Justin (Borgelt) Fuchs graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre (Design/Technical Production) in 2009. His lighting design career has taken him around the country, including to Broadway. Now, he has his own company, Thrive Corporate Events, where he strives to make every event unique.
“My goal is to work with people that don’t necessarily plan events all the time,” Fuchs said. “They’re a communications person that gets tasked, ‘Hey, we need to throw this big event.’ You have a bunch of money, stay under budget kind of thing. So I try to find those people and say, let me use my connections and just the skill of theatre and how that can bring a new look and feel to events to help them. It seems like all these big corporate events now, you really have to amp up. People are getting them in the door, which is great. But then, they’re not going that extra level and really giving them that final touch.”
He likes to put his theatre principles into use in his event planning.
“A lot of that is lighting and how you can change a space just using some uplight or texture and using those same theories that you would in theatre of how you’re going to create that feeling, but in an event space,” he said. “Same with even just lighting the stage. So many things are now videoed, and if you don’t light it properly, your video is not going to be very happy. So taking all of those principles, as well as using new things, like pixel mapping and projection mapping and all of these new things you can do with video in an event space is such a big thing.”
Originally from Omaha, Fuchs became interested in theatre and, in particular, lighting design, at Omaha Northwest High School.
“There wasn’t a lot of parent involvement, and funds weren’t there,” he said. “So it was me, a drama teacher and a few other people. We just had to do it [all]. And I was like, this is kind of cool. I like lighting design because it’s so much control. And I guess I would say I’m a controlling person. I like doing my own thing and having it my way. And of all the mediums in theatre, I feel like lighting has the most control over what the audience feels. Are they really enjoying it? Are they getting the right feeling? And if you really want to, you can just turn the lights off, and everyone’s sitting in the dark. But you can still have a powerful moment doing that.”
He came to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln the year before Johnny Carson made his initial donation to renovate the Temple Building.
“I had one year of the old building, one year of construction and then two years of the new building and figuring out what was going on,” Fuchs said.
He appreciated learning the basics in the Carson School.
“One thing that’s interesting about the tech side of things in the production world is half the people didn’t have degrees,” he said. “They learned it on the road. And did I learn a ton on the road? I did. But what I always tell people is here [at UNL] I learned how to CAD and how to draw and to learn the basics. When I was out on the road, it was amazing how many young kids would come through, and they could program a console and all these crazy, moving lights like nothing else. But if you gave them 120 park cans that don’t move themselves, and you have to actually go up and move them, they have no idea. They’re so lost. So I think that’s a huge thing of just being able to learn the basics because on the road, you just don’t have that kind of time.”
While still in school, he began working for TMS in Omaha, a production integration company, whose clients have included Dave Matthews Band, 311, Berkshire Hathaway, Alton Brown, MythBusters and Mannheim Steamroller. He worked for them for nearly 10 years until 2018.
“I started as a lighting tech for them, traveling around the country, doing fairs and festivals and corporate gigs—pretty much anything lighting related,” Fuchs said.
Then he began touring with Mannheim Steamroller, MythBusters, Alton Brown and Incubus.
“Through that, then I started touring with Alton Brown, the chef on Food Network, a lot more,” he said.
He started as his lighting technician, but he progressed to being the lighting designer for his second tour. He is now his production manager for his live stage show.
“He does a live stage tour. I don’t mess with anything in the TV world. That’s all done in Atlanta. He stopped touring for a little bit in 2019, and now in 2020 we’re ramping back up to do an all-new tour,” Fuchs said. “I’ll work with the set designer and all of that to what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it, and just keep the tech side of it all rolling.”
His touring with Alton Brown even took him to Broadway.
“So as a lighting designer, I can technically say I’ve been on Broadway, which is good,” he said.
He described it as an eye-opening experience in multiple ways.
“One, just the fact that I have a Playbill that has my name right below the artist’s name. That is just amazing to be able to say that,” he said. “But on the flip side, it taught me a ton of what we think Broadway is. Even as a tech, it was a whole new experience for me on how that runs. Our normal load-in that would take four hours took eight hours because there is so much more detail that had to happen.”
Fuchs said his ultimate goal, now on the event planning side, would be something like the Super Bowl.
“I really want to plan and produce huge, large-scale events,” he said. My ultimate goal would always be the Super Bowl. If something that size would ever come my way, I feel like that would be a pinnacle. Back when I was a tech, it was Broadway. It was big, huge concerts, and I had hit those goals. So now on my next chapter of event planning, it would be something like a shareholder meeting or annual session. A days-long event where there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces, and I’m really putting my touch on all of that.”
His advice to students interested in lighting design is to get involved.
“Dive in and dive in deep—just go for it right away,” he said. “When I started here as a freshman, there were only, I think, two tech majors in my class, so it was almost like we didn’t have an option to do it. We all needed to work together. I think that was important to just start off right away and make strides in the beginning and not hold back and get involved in as many things as you can.”
He said it helped to have a good name, like the Carson School, on his resume.
“As weird as it is, I didn’t actually apply for any jobs out of college because I had interned for TMS and they said, ‘You’re coming back, right?,’ Fuchs said. “Sometimes I wonder if I should have done Chicago or New York or something. I’m still happy that I stayed in Nebraska, moved back to Omaha and used all those skills. It took me to Broadway and then back.”