For my Lighting Portfolio, click here
My lighting design journey began at Provo High School under the direction of our technical director, Lisa Wygant. Mrs. Wygant was an expert in lighting design. If we wanted to do anything with lighting, we HAD to learn the basics. This consisted of basic electrical safety, basic lighting positions and their uses, basics in color mixing (this was before LEDs), and other lighting basics. I remember not even being able to touch a lighting fixture until I passed the written test with at least an 80%! (Maybe even 100%! Electrical safety was taken very seriously)
I still have the study sheet for that test tucked away somewhere. It is, to this day, still a useful reference for theatrical lighting.
After graduating high school, I attended Utah Valley University to study theatre and stage production. I never got to design for any UVU productions, but I did get to design for the choir programs at the near-campus LDS Institute of Religion. I sang in said choir and offered my lighting skills for their end of semester productions.
Next was the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. I worked there for a total of 6 years (2016-2021, 2024-2026). While I didn’t get to start out as one of their lighting designers, I was able to work my way up to being one within about 2 years or so.
The types of shows I got to light there included musicals, modern dance concerts, ballets, band concerts, small scale touring concerts, corporate events, symphony concerts, and even one beauty pageant.
In 2021, I moved out to New Jersey in an attempt to break into the industry in the NYC area. I stayed there until early 2024.
During my last year there, I landed a gig as a lighting technician at Plays in the Park (Edison, NJ) for their 2023 summer season. My skills with running and dressing cables landed me the opportunity of being the Light Board Operator for the whole summer, something I was told was normally rotated out.
This led to being offered a temporary Light board op position at Music Mountain Theater (Lambertville, NJ) for the last four shows of their 2023 season. While there, I was also given the opportunity to be the LD for their children’s shows. Their Halloween and Christmas shows were repeat shows that used lighting from previous years, I can only claim contributing some minor updates to the show files. The final children’s show, however, was Annie Kids, which I entirely programmed the lights for.
