Ceremony Comemorates Theater Director

He designed lighting for the original Woodstock rock festival, for the Boston Ballet and for the New England Aquarium. And then there were 30 to 40 student shows a year at Harvard. Yesterday his friends and family remembered Alan P, Symonds ’69-76 with, among other things, an original composition commemorating the notorious fire safety speech with which he preceded performances.

“There was as much crying as there was laughing,” said Matt J. Corriel ’05 who performed “The Fire Speech Song.” “It was a real celebration.”

Symonds, who died last June, was technical director of Harvard College Theater Programs, a man who dedicated his life to the technical aspects of theater.

“It was wonderful that so many people came from so far away. It’s a testament to how strongly he influenced us and how much we loved him,” said Corriel.

Symonds oversaw all Yard and House productions. He was also instrumental in the design team for the Harvard Dance Center and soon-to-open New College Theater. In 1995, Symonds created the now-popular Freshman Arts Program (FAP).

Student appearances at the service included the Harvard Krokodiloes, dance troupe Harvard Bhangra, and a performance by the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, of which Symonds was originally a member.

Casey M. Lurtz ’07, president of the players, spoke of Symonds’ unending loyalty and dedication to the quality of student performances.

“He was involved heart and soul in our organization. He pushed us always to go above and beyond. ... He made sure that we were doing the best theatre possible. He’s already been greatly missed and will continue to be missed.”

His friends Joseph F. Mobilia ’76 and Adam S. Kibbe ’82 offered testimonies in remembrance of Symonds’ later life and career. “He was a theater guy—a theater god,” said Kibbe. Alan got behind anyone who needed him.” Symonds had some walk-on parts in the occasional Gilbert and Sullivan show, Kibbe added, “but he was the star in a really impressive way.”

Reading a letter addressed to Symonds, Kibbe expressed a widely held sentiment, that despite his many contributions as an adviser, it is Symonds’s friendship that will be missed the most.

“Many friends would agree in saying that I count your friendship as one of my life’s greatest honors,” he said.

Symonds’s surviving brother, Robin, recalled their childhood.

“He was stage managing, even then.”