Project X Productions provided event labourers for all sorts of events around the greater Ottawa-Gatineau area. I was employed by them during my time in college where I performed load-ins and load-outs for larger events, mostly working nights and weekends to balance my class schedule.

Event labour I participated in include:

• Confrenses and Tradeshows at the Shaw Centre
• Tradeshows at the Brookstreet in Kanata
• Conventions at the EY Centre and Infinity Convention Centre
• Public Events at the Canadian Museum of History
• Ottawa Bluesfest
• Portable stages in public parks, such as Major's Hill Park or Vincent Massey Park
• Sporting events in arenas and fields: mainly TD Place (and Aberdeen Pavilion) and the Bell Sensplex

Responsilbilities included:

• Assembling truss structures and lighting trees
• Hanging lighting fixtures, video projectors, special effects units, and audio equipment
• Assembling pipe and drape
• Running cable

Skills demonstrated:

• The ability to work indepenently or as a team depending on the task at hand
• The ability to read plots, plans, and other event paperwork
• Arrive to events on time and prepared, then stay until the job was complete, even if the job was at odd hours of the day
• Communication between event organizers, other technical staff in different departments, and occasionally the client directly

Clientele was mostly local event planners around Kanata where I grew up. I garnered a reputation for being a responsible and knowlegable theatre technician as a high-school student and was able to provide services afterwords. I paused freelancing after moving to Deep River (mainly due to COVID-19), but now I'm picking it back up again as I have the time and willingness to do so and capable technicians are in demand.

Services Offered

• Stage Management
• Lighting Design
• Stage Electrician
• Lighting programmer (ETC EOS only)
• Video Design/Content Creation
• Event Labour Management
• Drawings and Drafting (lxFree, AutoCAD)

Noteable Clients

• CFUW/Kanata
• City of Ottawa (Office of Councilor Marrianne Wilkinson)

THEOP is Deep River's Theatre Operating Committee, a group of voulenteers who find touring performers to come to Deep River and perform. A typical season has 6 shows that could be any kind of dance, music, or theatre presentation. Through THEOP, I will be able to gain experience in lighting a wide-range of live performances.

Responsibilities

• Review the technical rider for each show and ensure we can meet the technical requirements
• Create plots for the touring production crew so they understand what our capabilities are
• Hang and focus specials as required
• Set-up, program, run, and strike lighting for each production as required
• Set-up and strike set peices as required

Show lighting experience

Since I've started voulenteering with THEOP, I've been able to light:

• Contemporary Dance
• Musical Theatre
• Folk Musicians
• Tribute/Cover Bands

Deep River Community Association

THEOP is part of the wider Deep River Community Association, who manage all the clubs and community organizations within the town of Deep River. In voulenteering with THEOP, I have also become involved with the Auditorium Users Group of the Community Association, where I have been responsible for:

• Putting together and maintaining a stock plot that meets the requirements of all user groups (orchestra, choral group, players, high-school theatre group)
• Maintaining the inventory of fixtures and lighting equipment
• Writing an upgrade plan to replace aging auditorium equipment
• Many small housekeeping and maintenence jobs

The Deep River Players are a small group of theatre lovers who put on between one and two live theatre productions per year with local tallent from Deep River and the upper Ottawa valley. Productions include plays and musicals, as well as vocal and dance workships for interested locals.

I started voulenteering with Kanata Theatre as a high school student to gain my community service hours and liked it so much I continued to voulenteer. I lit four plays and one musical in the lighting designer roll, with an additional 2 credits as lighting assistant, before moving to Deep River and working with the players. My experience at Kanata Theatre included:

• Working with the theatre's stock plot to create a plot speicific for each show, including specials and DMX-controlled effects units.
• Video content creation and projection mapping
• Working with incandencent, LED, and moving head fixutres
• Lighting scenery/sets, cycloramas, scrims, and the acting areas
• Using lighting, sound, and video together to create immersive and believeable scenes
• Working with other departments to make costumes, sets, and actors look like the time or place they are set
• Program lighting (with an ETC Ion)
• Program video and sound (with QLab)
• Follow stage manager's cues and instructions when running a show

I was a member of my high-school AV club, which provided technical theatre support for countless school functions such as assemblies, variety shows, outreach events, special functions, community use of schools events, and the school's own arts programs. I performed responsibilities with a high degree of professionalism and demonstrated to school staff the ability to perform with little-to-no direct supervision. My high-school specifically had mentorship and knowledge passed down by senior students in the club, rather than a member of arts faculty managing everything, so I was also responsible for younger students in my senior years.

• Specific highlights include:
• Yearly school musical
• Dance program showcases
• Concert band performances
• Movie Nights
• Rememberance Day and Graduation ceremonies

Lighting

• Operated three different lighting consoles: Strand GSX, ETC Express 125, and ETC EOS/Nomad
• Used a variety of fixtures including zoom lekolites, fresnels, scoops, and parcans
• Operated follow-spots
• Used McCandles and Jewel lighting methods
• Used gel and gobos to aid in creating scenes and effects
• Replaced lamps as they burned out
• Familiar with DMX-512, as well as DMX-512 controlled special effects units (fog machines especially)
• Used lxFree to create lighting plots and schedules for larger events

Sound

• Operated various analog mixing consoles (notably Mackie SR24-4)
• Setup and used wired and wireless vocal microphones, wired instrument microphones, direct injection boxes, and other input devices.
• Familiar with feedback, ground-loops, and cross-talk, and how to minimize the effects of each
• Used QLab for cueing sound effects and music
• Setup and mixed for main stage speakers and monitor speakers
• Setup and operated portable sound system (mixer on cart and portable JBL speakers) for out-door sporting events

Video

• Setup front- and rear- view projection screens depending on staging requirements for events
• Including fast-fold screens
• Adjusted view parameters on projectors depending on setup to ensure the video was in-focus and square with the screen (keystone correction)
• Cued video off of QLab
• Clicked through power-point presentations following a presenter's cues
• Used multiple video sources and switched sources seamlessly between presentations
• Familiar with many consumer-use video protocols: HDMI, VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, Composite, Component, and S-Video.

General Theatre Experience

• Learned how to coil cables and keep cables organized and clean
• Exercised good house-keeping practices
• Kept track of equipment and its general state-of-repair, performed basic maintanence when required and arragned for external maintanence when needed
• Managed relationships with performers: delivered their requirements while being mindful of technical limitations
• Maintained a safe performing arts space for both audience and cast/crew members:
• setup backstage blue lights when required
• gave pre-show announcements if needed
• ensured over-head equipment had safety cables and was properly rigged