Rain showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High around 45F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Higher wind gusts possible..
Tonight
Cloudy and windy this evening, becoming partly cloudy after midnight. Low 27F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
BURNT HILLS-BALLSTON LAKE - Tarrin Kuehner can sum up his experience at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School pretty succinctly.
“Lots and lots of tech,” Kuehner said.
During his time at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, Kuehner — a member of the Spartans’ Class of 2024 — became known as something of a technical wizard when it came to putting on live productions in the school auditorium.
Kuehner got his start in drama club when he was in seventh and eighth grade, but a naturally introverted personality led him to express himself more on the technical side of things.
“I’m not the most social, I’m not necessarily on the stage acting or whatever,” Kuehner said, “but I like behind-the-scenes work where I can be important, make things happen and be where I understand.”
Kuehner has always had a tech-savvy mind, which he plans to exercise in the fall when he begins studying in an engineering field — he’s not exactly sure which specific discipline yet — at the University at Buffalo.
He’s run the lighting program and overseen other technical aspects of school plays, dance recitals, concerts and events at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
Among his most memorable experiences was when the COVID-19 pandemic forced one of the school productions to be recorded, rather than performed in front of a live audience.
“We had to record one and try to edit it all together,” he said. “So, we did every single scene, three takes, just ran it over and over and over again, and then we’d choose the best [takes] while we edited.
Two years ago, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake opened its renovated auditorium, and Kuehner dove into learning everything he could about the space and its lighting system.
“I was definitely one of the first students, pretty close to being first before some of the staff and faculty, that got to learn the ins and outs of all the stuff,” he said. “I just continued doing all the theater things, and just about every single event. There’s some concerts where I’ll run it and do all the tech.”
Kuehner also used his technical talents as the president of Spartan Studios, the school’s audio/visual production club, which he led in expanding and rebranding to produce more events for the districts, including live streams of school events and concerts.
The technical side of things has always come naturally to him.
“I pick things up very easily,” he said. “I started doing some things and picked it up. The lighting program we use, they have a whole training program that I could do at home, so I went through a lot of it at home, because you can do it from your own computer. It’s cool, it’s something to do, even though it conflicts with sports and whatnot.”
Outside of the technical realm, Kuehner was also a key member of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s varsity boys’ tennis team.
This year, not only was Kuehner one of the team’s captains, but the Spartans finally accomplished a long-held ambition and won the Section 2 Class A team championship as the No. 3 seed, pulling out 4-3 upset wins over No. 2 Scotia-Glenville in the semifinals and No. 1 Queensbury in the championship match.
“It was the first time in six years that we won that, and it was my coach’s first-ever sectional win,” Kuehner said. “That meant a lot, because everyone was just so happy. It was like, finally, we actually did it, because usually we’d get to the finals and lose — and it was insanely close for all of them.”
He’s excited to embrace more challenges in college at Buffalo.
“My best friend’s also going to Buffalo and we’ll be roommates,” Kuehner said. “He knows me, I know him, we have similar lifestyles, so that should be very interesting. It’ll be awesome.”
While Kuehner’s academic interests will skew more towards the scientific than the theatrical, he’s hoping to get a few chances to exercise the skills he honed in high school.
“There’s a theater program there, and I’ll see if I can get in there and do some lighting,” he said. “There’s also the Ambassador Theater district, so if I have some spare time or just want some gigs, there are tons of clubs and hopefully I can find at least one to do what I want.”
