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Assistant & Production Electrician

Home for the Holidays

Home for the Holidays: Sounds of the Season

Mountain Theatre Company 2024

Director: Scott Daniel

Production Manager: Emanual Carrero

Light Design: Hannah Wein

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: TBD

Home for the Holidays: Sounds of the Season entails a holiday extravaganza, singing some holiday classic along with original holiday arrangements in a fun for the whole family night to remember. The plot was a rep plot that only needed to be refocused. Some added elements included LED Strip Bar Lights installed across the top of the set, sconces installed onto the set, 2 hazers, a scent machine, and 4 booms. An issue we had to troubleshoot was putting the scent machine in its own dmx line, as putting it inside an existing dmx line made some Lustrs not work consistently. We also originally had two low lying foggers as part of the show but due to the HVAC system and the weather we had to strike them as the fog never covered the entire stage. For tech I attempted to setup a client eos board to the master board and I learned they had to be the same version; however, I made the mistake of updating the client board to too new a version. I was in charge of the spotlight operators for this show, so I had to show them how to use the spotlights and make/update the spot sheets during tech week. A lesson I learned from this show was how to use the scent machine, and using master/client modes on eos consoles.

Macbeth

Macbeth

Invictus Theatre Company 2024

Director: Sarafina Vecchio

Production Manager: Rooney G.

Light Design: Hannah Wein

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: Aaron Reese Boseman Photography

Macbeth is a Shakespearian classic tragedy surpassing time by tackling themes such as morals, guilt, treachery, power, ambition, and fate. In our rendition of the "Scottish Play", we aimed to create an immersive environment that really made the audience feel connected with the show by stretching scenic and lighting elements among the audience banks. For lighting this included hanging candles in the grid and amongst the ground. The plot consisted of 6 Martin Mac Auras, 33 ETC Source 4s, 3 ETC Source 4 PARs, 9 Chauvet Colorado Quad Tours, 9 DJ Wellfits, & a Hazer. The space has a pipe grid with dimmer packs installed every 10 feet on every other pipe. We were able to repurpose most of the lights in the grid from the previous show that was in the space. During hang, I did have to remind myself of the profiles on the Colorado Quad Tours and the DJ Wellfits, because I didn't remember their settings or I hadn't used them before. The candles we used didn't draw a lot of power, so we had to use ghost power (add a light to the power chain that drew more power) in order for the candles to behave properly with the board. Some lessons I learned from this show include using new equipment, and what ghost power is.

In His Hands

In His Hands

First Floor Theatre 2024

Director: Micah Figueroa

Production Manager: Shelbi Weaver

Light Design: Conchita Avita

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: Michael Brosilow

In His Hands follows the story of Daniel and Christian, and how their experience with religion impacts their love relationship and themselves. We rented the upstairs Crosby space at the Den Theater for our show. This space was a black box with unistrut in the ceiling and 3 hanging dimmer packs each with 6 dimmers. The plot consisted of 90% conventionals, and 10% LEDs which included both LED Pars and LED tape. The space has a pretty shallow ceiling, so we had to frequently communicate with scenic in order to make sure both of our elements fit nicely in the space together. For materials, there was a miscommunication about our rental and were missing some materials; so there was a last minute rush to acquire these in time for previews, but by looking at the problems pragmatically we were able to accomplish these in due time. My previous experiences in unistrut spaces, and on time constraints helped me immensely to tackle this show with minimal hiccups. Something I could have done better was leave myself more time to work, in cases of troubleshooting unforseen issues.

Zac Efron

Zac Efron

Token Theatre 2024

Director: Alan Muraoka

Production Managers: Wai Yim & David Rhee

Light Design: Daniel Friedman

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: - Daniel Eggert

Zac Efron explores the love lives of 2 gay Asian Americans and the complications that come with it. This show is astounding, powerful, moving, and moreover a promotion of self-love. The production took place at Red Orchid Theater, which I worked in earlier this year and had many mistakes, but having that prior experience helped me better tackle it this time around. The plot consisted of mostly conventionals with some UV PARs, LED PARs, LED tape, and mini movers. Working with unistrut hanging positions always proves challenging, having to purchase more hardware for them of varying sizes to match the varying unistrut in the space. An issue we had to troubleshoot were broken dimmers and reworking the plot to account for those losses. There were some broken fixtures as well that needed new housing bases, that we simply had to replace the entire fixture instead of ordering new bases due to time constraints. Another project I worked on was reusing old LED tape in the space, and figuring out where power and dmx was originally run to and how to incorporate it into our plot. My major takeaways from this show were new equipment knowledge, and purchasing time management.

Grease

Grease

Mountain Theatre Company 2024

Director: Scott Daniel

Company Manager: Emanuel Carrero

Light Design: Hannah Wein

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: - Hannah Bolstad & Emily Mercedes Rich

Grease is a classic summer show of teen romance, shenanigans, and friendship. The show was focused off of a rep plot of the space, with adds including: a back wall of LED footlight strips hung in the air, LED footlight strips at the front of the stage, 4 booms, 2 foggers, 2 hazers, 2 spotlights and 3 practicals. Issues we had to troubleshoot mainly consisted of communicating with scenic about lighting installs/cable runs, and me getting my footing in a new space. Communication with the production team was huge for this show with scenic and lighting pieces overlapping and needing to make decisions on where and when things get installed. I was also in charge of the spotlight operators for the show and making/updating the spot sheet during tech week. One of the bigger installs included a wall of LED Strip Bar Lights hung on a baton upstage of the whole set. We suspended them with tieline from the baton, and secured them to the ground as well with tieline so the fixtures would face toward the audience straight. This took some time and finessing due to the different positions the lights hung at and the cable runs needing to be pretty. My major takeaways from this show were team communication and coordination, new equipment knowledge, and patience.

Lavender Men

Lavender Men

About Face Theater 2024

Director: Lucky Stiff

Production Manager: Audrey Kleine

Light Design: Benjamen Carne

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: - Jenn Udoni

Lavender Men explores self-love and acceptance through a historical lense for queer, plus-sized POC who've been ignored or ridiculed for unapologetically being themselves. This powerhouse of a show was both entertaining and educational throughout the entire production process. The plot consisted of Source 4s, Source 4 PARs, birdies, Martin Rush Washes, dinky movers, Elation sixbars, and a hazer. Some troubleshooting that come up during the tech process included switching out bad equipment we rented out, changing modes on intelligent fixtures, and movers not cooperating. Our process for figuring out the mover issue was factory resetting the fixture, changing modes on the fixture and in patch, changing the dmx and power lines, then ultimately taking it apart, and sending it off to be fixed by a manufacturer, and replacing these movers with different ones we had to rent. Other technical issues were based soley on my experience with LED equipment and my learning curve on how to use them. For example, powering and connecting a dmx iris to an I-cue with 5pin and 4pin dmx, in a plot that consisted of 5pin and 3pin dmx fixtures. Creating a clever and resourceful dmx/ power run was challenging for me due to my inexperience with it; however, working with the designer, coworkers, and connections of mine we were able to accomplish the problem as a team. My major takeaways from this show were newfound knowledge on equipment, technical fixture care, and dmx pin conversions.

Brightest Thing

The Brightest Thing in The World

About Face Theater 2024

Director: Kierra Fromm

Production Manager: Audrey Kleine

Light Design: Conchita Avita

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred:  Michael Brosilow

The Brightest Thing In The World follows the lives of Lane, Steph, and Della. We watch Lane and Steph's relationship develop while Lane struggles with her heroin addiction and Steph figures out her place in her daughter's life. The Den - Bookspan space consists of a pipe grid, with 48 dimmers run from the booth into the space via multi-soca cable. The plot consisted of Source 4s, Source 4 PARs, birdies, Sixpars, Elation Fuze wash, some practicals and haze. Practicals included a Christmas tree, an LED tape bakery case, and a light-up cake. For the cake I retrofitted some desk fairy lights and re-wired the switch from the battery pack to hide on the outside of the cake for actors to turn on and off. The bakery display case consisted of LED tape, a wireless power supply and decoder that we rented. The Christmas tree also used a wireless power supply and decoder for its lights. The globes light bulbs were also rented to us as NYX LED light bulbs that would wirelessly connect to a transmitter that would then allow them to connect to the light board. The NYX light up bulb pendants took a little more time to work on, due to us rearranging their positions multiple times, which in turn adjusted the positions of other fixtures and their focus. This show taught me more on how to come up with creative solutions for practicals and created more connections for rentals and lighting advice.

In Quietness

In Quietness

Red Orchid Theater 2024

Director: Dado

Production Manager: Patrick Starner

Light Design: Heather Gilbert

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: - Evan Hanover

In Quietness follows a group of individuals who explore the principles of fidelity and how it affects different aspects of their lives, especially faith. This production was one of the more challenging ones to date, due to my newness to the space and confusion as to its operation. The plot consisted of mostly conventionals with some LED PARs, along with clip lights that fit into scenic ceiling units. The dimmers of the space are a wall of 32 edison power boxes in the booth, that lead out into the playing space, ending at linear positions of more edison power boxes. The edison power boxes in the booth connect to 2 packs of 12 dimmers, as well as 2 packs of 4 dimmers. I originally mistook the dimmers in the playing space for static power, and wasted time making direct runs to the booth instead of using the dimmers in the playing space. This mistake cost me being way behind for focus and having to reschedule a second focus with the designer. I also had trouble using the unistrut hardware in the space because I had never used it before, and we were also missing some hanging positions. So I had to install some temporary wooden boards to the ceiling to use as hanging positions. Due to my mistakes, I wasted a lot of time that put team lighting behind schedule, so I was fixing my mistakes right up until opening. I learned a lot from this show on how to improve my time management, become familiar with a space before load-in, troubleshoot and come up with better solutions on the fly, to not be afraid to ask more questions and for help when I need it.

Mosque 4 Msque

Mosque 4 Mosque

About Face Theater 2022

Director: Sophiyaa Nayar

Production Manager: Audrey Kleine

Light Design: Conchita Avitia

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: - Conchita Avita

Mosque 4 Mosque covered 3 generations of an immigrant Syrian family defining what home means and needs to mean for them. About Face Theater rented out the Bookspan space at the Den Theater as our performance space. As the role of Production Electrician, I took care of all the prep paperwork and managed hang, cable, focus, and tech notes of the lights, up until opening. The plot consisted of At hang we had a little trouble as some multi/soca cables weren't working; however, there were plenty of other unused multi/soca cables to utilize so it was a quick fix. This show required a lot of changes day in and day out, with the director and artistic team coming up with new visions of the show during tech. I was there to meet their needs, moving and refocusing lights, our hazer and wiring LED tape to fixtures. This show was challenging in the aspect that I never knew quite what the vision was due to it constantly evolving, so it was difficult to give my input for lighting moves. 

Cabaret

Cabaret

Columbia College Chicago 2022

Director: Elizabeth Swanson

Light Design: Josiah Croegaert 

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Lighting Supervisor: Marc Chevalier

Photo Cred: Claire-ink

Cabaret was my first production where I truly filled the role of Production Electrician, as it would be in a professional setting. Cabaret explores the night scene of Berlin, Germany shifting into the rise of Hitler, wide-spread panic and despair. The plot consisted of Source 4s of varying degrees, Source 4 Lustrs of varying degrees, Source 4 PARs, Colorsource spots, Varilite movers, COLORado Quad Tours, Chroma Qs, Rogue R2 Washs, birdies, and some Fresnels. As PE, I made many to do lists, notes, math, and paperwork to guide me throughout including: red/yellow flags, counts, channel hookups, hang cards, hang tape, updating the plots regularly, calculating power, and assessing dimmer & power. The hardest part in this process was working with Lightwright, as I wasn't as proficient in the program as I thought I was. It was my first time leading a team of crew (around 10 people),however, I was able to  lead them through the hang/focus process and get things done in a timely manner. I learned a lot through the show process, particularly becoming more proficient in LEDs, universes, and strip lights.

American Origami/#Here Too

American Origami/#Here Too

Columbia College Chicago 2021

Directors: Barbara Pitts McAdams, Jimmy Maize & Ashley Keys

Light Design: Quinn Chisenhall

Production Electrician: Mark Brown

Assistant Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Lighting Supervisor: Marc Chevalier

Photo Cred: Mark Brown

American Origami & #HereToo was a two-in-one devised performance covering America's gun violence epidemic through different lenses. My senior Mark Brown was the production electrician, while I was his assistant and my duties entailed mostly with paperwork and the hands-on work. I was in charge of updating any paperwork throughout the process, taking note of any changes and applying them where needed. I was also an active part of crew for hang/focus and guiding those who needed help or had questions. One of the hardest and longest parts of this production was wiring the giant burlap pipe tree. We had about 100 or so light bulbs put in sporadically through the tree that we had to individually wire and thread through it. We ended up connecting them in sections, creating about 5 different channels for the bulbs to be controlled. I learned more on this show by brushing up on my wiring and also learning to configure the bulbs into a viable number of channels for the designer to use.

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story

Starlight Theatre 2019

Director: Wendy Taylor

Light Design: Gabby Tifft

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Lighting Supervisor: Brandon Mechler

Photo Cred: Dean Coryell

A Christmas Story was our annual Christmas show for 2019. This was also my first time operating the board for a musical. The show was full of dramatic moments and fun songs that offered opportunity for many different lighting looks. The plot turned around our summer season plot 180 degrees for the indoor winter stage. We had a baton of 20 front lights using source fours with 19 and 36 degree barrels. Along with this we utilized scrollers and movers to show different colors for a given scene. We also used no color down light fresnels, and top side textures using source fours with 19 degree barrels. One of the challenges we had with this show was scheduling. Due to the lighting designer being away at college, and myself being involved with another show the same week as tech week; neither of us were there to fix any problems we had with lighting. So we had to ask our lighting designer from last Christmas (Brandon) to come in during the week to fix any issues that came up. Afterwards Gabby and I were able to come for the show runs on the weekend, and fix anything needed. 

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Starlight Theatre 2019

Director: Kevin Poole

Light Design: Eric Moslow

Production Electrician: Hannah Bolstad

Photo Cred: Dean Coryell

Twelfth Night was our yearly Shakespeare in the park show for 2019. Since it was outside, we had to use fixtures that would withstand the weather conditions; in this case we used polished chrome PAR can 64 fixtures. We didn't use any colored gels; however, we put diffusion in all the fixtures to give a softer look. The plot consisted of 5 scaffolding towers that made a semi-circle, mimicking the front shape of the stage. This would give us front and side lighting. Then, additionally we hung a work light in the tree upstage to give some top light and back light. Due to the light plot's simplicity, much of the show was either lights up or lights down, working with different lighting intensities.

CONTACT ME

Hannah Bolstad

Production Electrician & Light Designer

Phone:

815-491-9483

 

Email:

bolstadh99@gmail.com 

© 2023 By Hannah Bolstad. Proudly created with Wix.com

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