On opening night, the curtain draws back, the lights come on and all Alexander Gelman can do is sit back and watch his hard work unfold.

Gelman, director of NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance, has been teaching at NIU for four years. His passion for directing was ignited at age 19.

Despite his love for directing, Gelman said his interest in the craft only came after a failed attempt at becoming an actor.

“I think most people that want to get into theater get into it because they want to act, and then gradually some of us drift into other areas and I was no exception,” Gelman said.

Unfortunately, Gelman’s acting career was less Alec Baldwin and more Stephen Baldwin. He quickly set his sights on directing.

The directing class Gelman took his sophomore year gave him a taste of having his own production, something that would help shape the direction of his life.

“I did a one-act play and when I started rehearsals, I recognized that it felt better than anything I had ever done before and that feeling has never gone away,” he said.

Gelman has since had a career that includes direction of plays, musicals, operas and one film.

He has also spent time translating about a dozen plays from his native Russian into English.

“Russian is my native language and English is the language I have been using since I was 15, so I’m more or less equally comfortable in both,” he said.

Gelman said the easy part of translating a play is that the play is already written.

“The difficult part is how close I can come to their precision, ambiguity and poetry with each sentence,” he said.

Gelman’s secretary Frances Pugh has worked with him for three years and loves it.

“He is a very gifted, wonderful person that is very open to ideas,” Pugh said.

If Hollywood calls him up and asks him to direct “Terminator 4,” Gelman said he would. However, he said he would prefer it if he got a call to direct a performance of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.”

He recommends anyone interested in directing to see as many productions as they can, read as many plays as they can and try their hand at it along the way.