Most performers desire to be in the spotlight center-stage after working several months on rehearsing their newest play or musical. Nick Bright, meanwhile, relishes behind the scenes putting the spotlight on others, and he prefers it that way.
Bright is a Carroll High School Senior that has been involved in Carroll ISD’s theater program ever since he was in middle school. Originally joining to learn how to act, Bright started helping with tech when he went into the eighth grade. At that point, he started helping with anything tech at the first show.
“I help with everything at this point,” Bright expresses. “I’m the spot operator, I help change mics, operate the board, build sets. I was learning a whole bunch all at once, and I self-taught myself a lot of it either through manuals, YouTube or just randomly pressing buttons.”
Bright involved himself with Carroll ISD theater’s technical production on its shows ever since, with some of his more recent behind-the-scenes work featured in the department’s winter performance “Side Show,” which the tells the true story of conjoined twins and entertainers Violet and Daisy Hilton.
Bright recently won three awards in lighting design excellence for his work on the show, including from the Dallas Summer Musicals High School Musical Theater Awards, the Betty Lynn Buckley Awards and the Schmidt and Jones Awards.
“The difficulty for it is really fun for me,” Bright explains. “There could be a thousand different ways to solve just one problem, or maybe one way will actually be the only way to solve it. In theater, it always happens. Always. There’s never been a run where something hasn't broken, or something is lost, or something still needs to get built or put together. There’s always something that happens.”
These issues could pop-up anytime, whether they be right in the middle of rehearsals, or just a few days from opening night. One such issue, Bright says, was when the intelligent lights that moved with on-stage cues died and would not come back on.
“If that’s not working, there’s a lot of things that it could be,” he explains. “The breaker could be broken, so we just need to flip the breaker. It could be that the lamp on it is out. The power supply could be out. It could be so many different things that are wrong, or it could legitimately be just turning it off and on again.”
If none of those solutions worked, then Bright explained that it was the power supply, and it would have to be sent into the repair shop to be fixed.
Bright said that happened to him one time a couple of days before a show.
"We already had all of the cues for the show, and it just stopped working," Bright recalls. "That night, I basically tried best as possible to pull another light if really needed. There’s a lot of challenge with it. It’s not just some simple thing that can be done.”
But despite its challenges and stresses, Bright expresses that he really enjoys lighting design and even wants to pursue creative entertainment technology at Belmont University after graduating.
“It’s like engineering, but for lighting, sound, A/V, robotics,” Bright states.
Whether he’s pointing a spotlight or operating the soundboard, Bright said he enjoys the behind-the-scenes work that he does for every show. He expresses that being behind the spotlight is where he belongs.
“I had never touched a drill before high school theater,” Bright chuckles. “Now I do lighting and sound setup for corporate events and galas. It’s just so rewarding to watch everything come together.”