CORRECTION APPENDED

Alan P. Symonds '69, the technical director of Harvard College Theatre Programs and a mainstay of the Harvard dramatic community for decades, died Tuesday, June 21 of a heart attack while working late at the Agassiz Theatre, where he had his office.  He was 59.

Symonds, who first ran the light board for a show in his freshman year at Harvard, had been technical director since 1993. In addition to his work on shows at the Agassiz Theatre, he advised many other productions on campus, including all house productions. He oversaw thirty to forty shows a year, according to Jack Megan, director of the Office for the Arts at Harvard.

“For literally thousands of Harvard students over decades, Alan was the heart and soul of college theatre,” Megan wrote in an e-mail. “He was extremely bright, affable and enthusiastic, and when it came to all aspects of technical theatre—from set, sound and lighting design to implementation—he was truly expert.”

Blase E. Ur ’07, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Company, agreed. “You haven't seen a play on the Harvard campus in decades that happened without either Alan's direct help or the involvement of people who learned most of what they know from Alan,” he said. “Everyone involved in technical theatre very much looked up to Alan and learned an incredible amount from him.”

Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players (HRG&SP) President Casey M. Lurtz ’07 added that it was “impossible to imagine” the Agassiz Theatre without Symonds’ presence.

“Many of us are still struggling to believe that he won't be there in the fall,” she said. “The Agassiz Theatre was Alan's home, despite its quirks and difficulties, and he always wanted the best for it and for those groups performing in it.”

Symonds had been dedicated to HRG&SP since an undergraduate himself, Lurtz said, light-designing many of the shows they put on during his years at Harvard and becoming their adviser when he returned as a member of staff after his graduation.

“His commitment to our organization was unending,” she said. “[He] held us to the highest standards of professionalism, sometimes to our immediate aggravation, but always in the end for everyone's benefit.”

Jane M. Morse, who met Symonds when she worked at Harvard in the 1970s and was married to him for five years, described how “delightful” and “witty” he was and his devotion to the Harvard theatre.

“His first love was always the Agassiz Theatre,” she said. “His job was perfect for him; he absolutely loved it and was blissfully happy in it.”

Symonds also founded and ran the Freshman Arts Program (FAP), one of the week-long courses for incoming freshmen held at the start of each school year. It was work that he “truly loved,” according to Megan.

“He would begin talking about the next ‘crop’ of incoming freshmen artists each spring, and you could just see how much it lit him up,” Megan said. “The program was enormously successful under his leadership, and it will continue to thrive because he developed such a good model.”

Students remembered his devotion to their well-being; his time-honoured fire safety speech, delivered to every cast that performed on the Agassiz stage, became a tradition in the theatre community.

“Alan would take the stage to raucous applause,” said Lurtz. “His experience with fire safety was legendary and his concern for the safety of all students and audiences in the space was phenomenal.”

“[He] was always there for us, fighting for us, and pushing us to do better, do more,” she added. “He believed thoroughly in the power of undergraduates to organize and sustain themselves as an artistic community.”

Carolyn A. McCandlish '07, who is a social co-chair of the Mather House HoCo and who worked with Symonds in the Agassiz, mentioned as well the help he had given to the Mather Lather preparations.

“He was an essential resource as we tried to build and find effective flooring that fit within fire codes,” she said. “He even came and checked in on us and helped us out during set up.”

Symonds also played a major role in the planning of the technical installations for the Harvard Dance Center that opened this year in the Quad, and for the New College Theatre (NCT) that is currently being built in the place of the old Hasty Pudding Theatre on Garden Street. Megan said the New College Theatre will be Symonds’ “most lasting legacy.”

“Alan worked on the project for years, providing the planning team with essential technical advice and a very informed point of view on how students do theatre at Harvard and the ways in which the design could best serve these students,” he said. “The NCT will be an incredible new state-of-the-art theatre that will transform undergraduate drama at Harvard; in very large part, we have Alan to thank for that.”

“He was our mentor and our friend,” Ur said. “It's impossible for any other human being to be involved in and accomplish as much as Alan did.”

Symonds was born in Rhode Island in 1946. He received his A.B. from Harvard College and went on to work extensively in the world of professional lighting. His expertise was put to use for varied venues such as the original Woodstock festival, Boston Ballet productions, and the New England Aquarium, where he designed lights to encourage penguins to mate.

Symonds was also a senior research scientist at a research corporation for ten years, and patented an original theatre lighting system with a friend.

He is survived by his brother, Robin Symonds.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The original web version of this article incorrectly stated that Alan Symonds was 69 years old when he died. In fact, he was 59."