Senior Mikey Shock has been seen in a multitude of roles from Lord Farquaad in Shrek to Lewis in Pippin. Now, for his Senior Project, he felt it was time to give back to the community that has given so much to him.

“My Senior Project is to gut, remodel, reorganize and maintain the two dressing rooms and costume room backstage at JC,” Mikey said.

“I’ve always been a part of the JC theatre department since I was around nine years old. I know how difficult it is to use a dysfunctional costume room and to use dressing rooms with limited space, and it just was very dysfunctional.”

As a result, Mikey took it upon himself to reorganize, remodel and repaint all of the dressing rooms in the theatre department.

“As someone who has costumed a show,” Mikey said, “I know how difficult it is to a costume a show with everything thrown wherever.”

However, this project started before most seniors started their projects. Mikey originally began his project his sophomore year at JC and has been working on it ever since.

“This summer, I asked Facilities to take out the big showers in the dressing rooms,” Mikey said. “We then put in a shelf for all the costumes, which was a huge plus. Afterward, we then painted all the dressing rooms.”

Mikey also has an interest in real estate, which gave him an extra level of confidence and passion for his project.

“My parents are real estate investors, so we flip houses,” Mikey said. “So that’s kind of another aspect of why I was so comfortable telling Facilities how I wanted the plumbing cut to remove the showers, how the flooring needed to be replaced, and how different aspects [of the dressing rooms] needed to be addressed.”

For Mikey, this falls under career exploration for both theatre and real estate investing, both something he may wish to pursue full-time in the future.

“My goal for the end of my project is to have a functional, comfortable, relaxing dressing room to use during a crazy time when you’re in a show or a performance,” Mikey said, “Along with having the costume room be utilized in a way where everything has a system so that everything won’t get destroyed or torn apart.”

These updates to the theatre department and the dressing rooms will help continue the excellence of the productions for many years.