Dec 11, 2018 5 min read

Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church would seem to have little in common with pop icon Madonna, rockers Kiss and the new movie, “Creed II.”

But the church, performers and movie have all benefited from Lightwave International.

A special effects company, Lightwave International specializes in laser light shows. According to its president George Dodworth, the company’s creations are far-reaching. “We have performed tens of thousands of shows for millions of people world-wide. We have put together lighting for multi-year tours for artists such as Madonna, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, and Odesza. This month, we performed with Kiss and Charlie XCX on ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’ and our effects can be seen in the new movie ‘Creed 2.'”

It’s a long journey – on many levels – from “The Tonight Show” stage to Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church, where the annual benefit Christmas laser show will take place Dec. 14-15. But Dodworth, a member of the church, has a concise explanation.

“This is the 13th year we have performed this show. There were two reasons for performing this (initially). One was that we really wanted to do something local. We tour all over the world and perform these massive shows and music festivals for packed stadiums and hundreds of thousands of people. But we don’t perform locally, and you would never know a company like ours exists in this area,” he said. “It’s also a show that could never make economic sense if anyone had to pay for it. It’s not uncommon to use over $1 million in equipment and we would need to charge over $100 per ticket to have any chance of such a show breaking even. It also seemed like a great opportunity to raise money to serve the needy in our local community. We don’t keep a single penny from the show, so every dollar from ticket sales or donations goes right to work without anyone skimming expenses from the top. The show has donated over $100,000 to local charities. The show continues to evolve, and every year we offer something different to keep the show fresh, but we also take notice of the audience favorites so that we can nod to tradition and reward those that have been with us every single year.”

Explaining the laser show to the uninitiated can be difficult.

“It’s a qualia, like color or sound, that can only be explained by your own experience of it,” Dodworth said. “Lasers produce colors that cameras can’t capture, and video can only record a representation, not the essence of a show. What the audience can expect is a show that features favorite holiday music that is enhanced by carefully choreographed laser-drawn images that are the storytelling element of the show. Think of cartoons, but drawn with lasers. The room is filled with fog and additional laser effects immerse the audience in a sea of light that surrounds and touches them. If you have seen a planetarium laser show, or maybe one at a Florida theme park, this show is taking those basics and turning them up to a 12. We don’t hold anything back because we don’t have to maintain a budget.”

Even without the constraints of a budget, the Canonsburg laser show is a time-consuming project.

“It’s hard to quantify the time required to assemble a show like this because we are building incrementally on programming and experience that has been assembled with tens of thousands of hours of shows over the last 25 years,” Dodworth explained. “To create such a show from scratch without equipment, experience or programming could easily consume a full year. For this show, we start planning immediately when the current year is completed. We take lots of notes and discuss ideas for the next year. We typically spend four to five days preparing the equipment, installing it and rehearsing the show. The actual programming of new content for the show begins many weeks in advance. There are typically four to five people present to perform this show. By contrast, the average touring show such as you might see at PPG Paints Arena is only going to have one laser technician.”

He continued, “The heart of the design is the show playlist. Being a holiday show, the song selection is almost automatic. We try to appeal to tradition, with a touch of content just for the children, and even a little bit of electronic music so that we can exercise our beam choreography talents. We really enjoy performing to music with a great beat, so the mix of music ranges from what the audience loves to what we most love to perform. It’s a diverse mix! Mitch Hancher donates all of the sound. After we have a playlist, an artist must program the laser drawn animations that appear on screen. This typically requires many hours for each minute of complete content, so we are leaning heavily on our existing library to make a show like this one possible. After the music is selected and the laser graphics are programmed, the last step is programming the beams. The beams are what lasers do best, and to me are the soul of the performance. The types of laser beam effects that we produce today might be described as ‘digital fireworks.’ We create effects that surround the audience is carefully selected colors and textures of light that only lasers can produce.”

In addition to Dodworth, other company employees involved in the project include Matt Maltman, Mike Dunn, John Walker, Brandon Dzurino and Dave Fonner, as well as many church volunteers.

The Christmas Laser Spectacular will be at Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church, 112 W. Pike St., Canonsburg, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 14 and 15 at 6 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online at canonsburgup.org or by visiting the church office Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Suggested donation for tickets is $10 for adults and $5 for children 10 and under.