As Head of Lighting and Video at Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy, Utah, Jaron Kent Hermansen has played a defining role in shaping the visual design of the venue’s performance and educational spaces. The designer was instrumental in the recent specification and integration of Elation Paragon fixtures in the Centre Stage and KL Core IP, KL Par FC, and Fuze Wash 500 fixtures in the newly opened Mountain American Arts & Education Beehive, which also marks a major expansion of its education program.
Associated with the Hale Centre since 2019, Hermansen was thorough in his background work before deciding to outfit the Hale Centre stages with Elation products. Working closely with Elation and Barbizon Lighting Company, he ultimately specified the fixtures after extensive testing and consultation. Key support came from Barbizon’s Peter Maurelli and Michael DeGrazio, and Elation’s William Irwin, who assisted in final system tuning and integration.
Paragon Takes Centre Stage
Hermansen says Elation wasn’t initially top of mind when he began exploring lighting options, but that shifted after an Elation sales representative reached out to introduce him to the Paragon fixture. “Long story short, he brought over a Paragon, and everything I had been looking for in a unit was embodied in it. I could see that it solved a lot of my issues for the Centre Stage space, and it just felt like a fixture you could create some really great art with.”
Those issues centered on producers who favored brightness versus his desire as a designer for color saturation, texture, and the ability to create mood. “The variable CRI engine in the Paragon really solved the problem,” Hermansen explains, referring to the fixture’s TruTone variable CRI system, which can adjust from CRI 73 to CRI 93. “I can now go from high-impact looks with a lot of power to highly nuanced tones with higher fidelity, from cue to cue, using a single fixture. In fact, in The Hunchback, the Paragons have been really great for that because of the way they handle the skin tones versus the magentas that I'm using.”
The designer also notes the Paragon’s speed. “It’s very fast, and as we do a lot of tracking, we tested the speed against our existing moving head profile units, and Paragon beat it out.” The Paragons were also used on the Centre Stage production of Disney’s Frozen earlier this year.
Paragon M + S
The Centre Stage features 12 Paragon M and 12 Paragon S fixtures for the in-the-round performance space. The Paragon S, positioned at VOM header level, are used for aerial textures and color, while also serving as the primary side light workhorses. The Paragon M work from overhead center ring positions.
“Those are the workhorse fixtures for me,” Hermansen says. “I go to those for almost every number and rely on them to give us some really great isolation. There's some godly moments in Hunchback where it's the light of God, and those are pivotal in giving us that quality of light that we're after.”
Hellfire
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which had its closing night at the Centre Stage on April 25, the Paragons were central to creating dramatic scenes of upheaval, including moments where it felt like the entire world was on fire. In the production’s Hellfire sequence, Hermansen and his team used the Paragon to construct a controlled perimeter of fire and light, blending flame with atmospheric lighting to create a mesmerizing, almost physical sense of heat and tension.
“The goal wasn’t to make it look like a lighting trick or stage effect, because that would weaken the impact. Instead, everything was designed to feel real, an environment the audience couldn’t look away from. Fire worked alongside the glow of the Paragon units, so even when flames weren’t active, the space still felt hot and alive. Lighting from above into a fog-filled pit created an ominous void. At that point, it stopped reading as an effect and started to feel like hell itself.”
Also, at the end of the play, when Quasimodo dumps burning iron onto the people below, the Paragons are used to create a glowing effect onto a fog curtain.
The Paragons are used to light the stage in tandem with projections, carefully matching the two for a nearly seamless result. In fact, Hermansen recalls walking into the space after the team had been working on it for a while and being unable to tell the difference between the projection and the Paragon effect.
KL Core Showcases Beehive Stage
The newly constructed Beehive Stage, a 300+ seat proscenium theatre with expansive LED architecture, opened in January with a youth production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Built to house the Hale Centre’s education program, the Beehive Stage presents both mainstage and youth productions, allowing emerging theatre technicians to manage youth shows and giving them hands-on experience with AV gear.
The venue includes a full LED scenic environment: an LED proscenium arch, dual LED legs, and a 50 ft x 26 ft LED wall. Here, the designer specified 52 KL Core IP units fitted with third-party shutter barrels.
“One of the reasons I picked the KL Core for this space is because we needed a lot of good color next to the LED screens. We tested them against comparable fixtures, and they performed great. They were powerful enough for LED screens while also being a more budget-friendly option.”
The whole idea behind the abundance of LED walls on the Beehive Stage is to integrate scenery and video seamlessly, or intentionally, between the two. “The LED walls are very punchy and bright, but the KL Cores really hold their own against them, especially when I have them coming through as side light,” says Hermansen. “They also color-match well. I rely on them to do a lot of the heavy lifting.”
Used across front light, side light, and top texture positions, the KL Core system provides saturated color for productions like Hallmarked, the theatre’s original musical currently running in the space. Rich in color, “like a Hallmark card would be,” Hermansen paints the production in rich shades from the unit’s RGBMA color system while a high CRI ensures excellent color accuracy. Against the LED screens, the KL Cores’ color capabilities are pivotal in ensuring the costumes and scenic elements match seamlessly.
Color Consistency
To ensure consistency across fixtures, Hermansen also specified 24 KL Par FC fixtures for the Beehive Stage, leveraging the same RGBMA color engine as the KL Core units to maintain uniform color tones and light quality. In addition, four Elation Fuze Wash 500 moving heads, also with RGBMA color mixing and suggested to Hermansen by Associate LD Collin Schmierer, provide soft, painterly fill and blending light.
Supporting the design process, Hermansen praises Associate Lighting Designer/Programmer Collin Schmierer, whom he describes as pivotal to all productions and their execution across every space. “His sense of color is astounding, and he helped to tune the balance of the different fixture types in the Beehive to be as accurate as possible, in addition to enhancing the world of Hunchback,” he concludes.
Hallmarked runs on the Beehive Stage until June 6, with the next production, Our Town, opening July 6.
About Elation
At Elation, we collaborate with leading professionals in the lighting industry to help bring extraordinary experiences to life. As a designer and manufacturer of a wide range of high-performance entertainment lighting products, we’re proud to be a trusted partner to top lighting professionals and production/rental houses around the world. Our commitment to quality, innovation, and creative solutions has made us a go-to resource in the industry. We also offer an advanced line of lighting control products through Obsidian Control Systems, and a full range of dependable specialty effects called Magmatic. Elation serves clients worldwide through offices in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Canada, and the Netherlands. We invite you to take a closer look at elationlighting.com
Photo Credit: Leavitt Wells
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