Little-known theater jobs: special effects coordinator and pyrotechnician

Twenty-five years ago, Bodhan Bushel joined the staff of J&M Special Effects. Founded by Gregory Meeh, the firm offers design, production and installation of live special effects — specifically for the New York area, which means a lot of Broadway and Off-Broadway. Even before coming on board full-time with J&M, Bushel had collaborated with them as early as 1990. 

Before finding his niche in special effects, Bushel began onstage — as so many do. In second grade, he performed the role of the shoemaker in his grade school’s “The Shoemaker and the Elves” in Boston’s South End. Bushel continued performing and, during his high-school years, became co-president of the drama club at his school in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After a couple of years abroad in England, Bushel returned to the States to study history at SUNY Purchase. But he couldn’t shake the theater: His work-study job was at the university’s performing arts center; in the summers, he worked at Pepsico Summerfare, on the Purchase campus, touching numerous touring productions. “I met many of my future Broadway and Off-Broadway colleagues at this time as we learned, earned a pittance and tried to keep up with the wild and eccentric artists we were working for,” Bushel recalled.

After graduation, Bushel worked in Off-Broadway scene shops and eventually snagged his first Broadway credit as the production manager for 1995’s “The Nerve Bible.” But special effects (also referred to as “FX”) called to him. “I am drawn to and fascinated by problems that have no immediate answers and require associative thinking to solve,” Bushel told Broadway News. “As I came upon problems, the solutions sometimes required that I needed another skill, or a license or permit to do it. So my work path was mostly agreeing to do things that I did not yet know how to do, and then finding mentors and teachers to give me the skills and support to succeed at special effects.”

Bushel has worked on dozens of productions, including the currently running “Blood Quilt” at Lincoln Center Theater, as well as Broadway’s “Suffs,” “The Notebook” and “The Outsiders.” As the FX coordinator and pyrotechnician, Bushel determines how to construct what a special effects designer imagines, supervises production and installation and more to make magic. Here, he goes into great detail about how it all works.

Broadway News: What does a special effects coordinator do?
Bodhan Bushel: A special effects coordinator is the catchall title for conceiving, organizing and executing the real and imagined practical effects that help tell a story, cover an illusion, dazzle the eye or illustrate an idea. It is commonplace to say “jack of all trades, master of none” and that is a close approximation of my job description. Because there are so many parts of the special effects world, some of us are better at certain areas than others and some are specific generalists, like myself. There are a number of areas that we commonly work in: elemental effects like snow, wind or water; practical effects such as a lamp falling over or an object flying or floating; chemical effects that dissolve or transform; pyrotechnic effects involving explosives or simulated explosions; bodily function effects such bleeding or vomiting; flame effects involving practical fire; or atmospheric effects such as fog, smoke and haze.