By: Wil Abeling

It is said if you have a job you love, you don’t work a day in your life. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for most people here on this big blue marble. But for Michael Scroggs, it couldn’t be truer.

Since he was young, Scroggs was always around tools and has been worked in a shop. He learned most of what he knows from his father who builds small aircrafts and his grandfather who had a small woodshop.

Scroggs has taken his passion a step further and operates his own woodworking business, Mike’s Sawdust Factory. His business started when he was tired of constructing sets that were built to last for short periods of time before being torn down.

He first started by tinkering around building small cabinets and things for himself, and then that turned into doing small jobs on the side and then came building furniture. He enjoys the challenge of learning to build things that are beautiful and elegant, yet can support a two-hundred-pound man without breaking.

Scroggs is the technical operations coordinator for the theatre department and technical director for the school of fine arts, but he doesn’t stay within the confines of his title. He goes above and beyond running the shop. Some of the many things he does include coordinating events in the theatre, building sets, setting up the sound system, maintaining the theatre itself and, by association, teaching students how to perform the necessary tasks required to be an avid techie (theatre technician).  

One of his favorite parts of his job is watching students get “bit by the bug” the theatre bug is something that many new students get bit by when they first get involved with the theatre, it’s an irresistible urge to continue working on the stage whether its center stage in the limelight or behind the curtain making the magic happen.