Most recently, I've worked for The Metropolitan Opera as a lighting programmer. We are responsible for maintaining showfiles for every production the Met performs. We act as conservators of the lighting design by working with our in-house lighting designers to update equipment and programming to realize the deisgns of the original designers.

Previously, I worked for American Ballet Theatre as an assistat electrician and programmer. My responsibilities for ABT included planning, managing, and maintaining the lighting control systems while working with the theaters we played to integrate our control system in to theirs. I also was their primary lighting programmer.

Before that, I worked for the first national tour of Million Dollar Quartet as the assistant electrician. Some of my duties included hanging over-stage electrics on truss in cooperation with our other electricians, planning and implementation for all front-of-house lighting, over-stage conventional focus and front-light for the show.

I began my entertainment touring career in 2009 while I was still in college working for Dora the Explorer Live! In the past I’ve also toured as an electrician for Blue Man Group, Madagascar Live! and Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

I grew up in the suburbs of Hartford Connecticut with a few dogs, a sister, and very loving parents. We were always encouraged (and expected) to pursue any hobby or interest. That expectation led to a large portion of my childhood being filled with music, acting, and art lessons all around the state of Connecticut. Most of all, this affirmed my love for artistic expression but proved that performance was not for me. I began focusing on supporting arts and chose to concentrate on lighting design and electrics for live performance.

This early peaked interested in light and electricity was unlike my peers but found a place to flourish at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts where I spent two years training in Theater Design and Production in the afternoon while still attending “normal” high school academics in my home town every morning. I went on to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC where I studied Lighting Technology under M. Eric Rimes and earned my BFA in 2010.

UNCSA continued and furthered my training in my career in ways I could have never imagined but also opened new doors into related arts such as print-making and photography that I still pursue.

Thanks for viewing my site and please explore,
Ben

I am an ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician.
I am a proud member of IATSE Local 635- Winston-Salem, NC.

 

 

“ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians have made an important professional commitment to safely serve the entertainment industry by becoming ETCP Certified. These individuals have passed the rigorous, competency-based electrical examination.
The ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician Examination evaluates the competency of the upper third of electricians working in the entertainment industry.”
-From the ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians website. Read more here

IATSE is The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada.

“Today the IATSE is the largest union representing workers in the entertainment industry. Our members work in all forms of live theater, motion picture and television production, trade shows and exhibitions, television broadcasting, and concerts as well as the equipment and construction shops that support all these areas of the entertainment industry. We represent virtually all the behind the scenes workers in crafts ranging from motion picture animator to theater usher.”

-From the IATSE-international website. Read more here