Page 43 - Lighting & Sound America (December 2019) Magazine

the proscenium. “There’s a huge truss up there that ber went through several permutations,” he notes. “I start-
Natasha Katz had built [for The Little Mermaid] and it pro- ed with stuff that was almost photorealistic, sort of depict-
vides a much steeper angle for the front-of-house fol- ing the majesty of the Great West. That didn’t last long. I
lowspots. We put an LED screen on the downstage; it’s took Mark’s acoustic panels, and using them as a base,
used only during the concert finale.” In addition to chases went onto Spirographs”—a reference to the geometric
featuring white horizontal bands and star-shower effects, drawing toy that was popular in the 1960s. “It was easy to
this sequence uniquely presents live IMAG of Warren, the get the soundwave form and extrapolate it; Gabriel
onstage musicians, and other members of the company: Aronson, one of my animators, took it over the top.”
“With the higher screen, you can see everything that the Another eye-grabbing look is the two-story-tall “TINA” that
audience gets downstairs, plus some additional chunks looms behind the bandstand in the concert finale.
that give good closeups of the sax and guitar players and The most mind-bending effect occurs during “Private
[Skye Dakota Turner], who plays little Anne Mae.” The Dancer.” The video screen shows a series of revolving
IMAG is captured using a Blackmagic Design Micro Studio stripper poles that ultimately reconfigure into additional
Camera 4K on a Rushworks PTX Model 2 pan/tilt cradle portals, seemingly extending Thompson’s design to the
“located about 15' off center on the balcony rail, near infinity point. “That’s a really fun effect,” Sugg says, adding
house right,” Sugg adds. that it is indicative of the overall design collaboration.
The designer chose to render the live IMAG by render- “Often, you make a piece that feels cohesive and of one
ing it in black and white, giving it a distinctive quality. world—and then you get into tech and all of that dissolves
Otherwise, his imagery for the performance sequences is around you. This show held together; the glue stuck.” He
kicky, colorful, and thoroughly in period. “Proud Mary,” attributes this in no small part to Phyllida Lloyd, the direc-
which includes the lyric “Big wheels keep on turnin’,” is tor. “Her guiding principle is to fill the room with people
backed by spinning disks marked by saturated color you trust as artists and human beings,” he says.
stripes; these contrast nicely with the vertical honeycomb Projected imagery is delivered using six Panasonic PT-
sliders that fill out the look. He also opts for psychedelic RZ21K units—two from the balcony rail, converged for hit-
liquid light shows and, in “River Deep, Mountain High,” a ting automated drops and scenery, and four placed over-
variety of Op Art effects throbbing, highly colored sound head on moving electrics, focused on the stage deck; the
waves on an upstage wall; the latter then rises to reveal a really big-ticket looks appear on the upstage screen, which
network of colorful, pulsing acoustical panels. “That num- consists of ROE Visual Black Onyx. The front-of-house

Scenery and video work together in “Proud Mary.” The disks on the upstage video wall spin, in keeping with the song’s lyrics.

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