This was a slow week for getting things done in the theatre for our upcoming production of Twelfth Night. It is not that we work slowly, if anything we work to efficiently, but what it really came down to was that there was a guest lecture being held in the theatre today, which limited the amount of work on the show we could do. We did however complete the upstage wall for the show, which is simple, yet eloquent. It should be an excellent element to light since it is covered in bamboo blinds and acts like a scrim. Let me tell you, buying perfectly good and expensive blinds and cutting them apart can be a lot of fun. Overall the bamboo wall is finished except for some thicker bamboo panels that will be on the doors (think Gilligan’s Island). So I focused a lot this past week on carpentry instead of electrics, but it’s sort of nice to get back to one of my other passions, I do miss being a technical director or master carp sometimes. Lighting is still on hold for the most part until the designer flies in next week.

In other news we’re working on installing a permanent, but flexible cue light system in the space. A good friend of the theatre is visiting us for a bit, and just so happens to be an electrical engineer. He has a pretty amazing relay and logic system set up to minimize the number of wires, but we will probably simplify it so the electricians installing it won’t get confused. It will be pretty awesome. We did discuss using a low-voltage LED cue light system, but ultimately we decided using 120V (with powercons) would be more beneficial as we could conceivably modify the cue lights to be practicals, permanent power supplies or triggers for solenoids etc…

That about covers it for this week from Vermont.

Another new screen is being installed in Times Square in New York City next week (they’re working on it now, and the official lighting, or flipping of the “on” switch, is next week). Toshiba has announced that the company is installing a 53′x53′ TRV2013GC 12.5mm LED display screen at the tippy top of that familiar spot at One Times Square, just below where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. Here’s where it’s going, and you can see the old screen in this shot:

A release from Toshiba notes that the screen replaces the Discover screen that was inherited when Toshiba purchased the space, which the company clearly identifies as “advertising space.” This one is a Toshiba Vision, which has more of a marketing intention than anything artistic. The screen uses what Toshiba calls “Technovirtual technology” that uses pixel-sharing to create virtual pixels by sharing LEDs with adjacent ones. If you’re in town, it will be officially lit on July 15 at 7pm.

Here’s a shot of some folks installing the screen, but you can’t see much.

You may have heard that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has announced that he will be accepting his party’s nomination at Denver’s Invesco Field, rather than in the convention hall. The goal is apparently to open the speech live to 75,000 “regular” people rather than the delegates and other insiders in the nearby convention center.

That’s all well and good for Obama and his supporters, but what about Bruce Rodgers? He’s designing the set for the convention; he and the rest of the design and production team apparently just got word of this new development last week. I emailed him about it and he says he’s in big meetings this week working out the details, and will contact us with more info soon. “Yeehaw!” was his signoff, which is not the expression I would have used if I’d been given this major piece of redesign two months before the convention….

So, I’m walking down the street near South Street Seaport on the way to a wedding last Thursday evening (yes, Thursday…I actually unplugged for the long weekend, so this is the first I am sharing), and while getting out of the car, I see none other than David Niles of Niles Creative walking in my direction, the very same David Niles who created the content for the Comcast Experience wall in Philly, where I met him for the first time the week prior (in case you missed it, read more here. Coincidence? I think not.

Well, okay, it was just a coincidence, and I also had the pleasure of meeting VP at Niles Creative Emmora Irwin. They strolled with us a few blocks almost to our destination and bid us adieu. Must make a point to visit David’s studio, since it’s twice now I promised I would show up on its doorstep.

In fact, here is Niles lounging in the foreground of his studio (we’re sure he’s hard at work, regardless of relaxed pose) sorting out the intricate details of the Barco screen’s complex control system. If you, too, see him on the streets of NYC, say hi.

UK-based sound designer John Leonard—who was named the LDI sound designer of the year in 2002—

traveled 12,000 miles to Hong Kong and back in a little more than a day. Why would he do such a thing?

To gather the sound of a rare bird? No, actually he was named an Honorary Fellow at the Hong Kong Academy Of Performing Arts!

“An honorary fellowship is usually awarded by an educational establishment to people who have made a significant contribution to whatever art or science the educational establishment specialises in,” he says. “I’m also an honorary fellow of The Guildhall School Of Music and Drama and the two together mean that I can stick letters after my name and that’s about it. So I’m John Leonard Hon.FGSM, Hon.FHKAPA.

If there had been some kind of degree going when I was training, I could add BFA, or BA or something else as well,but it was so long ago that there wasn’t even a diploma to be had, so I really appreciate the honorary stuff. Makes me feel I’ve achieved something after all these years.”

John Leonard in cap and gown, bottom row, far left.