Summer intern becomes word wizard, master of lights

Many who attend theater or concerts at A Center For The Arts in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, may get a front row seat to the performance. But what many don’t see are the moving parts put together behind the scenes by 20-year-old intern Natalie Vogal.

Center For The Arts intern Natalie Vogel.

If you have attended an event there, you may have seen her when she was the front of house manager assisting volunteers throughout the show and cleaning afterwards. She was proud to have the experience and has also learned to work the sound and lighting.

“The internship has been great,” Vogel said. "I really enjoy it."

One of her proudest moments came when a light fixture on stage was shorting out and quit working.

“I had to redo the wires that go from the plug into the light fixture,” Vogel said. "I got the new part and replaced it and it worked."

Vogal is from the Rothsay-Fergus Falls area. Her childhood years were occupied by dancing and 4-H club. Theater work was what she wanted to do the most, and as fate would have it, she found work at local churches that needed help with the sound.

Her interest guided her to the center and led to opportunities to work on other aspects around the theater. She currently attends Cottey College in Missouri and is studying Business Administration Management.

“I’ve been enjoying being a word wizard,” Vogal said. Part of her internship involves making social media posts and promoting concert series they are holding at the center.

In her second year interning there, she said she is learning more and more, gaining knowledge and experiences that help with answering questions for her papers that she is working on in school.

Vogel worked on stage lights as part of her internship. She said she slowly overcame her fear of heights.

What she likes the most is interacting with patrons and members and utilizing software to create the shows that they put on. Vogal does research on ticket sales and creates reports to estimate who might all be coming to any given show.

When customers do buy tickets, part of her duties have been to distinguish the type of tickets in each of the bills. If any VIP tickets or season passes were sold, she figures out seating and various arrangements.

“I enjoy the staff, we get along well and they are very supportive and fun to work with,” Vogel said.

On the software and business side of things, she drills down on the data to gain a better understanding of the target audience and what they would like to listen to. Vogal has practice with the data, having worked Quickbooks at a business on campus at Cottey College back in Missouri.

“Working in Fergus Falls, rock concerts are big,” Vogal said. "I would like to see more. That’s what people want to see."

Vogel is slightly bummed about missing out on the Queen tribute concert as she heads back to school on Aug. 19. She’s still figuring out her plans for the future. She aims to graduate in the next year and is thinking about either working or furthering her education with a masters degree.

Back in Missouri, she dances tap and ballet. She also loves cars and owns a 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle. Fixing it has been a project she has enjoyed sharing with her stepfather.

Vogel worked on stage lights during her internship.

The last couple of years she has spent more time working on cars. Since she has been in Fergus Falls this summer, she’s also gotten her “hands dirty,” working on a 1964 Chevrolet Bel Air with her step-dad. “The gas wasn’t any good, but we got the Bel Air to start and that was a lot of fun,” Vogel added.

As she heads to Missouri, she is confident that her internship has helped a great deal. In 2022 she was involved with the props for a “Disney’s Descendents” show at her school. She hopes to be more involved this upcoming school year.

As her time in Fergus Falls wraps up, Vogel will be working with lighting designers and directors when she returns to Missouri. “Some of the work I've been able to do with lighting at the center has given me some good skills to springboard off of when working with the lighting designer,” in the future, Vogel said.

She has a few more weeks to complete research, gather data and prepare for one last show, which will be “Head Games, a tribute to Foreigner.”