Months before the actors arrive, another hard working team of creative artists is already designing, planning and building the backdrops that will serve as the worlds to which Tuacahn audiences will be transported via the stage.

While the fruits of their labor is often in the spotlight, the people responsible for creating the on stage magic often prefer to remain unseen; giving the audience a greater opportunity to suspend their disbelief and revel in the escape from reality that only live theater can provide.

“We want them to be immersed in the magic of whatever is happening on stage.”

~Dustin Gibson

If Dustin Gibson had to describe the purpose of his job at Tuacahn he could sum it up in three words: Suspension of disbelief.

As the technical director for Tuacahn, Gibson and the technical production team handles all things sets, lights, sound, special effects and animals. Anyone who has ever seen the kind of spectacle Tuacahn puts on every year knows it’s a big job. But if Gibson and his team are doing their job right, their work is mostly unseen.

“For the audience, we want it to be a mystery,” Gibson says. “We want them to be immersed in the magic of whatever is happening on stage. Even though they know, logically, that Mary Poppins isn’t flying with a magic umbrella, we want them to believe that it is happening very naturally and seamlessly.”

In other words, suspension of disbelief.

This year marks Gibson’s first year in the role of Technical Director at Tuacahn, but his experience — both at Tuacahn and elsewhere — spans more than a decade and includes a background in commercial production and industrial production as well as scenic design for theater.

“In this industry it’s not as common to have the background in HVAC, commercial construction and industrial construction,” Gibson said. “It gave me insight that went beyond what you might learn in theater school. I think that’s what gave me a little more technical prowess in the beginning of my career and pushed me into some of my earlier gigs.”

Some of those earlier gigs included working as a consultant on the technical side of theatrical design, while also working in a residency position as an operating technical consultant at Lees McRae Theatre in North Carolina. While there, Gibson started doing some freelance work with Tuacahn and eventually, he made his way out west to join the staff full time.

There are a lot of things that are so unique to Tuacahn that make it really exciting to work on, Gibson says.

The canyon, for starters.

“We’ve got some pretty stiff competition on stage,” Gibson says, referring to Tuacahn Amphitheatre’s iconic and breathtaking red rock backdrop. “There is nothing forcing the audience to focus on the work you’ve done, rather than the jawdropping view behind us.”

The up side of that competition, however, is that when it comes to making room for creativity and expansive — or explosive — ideas, the sky is the limit. Sometimes literally.

“We say that phrase a lot in the art world, but here it has some literal meaning to it,” Gibson says.

Obviously there are parameters. Safety. Budget. Coordination of the creative and technical skills of everyone from the directors to the production team to the actors. But, it does leave plenty of room for that “suspension of disbelief” that Gibson loves.

“It’s a huge task,” Gibson says. “Right now, at the beginning of the year, we’re in the preliminary stages of this process. We receive drawings from the design staff, and then we marry those requests with what we can physically and financially do. We look at the designers’ drawings and then, if someone has allowed imagination to govern their pen, we bring that into the realm of reality.”

“This year, we’re working on how to make Mary Poppins fly, among other things.”

If necessary, Gibson and his team will bring in very specific experts to open the door to even more possibilities. It all depends on the musicals being produced and the vision of the directors.

“Every year has its own things that must be considered,” Gibson says. “When we did Beauty and the Beast we had all this magic to create. This year, we’re working on how to make Mary Poppins fly, among other things.”

Many of the specific decisions about special effects and design elements are currently being made, however, construction has started on Wonderland, and Mary Poppins construction will follow.

“We stagger it a little,” Gibson said. “It takes about six weeks to two months before the sets become show ready. During that time we bring in the performance staff and the art department and eventually, we have tech week.”

Ah, tech week. Even those on the very edges of the theater world have likely heard the words “tech week” referenced in hushed, awed, or frustrated tones.

“We have all kinds of colloquial terms for it,” Gibson says.

Some more printable than others.

But ultimately tech week is the apex of Gibson’s job. Suddenly, an entire staff of people who have yet to interact with certain elements will now do so for the first time. Be it pyrotechnics, automated machinery, or live animals.

“It’s usually done in a very fast-paced time frame and stress level is usually high,” Gibson says.

But it’s all part of the magic of theater. And in many cases that magic is part of the fun for the actors — and certainly yields great results for the audiences.

“It’s like a magician with a variety of tricks up their sleeves,” Gibson says, “except in theater the magician role is divided among many different technical people and actors, all doing a very well choreographed sleight of hand.”

Looking ahead to the 2022 Broadway season, Gibson says there is not one element he’s excited about more than any other. He just loves the process as a whole.

“We’re always thinking about the minutiae, things that are tiny but really important,” Gibson says.

Things like,
Can the wind push this over?
What’s the center of gravity for this set piece?
Is it alive, and if so how will it react?
How fast does it need to move?
How tall can it be?

“It’s long hours with a lot of physical and mental attention paid to what seems like small details to some, but it’s the world to someone backstage,” Gibson says.

Plus he loves it. Because despite the long hours and the crazy nuts and bolts thinking, the reward happens when it all comes together and the audience is able to enjoy that delightful “suspension of disbelief.”

Check out the technical splendor coming to the 2022 Tuacahn season with Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins, Wonderland, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Log onto www.tuacahn.org for show dates, times and tickets. Or call 435-652-3300.