PRG continues its Conversations With series with Kevin Barry, a longtime Broadway production electrician, and Chris Conti of PRG. Drawing on their years of collaboration, Barry and Conti discuss what it takes to build increasingly sophisticated Broadway productions that remain reliable, practical, and easy to operate. From cross-departmental integration and thoughtful technology choices to communication and mentorship, the conversation explores how strong systems along with strong teams help complex shows work night after night.

Q: Kevin, how did you first get introduced to theater?

Kevin Barry: It was an after-school theater program in my high school. I grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts. And we didn't have any school program except for the after-school club. And that was it. I was hooked on ladders, lights, things like that.

I was in shows, I directed shows, but mostly I was infatuated by the lighting and scenery and building. My dad was a journeyman pipe fitter and was very handy. So, I had some tool experience working with my dad.

Q: Chris, how did you first get introduced to theater?

Chris Conti: I got introduced to theater in high school. I got caught supergluing someone’s locker shut as a prank and had to serve a Friday detention. As luck would have it, they needed help hanging lights in the theater for an upcoming school play, so I served out my detention hanging lights.

Q: You’ve both been working in the theatrical community for a long time. What feels different about Broadway productions today?

Kevin Barry: The shows keep getting more complicated. The most interesting thing in the last few shows has been the integration between departments. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was the most connected show I've ever been part of. And that's frightening at first for an old school guy like me because it used to be really hard getting gear to talk to each other back in the 2000s. Now it has become a lot more commonplace and that's exciting.

Chris Conti: Kevin and I talk about this all the time. We want it as simple as it can be. And sometimes simple means adding some complexity, some technology to make things a little easier for us, right? But we want it to be reliable and we want it to be easy to troubleshoot. We try to think about backups and failure scenarios, because they are certainly getting much more sophisticated.

Q: When you’re planning for something to go wrong, what kinds of failure scenarios are you considering and how do you build around them?

Chris Conti: I walk through the signal flow and look for choke points. Then I ask what would happen if a particular piece of equipment at one of those choke points failed. From there, it becomes a straightforward exercise: How would we fix it during a show, and where could we add redundancy so that the failure doesn’t stop the production?

Q: How do you approach technology when the shows themselves are becoming more integrated and more complex?

Chris Conti: I think sometimes people are focused on one piece of gear and they don't step back and look at the big picture of how it's all going to come together and what could potentially happen if something goes sideways. That’s something that I commiserate with Kevin about all the time. When he puts a show together, it's very well thought out. And it's not technology for the sake of technology. It's technology to make it easier for everything to talk together and easy to troubleshoot.

Kevin Barry: Chris and I are always challenging each other to bring together what the designer wants and what we can provide.

Q: Kevin, how do you think about building systems that other people have to run?

Kevin Barry: I ran shows myself until a little after COVID, and now I am strictly a production electrician, so I need to leave a show that is well-documented, well set up, and easy for my people to troubleshoot. And there are incredibly gifted heads on shows like Kate Devine who's on Schmigadoon! or Ron Martin, who's on Harry Potter, but I have to set up a solid system so that they can have the best way to manage everything. 

Q: How do you decide when a technical idea is actually worth pursuing?

Kevin Barry: I work very closely with Barb Bartel, who helps me in the shop, and we're always bouncing things off each other. We ask, ‘does it make it better’? And if it doesn’t, we scrap the idea and we move in another direction. I'm always learning something on every show. There’s always some new challenge.

Q: Chris, what makes Kevin stand out in the way he approaches a project?

Chris Conti: In all seriousness, he’s super organized. I look at his paperwork and it's immaculate and clear that there's a reason for everything. Kevin's work is well done, well thought out. There's a method to the madness on how it all goes together. And if every show was like that, my life would be 10 times easier.

And he’s quick to ask questions when he doesn't understand something.

Q: What does your collaboration look like when a problem comes up?

Chris Conti: Because [he’s so meticulous], when my phone rings and it's Kevin I'm confident it's not going to be a good phone call. Every now and then he stumps us, which is a great learning experience. He is always pushing the boundaries of what's technically possible.

Kevin Barry: I mean, I love to hear that. And Chris and I are always checking each other on what is useful and what do the designers want and what are we here to provide.

Q: Beyond technical ability, what qualities matter most on a production crew today?

Chris Conti: Communication skills. It sounds basic, but you need to know how to navigate the politics of a show. All the various designers and the shops and the technicians. All this integration requires communication between people.

Kevin Barry: I agree 100% about communication. My mentor was Jimmy Maloney, who I owe everything to. He taught us how important it is to communicate, collaborate, and support one another while still giving us the space to learn and succeed. That’s what I look for in the people I work with today. I don’t like to work alone - I like working with teams, and I enjoy mentoring people.

Q: As Broadway systems become more interconnected, what do the next generation of production electricians and technicians need to understand that wasn’t as important earlier in your careers?

Chris Conti: They need a much better understanding of how to troubleshoot complex, interconnected systems. That means having a broader understanding of other departments’ workflows and signal flows, because a problem in one area may originate somewhere else entirely. You can’t just understand your own piece of the system anymore.

Q: After all these years, what keeps the work exciting?

Kevin Barry: Every show is a new challenge and that keeps it exciting. Somebody once said to me, ‘Doesn’t it get boring? You hang the lights, you take the lights down.’ You’d think so, but it seems like there's an unknowable number of options and challenges. And for me, this is the work that I really love. Working with incredible people behind those consoles and having talent all around you is so much fun.