Everyone can appreciate the amazing performances of the singers and dancers, but there is another crucial aspect to Heritage Night that not many think about.  The tech side of things can be often over looked by the audience, despite how important it is to the show.  Max Warasila, a senior, was in charge of the tech for this year’s performance.  Each year Heritage Night gets a new theme and new participants.  They also redesign all of the lighting and sound.   He rehung all of the lights on the stage specifically for this show.  All of you in the audience probably noticed the row of extremely bright lights aimed away from the performers and towards you; those are called blinders, and they are also something new this year.  One of the most significant additions was the use of subs.  In previous years you may have noticed that when the audio got to loud, it could hurt your ears.   With the use of subs, Max was able to reach higher sounds more comfortably.  Lastly, the Heritage night sign hung at the rear of the stage was the finishing touch.

While tech can be lots of fun, but isn’t as easy as it looks.  For example, the average research paper takes about 10 hours to complete.  That seems like a lot, right?  The man hours put into the tech part of Heritage Night measured up to around 80 to 100 hours.  Fortunately, the techies have a few weeks to prepare, and a group of people willing to help.  While Max was responsible for most of the work done on the show, he did get some help hanging lights from the tech class, specifically Julian Hockenberry (9) and Samuel Madison (11).  Audio set up was greatly assisted by Madison Meinbresse (10) and run during the show by Mr. Walker (Guitar Teacher).

Although the work of doing tech for Heritage Night is very time consuming, the outcome of a good show is very rewarding.  As Max Warasila says about the experience, “It’s such a great experience to work on these events. There is so much creative talent that comes together to create a live show – whether from dancers, singers, performers or techs – and the vibe it creates is very comforting. The best part, at least for me, is that when it all comes down to it, our show touches the lives of hundreds of people, and it’s such a great thing to be able to do.”