Light Up The Lake - Dynamic Holiday Light Show

In Autumn 2021, I participated in the inaugural year of TPEG's Light Up The Lake (LUTL) dynamic holiday light show by programming a song and building set pieces. As TPEG Vice President and Project Manager, I returned to LUTL in 2023 to act as Project Coordinator and Show Director.

Light Up the Lake is a yearly event produced by Ohio Staters Inc. that welcomes in the holiday season with hot chocolate, performings, a lighting ceremony, and our dynamic light show. Our portion alone features over 25 project members, 300 hours of planning, construction, and programming, over 20 props, 8 show sequences, and more than 5.6 Thousand Lights. 

Though this was our group's third year working on this project, my goals were to solve notable issues from years prior and to ensure the longevity of TPEG's collaboration with Ohio Staters Inc. First, I created new project teams: Storytelling, Programming, Building, and Business. Through these teams, the group was able to conquer and divide work while creating an exciting show.

Every week, I put together PowerPoint slides and ran meetings to ensure all members stayed on task and all deadlines were met. I oversaw each team's tasks and got to wear many hats. With the storytelling team, I encouraged judgment-free brainstorming and acted as director, ensuring the plot aligned with the event's values. With the building team, I purchased materials for new tree bases and gave them full reign to design and build as needed. I worked directly with the business team to create better documentation of each step of the project, so future project leaders had an outline to follow. We also put together a financial request for new materials which I presented to Ohio Staters Inc. Lastly, I worked with the programming team to help members learn the xLights program. Using xLights, I programmed the lights to Hot Chocolate from Polar Express (starting at 28:03 in the video below). I learned a lot about what it takes to manage a long-term project with a hard deadline and opening night.

Additionally, I met biweekly with an Ohio Staters Inc. representative to seek approval for our show plots, musical selections, and creative changes. This is where limitations came about (budget and time cuts). To make the most of our project, despite these cuts, I pushed for our group to create two shows, which we did. The first show fit time constraints and had a holiday-themed plot and narration to go with the music. For the second show, everyone on the programming team got to pick a song and program the lights to it, without time constraints. I learned to thrive under conditions out of my control.

After introducing Theme Park Engineering Group's portion of Light Up The Lake to a full amphitheater of students and families, I was thrilled to see audience members laughing, singing, and dancing along. Every ounce of work, from the weekly meetings to shopping trips to setup at Mirror Lake, was completely worth it. I want thank David Manguiet and Robert Anderson for guidance leading this project as well as my team leads: Kelsey Heacock, Jacob English, Matt Conroy, Kiran Patel, Arianna DiMenna, and Ethan Kopsch.

I have attached the full 2023 show recording directly beneath. Please enjoy.

{0:00 - 11:23} Show 1: "Dashing Through The Holidays"

{11:24 - 12:58} Carmen OHIO

{13:00 - 33:17} Show 2: Holiday Music Compilation

{33:18 - 36:14} Credits