Zack Georgian stands in Lawrence Auditorium, looking down at the rows of students filing into the assembly. He pulls out a pair of oversized blue Nobles paws and waits. When the lights shift and the room settles, he raises them high. Somewhere in the audience, someone laughs. A few students nudge each other. Friday has officially begun.
Georgian is the Assistant Technical Director of the Performing Arts Department and is also the assistant teacher for the Mechanical Engineering and Advanced Projects in Physics classes. Whether he’s backstage during musicals, crouched over machines in the physics lab, or quietly rearranging chairs before a concert, Georgian’s presence is felt throughout the school.
Most days, you’ll find him in the Henderson Arts Center, tucked away in the theater shop building the sets for plays and musicals. “Stagecraft is totally different from what students experience anywhere else in the school; it’s truly hands-on,” he said. The shop is where students learn by doing, measuring, building, and problem-solving. Often, Georgian stands nearby, maintaining a balance between stepping in and enabling individual discovery.
Working with students has revealed to Georgian just how multifaceted and complex young people can be when they’re given creative space. “You’ll see a stage manager who’s so organized, everything labeled, already two steps ahead. And then you look in their notebook, and there are beautiful doodles. They’re creatively talented, part of the AP art show, and then they tell you they play three instruments,” he said. For Georgian moments like that, it shows what excited him most about teaching. “The levels of creativity in our students feel endless,” he said.
Before Nobles, Georgian freelanced professionally in a theater for several years. He earned a BFA in acting and performance, but over time, found himself gravitating backstage, working in building and technical production. One of his last freelance jobs, part-time at a high school in Atlanta, shifted his career path. “It got me very interested in actually finding a full-time job and spreading my knowledge of theater and passion for the creative arts in a high school setting,” Georgian said. That experience continues to shape how he works today. Rather than limiting himself to a single department, Georgian moves between the performing arts and science spaces at Nobles, highlighting their overlap. “There’s a lot of crossover between theater and science that people don’t always realize. Staying pigeonholed in one corner wouldn’t benefit anyone,” he said.
Much of Georgian’s work happens long before an audience ever enters the room. Preparing for concerts and major school events can begin months in advance, involving coordination with multiple departments and detailed technical planning. “Even before I get involved, they’re already having meetings in the music department about organizing these concerts,” he said. By the time Georgian steps in, his role is to turn ideas into logistics, a task he says makes the work so rewarding. “I like having my hands dirty in so many different things. It creates a lot of versatility, and it’s a great way to get to know more of the community.”
Failure, Georgian believes, is part of the job. In physics projects, students build treadmills, dance game pads, and machines that often break down more frequently than they succeed. He sees those setbacks as an essential part of how students learn, emphasizing that while failure is still a part of the process, planning gives students the tools to learn from it.
That patience during those obstacles shows up outside of academics, too. Georgian tries to make the spaces he works in feel welcoming. He plays music while students work and asks them what they want to hear. “Even in failure, we can come back the next day with a smile and keep going,” he said.
Some of that care shows up in small moments. During his first week at Nobles, Georgian noticed a pair of Nobles paws sitting in the Lawrence booth. He left them there until one Friday, when he decided to put them on. “If I can make someone smile, I’m willing to embarrass myself for it,” he said. Since then, the paws have become a Friday tradition. After assembly, the paws come off, and Georgian gets back to work.
