For about 15 years, Carla Tiezzi has been working at East Haddam-based Goodspeed Musicals, starting as an apprentice and eventually becoming head of the paint shop. She has been there through the painting of a wide range of sets, from the glitzy showstoppers in “42nd Street” to the impressive colossus of the titular “Show Boat.” She has worked with an array of renowned set designers.

All that bustling activity changed in March of 2020 when theaters had to shutter stage productions because of the pandemic. That meant Tiezzi, like so many others who had jobs in the arts, was out of work.

Tiezzi says that, when things first closed, “I think I felt like everyone else — like, oh, God, this is something that is going to affect so many people, and we’re not going back to work.”

During the summer, she realized they wouldn’t go back until there was a vaccine.

“It’s just this scary thing that we’re all trying to deal with,” Tiezzi says. “I give Goodspeed a lot of credit for trying to get some social media events happening and trying to do the best they can under the circumstances.”

While she has been furloughed, Tiezzi has been looking at other jobs, but there aren’t many available, and she has to balance taking those jobs with the risk of getting COVID. She has kept in touch with some Goodspeed folks. She says a few took part-time gigs but got COVID, although they are fine now.

A lot of other Goodspeed employees who have been furloughed are “just holding our breath … Thank God there’s a stimulus package happening,” she says.

Meanwhile, she has been taking free classes, creating small acrylic paintings, and doing house projects like cleaning closets.

As with so many people out there during COVID, Tiezzi is being helped by unemployment benefits. She has been able to put off paying the mortgage on her Middletown house since April, thanks to the CARES Act, which has offered protections for homeowners with federally backed mortgages.

“That’s the only way I’m surviving. If I had to pay that mortgage, I probably would have been kicked out of here,” she says of the home she bought 8-1/2 years ago.

Her road to Goodspeed

Tiezzi, who grew up in Meriden, went to Parsons School of Design/The New School for illustration and took a class there on theater design, which she loved. But the school wasn’t really geared toward theater, so a career in that industry didn’t cross her mind. She just knew she loved to draw, and illustration seemed the ideal route for her back then.

After graduating with a BFA in illustration in 1992, though, she kept thinking back fondly on that theater design class, even as she moved back from New York to Connecticut. She wondered how to get into painting backdrops. She began cold calling venues and was hired as an apprentice at Goodspeed.

“I could draw, but theater painting is a different animal altogether. … I learned on the job,” Tiezzi says. “It’s not like fine art. There are skills in it, but you really are supposed to create what the designer wants. … You’re an extension of a designer, like your hand is an extension of the designer, what he wants to create.”

After that time apprenticing, she moved to L.A. and, for four years, did scenic painting primarily for TV, film and theme parks. She came back here because her former Goodspeed boss was planning to move on in 2006 and brought Tiezzi in as assistant charge scenic artist with the idea she could eventually take over. That’s what happened, with Tiezzi having been in charge of the paint shop since 2008.

Her job involves being the liaison between the designer and the people painting the set, working with the designer to bring his or her images to life. (There are different designers for various shows, although many return to Goodspeed for additional productions down the line.) She also handles administrative responsibilities like budgets and time management.

After the construction crew builds the set at Goodspeed, the pieces are brought into the paint shop. Tiezzi has two staff members and an apprentice and, depending on how big the show is, brings in freelance painters as well.

Tiezzi says that, over the past year, she has missed her painters.

“We just all get along, and they have different strengths. It’s a really good team,” she says. “We have a good time and we get everything done, and they’re just so talented. I feel for them, too. They’re struggling as well. They’re like me, they’re doing little projects and painting here and there.”

Zooming and painting

Tiezzi says it’s funny because people always wish they had more time to do things; during the pandemic, she has had the time — but not the financial wherewithal. She started taking an online class at Middlesex Community College but then worried about spending money. The government is offering free online classes, so she took those instead, with topics including team building and leadership, project management, and honing Photoshop skills.

Tiezzi also periodically pops into Zoom meetings her former boss holds to hear from other industry professionals about how, for instance, people in the TV and movie worlds are dealing with COVID testing and various work issues now that they have returned to filming.

She has also been painting, creating small acrylic pieces.

“I’m an artist, but it’s been a while since I picked up a little brush … I found some art supplies that I had buried in a box and (painted) to keep my mind going and to my hands moving; I do computer stuff, but I feel like I need something else, some other outlet.”

She says of eventually returning to Goodspeed, “I look forward to going back to work and hope to use the skills I’ve learned while furloughed. In the meantime, I will continue to look for other work, or small painting gigs that I can do from home.”