Broadway in the Desert: How video lights up the Tuacahn Amphitheatre
Live Events
Theatre & Opera
Disguise Platform
Set against the dramatic backdrop of 1,500-foot red rock cliffs and an endless desert sky, Tuacahn Amphitheatre in southern Utah offers a live performance experience unlike any other. Each season, Broadway-calibre productions unfold beneath the stars in this open-air venue, blending the power of theatre with the raw beauty of the landscape.
Over the past five years, Disguise has supported Tuacahn’s creative vision, powering large-scale video displays across multiple musical productions. Scott Hill, Video Lead at the theatre, sat down with us to share his insight into the technical and creative challenges of delivering high-quality visuals in the desert, and how Disguise technology helps transform this remote canyon into a stage of extraordinary spectacle.
The history of Tuacahn
Tuacahn Amphitheatre is a unique entertainment venue that seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor performance spaces. Its signature open-air space, carved directly into the region’s striking red cliffs, has become renowned for staging world-class productions in an exceptional setting. Scott Hill and his team build and programmes these shows across the bill, from Broadway hits to one-off dance performances.
“The Tuacahn began as a single-show amphitheatre in 1995,” reveals Scott. “It then started doing more classic 50s and 60s Broadway productions in 2000. And then as time passed, the Tuacahn theatre became home to more modern shows.” The venue has now housed more than 70 Broadway productions, as well as other concerts and stage shows, from Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Frozen, to The Wizard of Oz and a live Nativity at Christmas with animals on stage.
Traditional Broadway theatres play the same show night after night, but the Tuacahn is a repertory theatre. This means the same cast and crew works across multiple shows, alternating nights between different productions. During the summer, the Tuacahn may run three or more full-scale Broadway productions, where actors will switch roles every day, and the crew changes sets in the middle of the night. It’s a complex system, with over 100 people keeping the machine moving.
Building immersion through LED technology
Surrounded by such extraordinary natural scenery, Scott focuses intently on amplifying the sense of spectacle through every visual element. “We’re always looking for ways to excite and empower our audiences, especially younger audience members. We want to create moments of wonder.”
Each show has a specific look and feel, with a fixed upstage LED wall on the 80-foot stage. Every season has different screen requirements, with the amphitheatre's video designers and programmers working to the director’s brief.
In 2025, Scott and his team upgraded to an LED screen standing 5 metres tall and 3.5 metres wide. They then added multiple smaller screens to create a cascading effect on stage. This helped boost the immersive quality of the storytelling, such as in the underwater scenes for Disney’s The Little Mermaid where the ocean needed to surround the stage.
The team has used additional screens in other seasons to inject extra excitement, too. For Disney’s Tarzan, for example, Scott explains “we built a small scale video wall, 4 by 3 metres. It meant that we could have a giant spider popping out, and we could track it on and off the stage for an added scare.”
Telling a story through the power of screens
By using LED video, Scott adds: “I want audiences come away thinking they couldn’t have seen that anywhere else.”
An example was in 2024, during Disney’s Frozen, when the team built LED panels into the fireplaces of the set. This meant that when the character Elsa accidentally freezes the kingdom, the team could effectively ‘extinguish’ the fires through video content. “The freezing effect created a storytelling moment to push the story along”, explains Scott.
This style of storytelling was also used in the 2023 production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Tuacahn team relied heavily on a bright, candy-filled land, with mouthwatering visuals, and a rainbow-coloured CGI version of the Padre canyon. Scott comments: “The entire mixing room was a set piece with windows that were LED panels. We used video content of bouncing jellybeans and swirls of candy floss to really bring the stage to life.”
How Disguise technology helps the Tuacahn
All displays at the Tuacahn, both LED and projection, are powered by Disguise’s EX range of media servers, helping the amphitheatre bring these family favourite productions to southern Utah season after season.
“Disguise’s Designer software is incredibly intuitive when building a project”, explains Scott. “I find it quick and easy to hop into it when we are creating a new show. The timeline workflow is familiar to me, coming from a post-production background, and being able to layer content is a great feature.”
“Reliability has been key”, Scott continues. “Disguise’s support team will always answer and we know they’re always there to help.”
At the end of 2025, the Tuacahn will switch to Disguise’s EX 3+ servers. The most powerful media server in the accessible range, the EX 3+ can control multiple projectors with ease - perfect for the theatre’s two 30k and three 20k set up.
Our shows have got bigger, so our video output needs have grown. The EX 3+ is the sweet spot as far as power and affordability are concerned. The ability to bring in four inputs at 1080 or one single 4k input is a really nice draw to have.
Video Lead, Tuacahn Amphitheatre
The most memorable theatre doesn’t always happen on Broadway. What Tuacahn Amphitheatre offers is truly unique, giving the local community an unforgettable way to experience live entertainment, set against the stunning backdrop of the Utah desert. We’re proud that Disguise is helping Scott and his team make those memories happen.