Aja Jackson one of six national finalists for the prestigious Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Internship

, 2013

Jackson served as the assistant lighting designer for the Glenn Korff School of Music and Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film co-production of “Candide” in 2013. She was the lighting designer for University Theatre’s “Bright Ideas” and “Agravio.”

“Through the Carson School, I was able to get my name out there as a lighting designer, and I’ve done work for outside companies around Lincoln,” Jackson said. “It’s really exciting, and so much of it has to do with the education that I got here.”

She also assisted with lighting dance at the University of Iowa in 2011 and was an assistant lighting designer in 2012 for the Off-Broadway production of “Flipside: The Patti Page Story” in New York, where she also worked with Shoemaker.

“It was really nice to go and work in New York on a show,” Jackson said. “That’s the goal for so many theatre people who are seeking to be professionals is to do a show in New York. It was really nice because at the end of the day, it’s still a theatre. You’re in New York in this great place with tons of theatre, but you’re still doing theatre.”

Jackson has also spent the past two summers as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera.

“It’s crazy, and it’s busy,” Jackson said. “But it’s such a great company to work at. The work they put on is absolutely beautiful. When you’re working on something that’s beautiful, it makes all of the man hours and laborious things that you put into it worth it.”

Aja Jackson works with lighting equipment
Aja Jackson