Gear selection is a problem. The budget for Crown Point is tight. Here’s the situation. The space has a lighting stock of about 70 Source Four fixtures ranging from 36 to 19 degree. They also carry 30 PAR 64’s all WFL. There are 36 dimmers in this antique space. These have varying, large capacities, and are re-patched using a patch bay with sliders.

That system would be entirely adequate, if not for my needing to light a new musical act every night and create a comprehensive lighting design. For budgetary and, thankfully, artistic reasons I have really tied whatever lighting elements I pull in for environmental design to the music element. I think in the scope of the festival they share the same space for an audience member, they both represent living art the audience gets to actively participate in; whereas film, and to a much lesser extent theatre are more passive mediums. Thus the design for the environment and music need to be more alive, more personal, and more organic. To me this takes the design to a place where the entire theatre can change it’s depth and form, but we can also choose to focus on individual musicians or points of interest on the stage or in the house.

There is simply not enough room in the budget for an LED and a Moving light solution. To level with everyone, my total gear budget for Crown Point is $3500, for a five week period. 4wall entertainment gave me an excellent quote on a dream package that is still about $3000 over what I can afford, before perishables.

I am going to try and pair down, it looks like renting additional dimming is out of the question and its going to be a PA‘s job to run the re-patch for every play. Budget and toys are really all about resources and if we lack funding in one place we can make up for it with man-power. I hope we have lots of man-power.

At Tirschwell and Co. I am busy working away on a corporate conference center, a Nightclub, a few residences and various other projects. However, I also had another theatrical project. ShakespeareNYC’s Macbeth, currently running at NYC’s TheaterRow. As the Crown Point Blog is largely about designing with the limited resources of off-off broadway, I thought I would include the following post on MacBeth. Do forgive the formatting, I quickly stole the HTML from my other blog.

ShakespeareNYC’s production of Macbeth is currently running at The Beckett theater of NY’s theatrerow. Despite a challenging production calendar, the show is up and looking pretty good. I wanted to share some images I have taken by Fight Choreographer and photographer, Al Foote.

Macbeth is one of my favorite plays in Shakespeare’s cannon. Lighting can be created purely based on character point of view. And from there you can drive from a visual library of your own choosing. Lady Macbeth’s drive to power and manipulation of her husband. Macbeth’s desire to rule and his hubris, these are discussed intimately by the characters, and they can be displayed in the visual arc of the show.

As always for ShakespeareNYC, Macbeth was directed by Beverly Bullock.

No Comments

Related Topics: LD James Bedell's Crown Point Festival Blog |

When things get stressful, and it’s hard to imagine how you are going to create the things you want to create with the time and budget you have, its easy to get discouraged. Its at that time when its most important to find some inspiration. I find some for the Crown Point Festival by looking back at it’s first iteration, the Fall Collection. With a budget of $1000 and the help of interns and cast members, I was able to design something that made it into the pages of Lighting Dimensions. So to soothe my stress I’ve decided to post some of the images of the Fall Collection.

check out the Fall Collection page of my online portfolio

September is half over. The scope of work necesary from the Lighting Designer of the festival has shifted since the beginning of the preproduction process and the beginning of the blog.

The LD was always to be responsible for designing all 8 plays, creating a comprehensive look for the environmental design, and some looks for the musical acts. This scope has grown to a comprehensive music design, it was determined at our last full production meeting that I will be present at every sound check to create looks appropriate for that night’s musical act. There will also be a small outdoor design, in that they would like logo projected on to the street and building facade to indicate to those walking to the event where they’re going.

This has pushed some design decisions I didn’t really want to have to go with. A moving light and console solution really need to happen by the end of this week. Something that will allow flexiblity in design of the musical acts and for the environmental design. This will push out much of the funding I have for theatre and is pushing the entire design aesthetic to a more minimalist place. Overall, I am ok with that, but it’s still going to be hard to square the circle. More news after the production meeting this week.

My full-time employment as a lighting designer comes with Tirschwell and Co. Architectural lighting. Here, we work to design high-end residential, hospitality spaces, retail, and corporate spaces. Its a 40-hour a week commitment and I love it because it keeps me thinking about lighting and the design elements all the time. My previous bread-winning jobs we much mroe production oriented, and I would more often than not drift away from the design thought process.

However, managing any extra work takes its toll, and the Crown Point Festival is no exception. Knowing that tech week was going to be it’s own way-over-full-time commitment I opted to burn a week’s vacation to be present all week. But of course commitments don’t stop there for an LD. I create gear lists and draft plots in my evening and spare time, send out emails an get quotes back, reading and replying as I eat lunch or on the subway heading into or out of the city. All to optimize my time.

Then there are the design and production meetings. I push them around the evenings and weekends when I am free, along with my research time. No one reading this blog needs to be reminded of the struggles of balancing everything. But as I look at my week and realize not one night is free, till thanksgiving, i thought it was worth mentioning.