There’s a new live event production team in Tempe. And you’ll find their prices quite reasonable — likely even free. But you’ll have to be on the campus of Arizona State University to take advantage of it …
Students looking for experience, an opportunity to work with better gear, and a selfless desire to help their fellow students increase the production value of their events have formed Lighting Audio Video Arts (LAVA). It’s a student-led and student-crewed production group.It was founded early last year, and has already taken on some big events, says Kelsey Booth, lighting director, who founded the group with TD Andrew Latimer. Booth has been active in production since she was a freshman and says she met Latimer when they were both working on a major event, the American Cancer Relay for Life. “Officially, we had our first shows in August of last year, and made it a club in May,” Booth says. Today they have a crew of over 20, and it’s entirely student-run.
But they are getting by with a little help with their friends … LAVA has reached out to companies for gear and many have responded with good deals on used and slightly damaged gear. “We probably have about 12 companies that are supporting us,” including Precise Corporate Staging (PCS), Techni-Lux, 4Wall, GAM, Latest Crazy Production, LMG, Landco and Urban Recluse Studios, among others. “This has allowed us to provide production support for the campus community that is either extremely cheap or free.”
Two big events they’ve pulled off recently was this year’s Relay for Life and a Rock the Earth Concert. The latter was done entirely with LEDs, befitting its “green” theme. Six bands took the stage for the eight-hour event. In addition, LAVA averages two or three smaller events per week.
Booth and company are taking home real-life lessons in what it takes to be in the live event production business. “We’re all students, and fitting all this around class schedules is crazy sometimes,” she sighs. “The Relay for Life event, which I was TD for, was especially challenging, as we worked within a very small budget and a mostly all volunteer crew.” (Oh, if we could say scheduling challenges and budget issues go away when one turns pro!)
The founders have big ambitions for LAVA: “We’re hoping it will take over all production needs for students and on-campus events, and provide education and outreach opportunities for others, possibly providing services for local community colleges and even K-12 schools.” Booth adds that Latimer is coordinator for a sustainability program that aspires to work with companies to ship them their old gear. If they can’t use it themselves, or provide it to other groups, it will be recycled in an ecologically-responsible manner.
Don’t jump to conclusions as far as the founder’s majors — Booth is studying Biomedical Engineering and Latimer is an Industrial Engineering major. Crew members might be theatre majors, but they are taking a wide range of courses, everything from Russian to Anthropology.
“Mostly, right now, we just hope to help out our university and community and pick up some experience along the way,” Booth says. “Our goal is to create this opportunity for all and to get professional production experience. Both Andrew and have studied and worked in audio and lighting [respectively], but most of the others come in with limited experience. We teach them some things, and hopefully, the on-the-job training will lead to a job in the industry. But there are no requirements to join LAVA — show up and we’ll have you pushing cases right away, and go from there!”
