"Theater professor earns national honor."

(Craig "Yo" Erickson, CCCC Director of Technical Theatre)       

Everyone always wonders how and when Craig "Yo" Erickson got his nickname.  "I got it as a child many years ago," says Erickson. "My mom would call me in to dinner and rather than yell out 'Craig,' would say 'eeeeyo' because it carried down the block further.  "And you know how it is a teasing thing with kids, especially when the kids aren't on your side."

Through the years the name stuck. It stayed with him, to the point that even now that Erickson is director of technical theater and an adjunct professor of stage craft and lighting at Collin County Community College, students and faculty still call him by his nickname.

Despite having to contend with a nickname, he has earned respect in his chosen field. Most recently, he was the recipient of an American College Theater Festival fellowship, allowing him to attend summer theater lighting and design workshops at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  (Click here for information regarding the Kennedy Center Lighting Fellowship.)

In the late 1970s, he was a student of fine arts and lighting design at Richland College in Dallas. Later he went to the University of Texas in Austin.  Knowledge is a good thing, he said, but experience counts too and so, armed with a technical degree in lighting design, Erickson went from the university level to work with the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera.

In 1989, he came home for a Thanksgiving Day visit with his family in Richardson. While there, he heard about an opening in the Quad C Theatre department. He interviewed for the job, got it, and due to the creative freedom, has been there ever since.  "I like the opportunity that it gives me to continue designing lights and scenery," he says. "The variety of productions allows me to experiment in different styles in both scenic and lighting elements."

Then again, Erickson says theater director Brad Baker's reputation for introducing quality theater with a slight edge to the community-at-large has not gone unnoticed.  "We're very well supported by the administration and we have a good patron subscriber base," said Erickson. "They know what the theater is about and they appreciate what's gone into the productions."  He also likes working with the students and says, "It's very rewarding to see someone come in with raw energy and talent and start to mold that in one direction or another."

Because it is a community college, he says the skill levels in any production vary quite a bit.  "Some are just out of high school and some are former students who come back from the professional world to take part in the productions," he says. "We also have students who want to work and want to learn. They chose to come here."

Not wanting to take credit for the finished product, Erickson says, "We definitely work as a team here and I've never felt anything other than being part of the team. The collaboration is very good and, you know, if you have a suggestion, it's always listened to.  "It may not always be taken and done," he says, "but at least it's always listened to."

Besides working behind the theater scene, he also enjoys acting and has been in several movies, including "Young Guns," where he played Sheriff Peppin. He was also in "Flesh and Bone," "Boys Don't Cry," "The Stars Fell on Henrietta," and James Michener's "Texas."  Currently, he's working on the set of "Alamo," playing one of the defenders, Tom Waters.

The idea to go into theater came to him in ninth grade, when he was taking speech classes at Richardson High School.  It took hold, and before he knew it, he was working at the high school television station.

He talks about growing up in Richardson during the '60s. At the time, his family included a younger brother, his father, a drafting engineer at Texas Instruments, and his mother, who has since passed away.

In the mid-'60s, his parents started taking martial arts classes and came away from those classes with ninth-degree black belts. Erickson also has a black belt, but says he "hung it up a long time ago."

Black belts and all, he admits he's always liked a challenge.  "I'm one of those people who think I'd like to sit down and do nothing, but the minute I do, then I'm looking for something to do," he says. "About the only time I'm doing nothing is on the boat on the way to a dive and on the way back."

That's dive as in scuba dive. He also races bicycles both on the road and in the Frisco Veladrome. At one time, he tried skydiving and says he liked it so much, he would like to do it again.

Theater has always been a way of life for Erickson and about the only job he has had outside of theater was when he was in high school, working at a Burger King "slinging burgers on the grill."

Otherwise, it's the lights, camera, action thing, and he says times have changed since he was a kid.  "A lot of them, seems to me, aren't as committed to projects as when I was a student," he says. "I think part of that comes from having to go to school and having to make money too.  "We have a lot of students that aren't sure which direction they want to go and so they're trying a lot of things. And a lot over-commit because they're so over-enthusiastic."

Still, he doesn't give up easily.  "The thing I like to live by is prepare the people and the rest will follow," he says. "And again, more than teaching people, if we get them out of here with a sense of responsibility, then I think we've gone a long way in terms of teaching them a lot of things."

Despite the rigors of theater work and having to groom new generations for future theater work, Erickson hasn't given up.  "I still enjoy it and every show is just like starting over because no two shows are alike."