Simon Matthews, Susan Stroman, Jonathan Deans, and Abe Jacob host a Q+A after Young Frankenstein.

The 2008 BSMC—this year’s version of the annual Broadway Sound Master Classes—kicked off on Friday evening, May 16, with a performance of Young Frankenstein at the Hilton Theatre. In spite of heavy rain and heavy traffic, a group of 120 people attended the show (which is totally hilarious). At the end of the show, the group remained in the theatre for a Q&A with Abe Jacob, creative consultant for the Classes, Simon Matthews, the highly-talented FOH board op, the equally talented sound designer Jonathan Deans, and surprise guest, director/choreographer Susan Stroman. “Stro,” as she is called by her friends, discussed her collaboration with Deans, whose sound design for the show includes 700 special effects.

Deans spoke more about the sound design for the show on Saturday morning, May 17, as one of the featured speakers at the BSMC…. referring to his three shows in the Hilton Theatre to date: Ragtime, Pirate Queen, and Young Frankenstein. In keeping with the broad comedy of a Mel Brooks musical, the sound for Young Frankenstein is bold and loud, complete with an opening thunder clap that Deans joked could deafen you for the rest of the show. As always, Deans was a knowledgeable, personable, and humorous speaker who is obviously passionate about what he does, including numerous productions for Cirque du Soleil, including the upcoming CRISS ANGEL Believe at the Luxor, the sixth resident show for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, which will be part of the 2008 Backstage Las Vegas during LDI2008 in October.

It may have been hot outside, but NYU’s Department of Design for Stage and Film was undeterred. The Design Show’s annual opening reception took place this past Tuesday, May 6, to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class as well as the work of 1st and 2nd year students. The Design Show continues daily through Thursday, May 15, from 12pm-8pm and a special Meet the Designers event will take place this Saturday, May 10, from 2pm-5pm where all 20 graduating designers will be at the exhibit eager to talk about their work.

Live Design staff including Ellen Lampert-Greaux, Marian Sandberg, and David Johnson were in attendance and spotted the following VIPs (in no particular order):

NYU faculty members:

Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts

Faculty chair Susan Hilferty

Barbara Cokorinos, administrative director, NYU Department of Design for Stage & Film

Costume designer Martin Pakledinaz

Set designer Christine Jones

Set desgner Paul Steinberg

Scenic designer John Conklin

Lighting designer ML Geiger

Lighting designer Allen Lee Hughes

Lighting designer John McKernon

Campbell Baird, scenic painting professor at NYU and set designer

Curt Ostermann

Maggie Raywood

Robert Wierzel

Other VIPs:

Lighting designer Sarah Sidman

Lighting designer Steve Shelley

Lighting designer Bev Emmons, whose daughter is a first year costume designer

Lighting designer Michael Moody

Set designer Neil Patel

Lloyd Burlingame, former chairman of the graduate theatre design department at NYU

Robin Wagner

Tony Walton

Gabriel Berry

Tisch School of the Arts (where the Department of Design for Stage and Film is located) is at 721 Broadway (between Waverly and Washington Place), on the third floor. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (212) 998-1950 or email tisch.design@nyu.edu.

It has been a pretty exhausting tech week already for the Opera. Above is a shot from our 10 out of 12 this past weekend of the space with most of the set and my initial lighting look for Act. Tonight was the first run-through of the show as a whole, which was a lot of help to see. There is a really tight schedule for our tech though as the show opens this Friday and Thursday is a preview. I have discovered that teching a show in less than a week is very stressful. As I head to bed shortly, and an example of what my past fews days have been like, I hope to wake up tomorrow around 8 or 9am, review the video tape of the run-through, take down my missing cue notes, write up work notes, get to the theatre by noon to meet with my master electrician and assistant, do notes from 12-4pm, meet the director from 4-5 to discuss changes, get dinner, and then start our second run through, followed by tech talk afterwards…and then reverse and repeat. Two of my major frustrations at this point are: 1. The particular architectural fixtures/practicals I ordered were back ordered and only shipped today. They will be here by Friday, but I am in turmoil about whether to cut them or not if I am even able to have them installed before the house opens for opening at 7:30pm. 2. The follow-spot positions I am using for the show are mounted Source 4 10 degree units. It has become increasingly frustrating programing the spots in the cues on the board (Grand MA, for those who are wondering). Every time I want to change a level or In/Out I need to take focus away from the actual design. It’s driving me and my team crazy. I’m in the process of working out a way for the Spot-Ops to control their own intensity.

In other news, CalArts is reaching the end of the semester, but things do not slow down at all in May. There is a new works festival, portfolio review, mid-res review for many students, final project (which I am a bit behind in due to the Opera), and numerous shows to work on. I wish I could relax after the show opens, but I have to finish designing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Grad Lighting 1, organize my portfolio, including finalized and updated plot, paperwork and production shots of Platee. I also found out my design assignment for next year. I will be working one of the fall shows called Blue. I am interested in seeing who else I will be working with on my production team.

It is 4am and I just got home from the theatre. We had a long work call today to hang the rest of the light plot, but we still were a bit behind schedule due to a variety of factors. Changes were made in the plot because one of my booms partially blocked an egress. Scenic fell behind schedule a little which will affect my focus call at 9am tomorrow…errr today. We probably will not get any dark time until noon. So I decided to stayed in the theatre all night/early morning because I wanted to get as much done as possible before focus. I spent some quality time with my plot. Sound was in the space late tonight as well, so at least I had some company. In the end though, nothing is more rewarding than hanging a good portion of your own plot, plus when you do, things often get done correctly the first time, and if not you know who to blame. More updates soon. There is a sitzprobe tomorrow, which lighting has been asked not to participate in, so I get a few hours of relaxation, or homework time.