A veteran of the theater industry since he was a pre-teen, Nathan Cox started Pink Monkey Solutions in the basement of his Vail Valley home in 2005. First called Cox Designs, the business initially focused entirely on lighting, not surprising considering that prior to what he calls an “entrepreneurial spasm,” Nathan spent five years working as the master electrician at the Vilar Performing Arts Center. In fact it was during one of his final projects at the theater when he realized his passion for event production and design. He’d rigged an elaborate lighting scheme for the inaugural “Star Dinner on Stage,” where patrons enjoyed an elegant meal on stage while a band performed steps away. During the dinner, Nathan had his “Aha” moment as he watched people break through the “fourth wall,” the conceptual barrier that separates a performance or actors from the audience.
“On the stage, in that particular moment, I was like, ‘People are actually getting to walk through that fourth wall and interact on stage in an environment I set up for them. That’s the stuff I want to do,” he says. “I was so happy that people got to get in there, enjoy it, be immersed in it and have that whole experiential feed.”