses a version of it in their youth theater program). As I told them, I'm not interested in royalties - I'm just trying to get its origin straight. I'm just glad so many people have enjoyed it.

In the spring of 1982, while attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, I was working as a theater technician while going to school. By way of description, at the time I was doing rigging for them, the main stage ran a hemp line counterweight system using sandbags, and had a light board that was practically antique. Our technical director was Kathryn Hartzell, and we built all of our sets in the newly refurbished scene shop just off the main stage. We also had a black box theater on the second floor with a more modern light board.

That spring I wrote the Techie Gospel mainly as a joke, and posted it on the bulletin board in the scene shop hallway. The American College Theater Festival was at the college that spring, and a number of the technicians asked if they could get copies to take with them. I agreed and made photocopies for anyone who wanted one.

As for evidence that I wrote it, I still have the original copy that I typed up on a manual typewriter, complete with typo's and strikeovers (I wasn't a great typist). Other than that I'm still in touch with several people who were there at the time and remember me writing it and handing it out. I only happened to look it up on a whim when I decided to look up technical theater, and the one website had a humor section. Imagine my surprise at seeing it there more that 25 years later.