THUNDERGONG!

Show Director / Creative Lead / Production Lead
Benefiting Steps of Faith Foundation

 I’ve been part of Thundergong! since day one, which means I’ve had a front-row seat to watching it grow from a great idea into one of Kansas City’s favorite nights of the year.

The event benefits Steps of Faith Foundation, and from day one it’s been a grassroots group of people figuring out how to make the biggest splash we can for a mission we genuinely care about. I eventually joined the Steps of Faith advisory board, where I get to help with marketing, creative, and the occasional “Hey Dustin, what do you think?” throughout the year.

When show time rolls around, I get to do my favorite thing: help move a room.

I work alongside an incredible team to shape the experience from the inside out. Building the creative, mapping the emotional journey, writing the run-of-show, prepping talent, directing the stage, coordinating crews, overseeing screen content, and calling the show live once the lights go down.

When COVID took away the sold-out room for a couple of years, we had to rethink what Thundergong! even was. We worked with musicians and comedians to create performances, music videos, and other pieces that could become a show instead of just a livestream. (Thank you, Foo Fighters!) I filmed Jason Sudeikis at an empty Uptown Theatre for the intros, outros, messaging, bumpers, and transitions that tied everything together, then spent the night assembling the full broadcast for its premiere the next day. Apparently “live” can also mean “please finish exporting.”

That experience also changed my role with Thundergong! Up until then, I had mostly been the marketing and video content guy. Building the virtual shows forced me to think about the whole thing as one experience, not just the pieces I was responsible for.

When we came back to the Uptown, I kept the reins, looking across the entire production and making sure all the pieces were working together to create one cohesive experience. Talent, performances, video, screens, lighting, sound, show flow. All of it serving the same night.

The part of the show that always sticks with me is directing and editing the Fund-a-Need patient stories. They’re usually the point where the room collectively forgets to check their phones and remembers why we’re all there in the first place.

And once the show is over, I switch back into editor mode, creating recap films, performance edits, backstage moments, and social content that keep Thundergong! alive long after the last guitar is packed up.