A Balancing Act

Went into work on Sunday to help Mr. Mirenda figure out some stuff concerning how to get power to some lighting fixtures on the set pieces.  For the past several weeks, Mr. Mirenda has been working on set pieces and entire walls that will be flown up into the rafters of the theater.  Below is one such wall:

This thing weighs something like 1,300 lbs.  It's pretty massive.  The top half isn't finished yet, but when it is, it'll look amazing.  There are two sconce lights on the walls (one of them is lit on stage left).  We decided that we would run cables behind the wall and up to the baton at the top.  From there, the cables will run along the baton and up to the loading gallery located way up high above stage left.  We will be doing the same thing for a couple of lights that will be flown in for the speakeasy scene.  Here is another piece of set Mr. Mirenda and his guys have been busy tinkering away on.

It is a set of "all too necessary" jail cells for the jailhouse scene.  You can kind of see the elevator set on the very left side of the screen.  So far there are just a lot of half finished sets, but they look stellar so far. I will hopefully be going into rehearsal later this week to see a few numbers and scenes so I can make sure I can be ready to hang and focus lights when all our equipment comes in next week.  I have a lot of work ahead of me!

Marcy Park: Recent Transfer

My good friend Lexie will be staring as Marcy Park in the upcoming production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Children's Musical Theater San Jose (CMTSJ).  This show is hilarious and so much fun to watch!  Everyone needs to come see it because it will be amazing!  Buy tickets now at CMTSJ's website.  "I speak six languages!"

Every Little Step

Went to work on Saturday and got caught up on how things are running tech-wise with Mr. Mirenda, a dad of a student at St. Francis who builds the sets every year.  Him and I sat down and discussed several options and ideas that we both have for set ideas.  Basically we will be having one backdrop of a city skyline that will be flown in on the very back wall that way I can light it using my cyc lights.

We will also be having large window frames flown in for all of the office scenes.  Here is a sketch done by Delaney.  She helps design the set for all the shows.  She's got crazy talent.

She's also come up with a great piece of set for the laundry room scenes that when turned around will double as the set for the lobby of the Hotel Priscilla.

Set for the laundry room scenes.

The lobby set piece.

From there, we will also have another set of windows that will fly in for the party scene at Muzzy's estate.  Again, a gorgeous set idea set forth by the fabulous Delaney.

And lastly, Mr. Mirenda has provided us with two dimmer switches that will be used for those Source Four Follow Spots that I have been craving.  These things are perfect and exactly what I was looking for! All I will need to do is switch out their plugs with stage pins and we are all set.  A shout out to Mr. Mirenda for being such a superstar!

Source Four Drama

I am currently in the process of trying to find the simplest and cheapest way to convert two ETC Source Four lights into makeshift follow spots that I can use to follow just actor's faces in most scenes.  Luckily, with the help of @TechieTalk and their website, I was able to figure out some of the equipment I will need in order to get this final product:

I will definitely need the large lens tube in the front, the follow spot handles, and the drop in iris.  Ideally, I would love to get the yolk on an axis so that it can move and function like a real follow spot, but unfortunately, that particular part is over $600.  All I need to do now is convince work that this is some equipment we ABSOLUTELY need.  Wish me luck!

Thoroughly Modern Millie

     I will be starting a new project for the next couple of months.  My old high school has hired me back as lighting designer and technical director for the drama department.  Luckily, I will no longer be working in the luxurious Raskob Center for the Performing Arts (the gym).  Instead, I will be doing my first musical in the brand new Graham Theater.

     Earlier this week, I was informed that the musical this year will be Thoroughly Modern Millie.  While not my favorite show, it should be fun.  I have decided that this year, I am going to document every step I take in designing for this show.  Starting with sketches and making it all the way to actual show photos and everything in between.

     This ought to be a fun and exciting exploration!

I was feeling a little nostalgic, so I decided to post a couple photos from past shows.  Here is a picture from my very first show 42nd Street.

This one is from Grease.

Here are several pictures from the best show I worked on, Cabaret.

Cliff arrives in Berlin by train

"Tomorrow Belongs to Me"

Nazi Kickline

The title number "Cabaret"

Ragtime... the Novel!!!

Ok, I really have to stop with these Ragtime related posts, but I just can't resist.  So I bought the book that the musical is based on, and the book is every bit as good as the show! With movies that are based on books, its almost guaranteed that Hollywood will bastardize the plot so much to a point that people will be forced to say "Well, the book is much better than the movie". But with live theater, I hold it true that the theatrical version of a book is always as good, if not better than the original.

Ragtime, for example, is EXCELLENT. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is an absolutely abhorrent novel, but the musical version is absolutely stellar (no matter how much of a sell-out it is).  Cabaret the Musical is based off of a play called I Am a Camera which in turn is based on a novel called The Berlin Stories.  The only exception I can find to this golden rule of theater was Lestat by Anne Rice, but the reason for that is that Elton John is the one who got ahold of the musical, so that's why it was such a red-hot tranny mess.

But back to the point, Ragtime the novel is excellent and the musical really worked to keep the original plot without missing very much at all.  The novel is so good because it really goes in-depth to show exactly how terrifying, yet exhilarating , a changing country can be.  I feel like it very much reflects the kinds of things that are happening in the US some hundred years later.

Quadre Christmas Concert

Even more recently than David and Lisa was when I worked for the french horn quartet Quadre.  They had a Christmas concert at the Graham Theater, and they wanted me to do the lights and sounds for them.  This picture was taken near the end when they had a bunch of band kids come out and perform The Little Drummer Boy with them.  Really easy gig, and I got to hear some great Christmas music for free! 

David and Lisa

I recently went back to my old high school to design the lights for their fall drama David and Lisa in their brand new $15 million theater. Best part of all, I got paid this time! Here are a few photos of some of my favorite designs.  I really got to play around in this show unlike I have ever been able to before.  It was really refreshing to have so much flexibility when it came to any visions I had.

Here's one of the curtain before the show started.  I love being able to use some legitimate curtain warmers!

This is the very opening of the show.  David is standing in his room which was a platform center stage, so I used two Source Fours to square off just the platform from above. Created some really interesting shadows on faces and clothes.  David was played by this really cool guy named Ryan.  This was his first role in a show at our school, and he just blew everyone away with his incredible talent!

This is when David first gets to the school.  I put a gobo to shine on the desk to look like window blinds.  I like the patterns it created on the desk and on the clothes of the people who walked in front of it. The doctor was played by Franny, and she was absolutely stellar! I miss her so much!!!

Here, David meets all of the other students at the school.  You can barely see it, but I had a giant windo gobo shining on the floor to look like sunlight or moonlight (depending on the time of day).  It looked really cool and eerie during the nighttime scenes.  One of my favorite specials.

This is when David and Lisa first met.  Delaney, the girl who played Lisa, was so outstanding I can barely find words to describe how incredible her performance was.  Even though she was playing a 16 year old girl with schizophrenia and autism and really only had two legitimate lines (all of her other lines were just silly little kid rhymes "Wobble wobble gobble wobble gobble"), she made the transitions between her two personalities so perfect, it was just outstanding.  Shivers every night because of how talented she was.  I miss working with her so much.

Another scene in the doctor's office, this time at night.  Look, it's Mrs. Yang! She's having a baby soon, and I just know she is going to name him Zack, she has to!

This scene took place in a park, and while it's not all that impressive, but I really like how this photo captured his face in that light.

Another park scene, but this is at the end of the show when Lisa is getting harassed by two thugs.  I really like he back lighting that looks like moonlight coming down on them.

So that's it for photos, there were definitely some other designs that I absolutely loved, but unfortunately they were never caught by the photographer, but I will post them when we get the DVD copy of the show.