The invisible workforce behind every standing ovation

The soft ding echoes through the lobby of the Hult Center calling everyone in. Tickets are scanned, playbills shuffled through, ushers direct excited audience members towards their seats. And then the lights dim. What happens next is an escape into something else entirely. 

But there has been an invisible performance taking place behind the scenes that almost no one ever sees. Hours before the first audience member found their seat, someone climbed fifty feet into the air to inspect the rigging. Someone programmed hundreds of lighting cues. Someone else solved three technical issues before the doors even opened. And if they do everything right, no one will ever know they were there. 

Beyond the performers on stage or the director helping the symphony move forward together; there is also a highly skilled technical team engineering the experience that unfolds in front of a live audience. Above the stage, a rigger suspends thousands of pounds of lighting and scenery from steel cables. Nearby, a lighting programmer builds hundreds of cues that will subtly shift an audience’s emotions without them ever noticing. An audio engineer fine-tunes every microphone and speaker, so each note reaches the back row exactly as it was meant to. 

“At the end of the day, audiences come to experience the magic of live performance. Our goal is to make that experience feel effortless. When everything goes right, no one notices the people behind the curtain—and that’s usually the sign we’ve done our jobs well,” says Lauren Stardust

Modern live entertainment is increasing in complexity and with it the level of technical expertise, skill, and responsibility required for the crew behind the scenes. No one understands this better than Antonio Anacan, who has built a career on both sides of the curtain. As co-founder of #instaballet, an IATSE rigger, dance photographer, and rigging trainer, Antonio understands both the intricacies of creating an immersive experience for a live audience and the training, commitment, and skill required. 

“Each show is different. Each night is different. Stagehands have to be aware, ready and present. At the same time, they can’t panic when something happens. They have to say, ‘Things need to happen right now. Let’s go get it done,” explains Antonio. “Stagehands are the infrastructure of the arts. If you want something to work properly, it needs to be supported.”

For this ecosystem to thrive, a few key things need to be in place. The first is awareness of this workforce and the careers that fuel it to create pipelines for workforce development and industry growth. The second is evolving how this workforce has brought in, trained, and supported throughout their career. And this is the space where Antonio and his partners are making a difference. 

For years, experienced riggers volunteered countless hours training the next generation using aging equipment handed down from touring productions. For riggers, this meant working with old steel cables with memory and wear, rather than training on modern equipment in line with industry standard. Antonio and his partners at Lane Arts Council brought the challenge to Lane Workforce Partnership as part of broader work around creative sector strategy. Together, they helped build a training investment supported by Lane Workforce Partnership, the City of Eugene, and the Hult Center, bringing $30,000 in funding to pay trainers, purchase new industry-standard steel cables, shackles, harnesses, and chain, and expand training opportunities for the workforce. What started as a conversation about training and equipment ultimately revealed something much larger: a workforce that had been hiding in plain sight.

“Through his leadership within the creative sector partnership, Antonio identified an opportunity that many of us simply hadn’t recognized. He explained that the shortage of qualified riggers and stagehands was limiting the number and scale of performances our region could host. That workforce gap wasn’t just affecting the arts. It was impacting tourism, local spending, and economic opportunity,” shared Ashley Espinoza of Lane Workforce Partnership. 

This opportunity brought light to a workforce development opportunity in a sector that is anything but tiny. The creative sector includes thousands of workers, hundreds of employers, and has generated more than $171 million in payroll in Lane County as of 2023. Beyond the numbers, the creative sector reaches far beyond the theater. Stagehands move between venues. Lighting designers work across theaters and festivals. Riggers are often climbers or arborists. Skills developed backstage ripple beyond any single performance, intersecting across sectors like manufacturing, technology, hospitality, tourism, and entrepreneurship.

“Arts and creativity are part of the infrastructure that makes a region economically competitive. They help define a community’s identity, attract talent, support businesses, encourage innovation, and create places where people want to build their lives. When communities intentionally invest in their creative ecosystem, they position themselves to attract larger opportunities, additional investment, and long-term economic sustainability,” explains Ashely. 

Next time the stage lights go up, the sound weaves through a hushed audience, and the performance begins. Take a moment to appreciate the professionals helping to make it possible, the ones whose work is invisible by design. For them, success isn’t the applause for the crew, it’s measured by whether the audience leaves talking about the performance instead of the mechanics that made it possible. It’s the wonder that remains long after the audience goes home, and the tear down begins. That’s what fuels these very same professionals to show up somewhere else tomorrow and do it all again.

About Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene

Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene is a nonprofit organization that connects, supports, and advocates for arts and culture as essential contributors to Eugene’s economy, identity, and quality of life. Through partnerships with artists, businesses, civic leaders, and community members, ABAE works to strengthen the creative ecosystem that makes Eugene a vibrant place to live, work, and gather. As conversations continue about the future of Eugene’s cultural core, ABAE believes stories like this one help illuminate how the arts are essential to a thriving, resilient downtown.