91探花

Each summer School of Dance Technical Director and Lighting Designer John Bohuslawsky (affectionately known as John B. to students) leads a production crew made up of OHIO students and alumni in the set up, production support, and tear down of the three-week Lancaster Festival. The festival is a much-loved, multidisciplinary event that presents arts, cultural, and social activities throughout the Lancaster region over a three-week period.

Of the various venues at partner sites, the largest is located at the Wendel Concert Stage at OHIO鈥橲 Lancaster campus. Erica Lewis, BFA 鈥�24 Dance, explains that the hands on work the production crew experiences encompasses all aspects of live production. 

鈥淲e build the canopy, the stage and the outdoor stuff鈥� so we have a heavy first week, just building everything," Lewis explained. "Then we work with the orchestra mainly鈥� and when the roadies come, we'll help unload the trucks and then load the trucks back up. We do everything in reverse.鈥�

Abby Bowman, BFA 鈥�23, MA 鈥�24, and Nicole Peterson, BFA鈥�23, MA 鈥�24, both are in their fourth year on the Lancaster Festival crew, having joined as Dance undergrads and continued into their graduate studies in Arts Administration. 

鈥淲e double-dipped this year with an Arts Administration internship with Deb Connell, the Executive Director [of the festival],鈥� explains Bowman. 鈥淪o we've been working in the office pretty much since May.鈥�

Both students have found value in pushing themselves to learn the technical aspects of producing a show. 

鈥淚 never really saw the behind the scenes, backstage kind of production work until I came to college,鈥� says Peterson. "But really, day one that I took John B's class freshman year was it for me. I was like, 鈥業 love this work.鈥� Just seeing both sides of it, and because of our major, the BFA track, we were able to perform, but also do a lot of backstage work with John B. So, there were some shows that we're dancing on stage, and the next piece we're stage managing鈥� and then ultimately coming here and doing more production work has been a lot of fun.鈥�

Bowman agrees wholeheartedly. 

鈥淚 was a little nervous... but John B. really lays out the base for you so well when you're a freshman. It goes well with your dancing too, because being on the stage you're more aware of the production side鈥� the stage managing part in the production is its own choreography, it鈥檚 so cool. I love the festival, it鈥檚 so fun working here," she added.

Lewis also highlights the added benefit of seeing guest artists in another light from the crew side of things. 

鈥淭he respect is crazy! You get to see a performer before they're putting on their show and you kind of get to see how they act. And so, it's interesting to see if they respect their crew and respect us backstage people or if they don't and that's very interesting and insightful for me, too.鈥�

The experience hasn鈥檛 scared Lewis off, in fact, she鈥檚 interested in considering production as a viable day job while continuing her dance aspirations.

鈥淚鈥檓 applying for a production job after this. There are a couple different companies鈥� AEG is the company that I would like to get with, they work with KEMBA Live! and a couple other bigger ones. So, it's like what I've been doing for the past three years with Lancaster is following me right into the career field," Lewis said. 

This year鈥檚 added administrative internship for Bowman and Peterson also has pushed them to explore the details of arts administration from the perspective of the director of the festival, with Bowman鈥檚 capstone project focusing on a crisis management plan for the festival and Peterson crafting a production handbook to assist in consistent best practices.

鈥淭hat kind of administration leadership side that John B. lets us take on, I feel made me want to do arts administration,鈥� explains Bowman. 鈥淭hat leadership role, the little tidbits that John B. teaches us, makes you want to be an arts administrator.鈥�

Peterson also feels strongly that Bohuslawsky鈥檚 mentorship helped give her the confidence to take on the challenges of production work. 

鈥淢ore starting our junior year John B. kind of loosened the reins a little bit and let us take over some shows, which like she said has been beneficial to go into arts administration already having somewhat of a background in leadership and organizational skills that maybe we wouldn't have gotten if we really didn't dive into the production work in undergrad before moving into grad school.鈥�

The Lancaster Festival will open its 40th season Thursday, July 18th. For more information visit lancaterfestival.org.