As I recall, the first time I saw Richard Nelson’s play, Some Americans Abroad, the stage was set with a table (sporting a red-checked table cloth) hanging in midair, complete with plates and glasses, indicating that something was bound to be askew as the action proceeded. For the current revival at New York City’s Second Stage Theatre, director Gordon Edelstein leaves the going askew to the actors, who do an admirable job of conveying the emotions of a group of American professors on a theatre tour with their students to England circa 1989. A lot is said, with just as much left unsaid, as the current and former head of the English department spar verbally with their colleagues. The current head of the department, Joe Taylor (played by Tom Cavanagh) feels superior to other American tourists yet seems so absorbed in himself he doesn’t realize most of what is going on around him; and he is never quite able to tell the truth to a professor he is about to let go (played by Anthony Rapp), creating a tension that lasts throughout. The set design by Michael Yeargan primarily comprises multiple styles of chairs and tables as many of the scenes are played in restaurants, dining rooms, gardens, and bars. As each scene ends, the tables and chairs are piled upstage where they remain throughout the evening (all two hours and 20 minutes) as if to represent the layers of problems piling up in the play. The lighting is by this year’s Tony winner Donald Holder (for the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of South Pacific), who once again has made the most of very little. With no scenery to speak of, he manages to give each scene its own look, through subtle changes in color, especially on the upstage cyc. The rest of the design team includes sound designer John Gromada, and costume designer Jennifer von Mayhauser. Austin Switzer is credited with projection design, but I am embarassed to admit the only projections I noticed were the projected titles that announced the location of each scene. Revivals can be tricky business, but this one succeeds with good acting, solid design, and a director who lets the actors squirm uncomfortably as their characters hem and haw around the truth.
I have been programming on an Expression 3 for the show, and the discussion came up between the designer and me about how you would write a RemDim Macro for the board. Well I figured someone else had come up with the answer, but after a quick glance around the internet, I only found a few hits, and some of the Macros were fairly complex. The one that I did try didn’t work, or I didn’t understand their complex syntax. So none-the-less I went out to improve and write my own Macro. I ultimately came up with two solutions that are more based on personal preference. They work just fine, but I am still attempting to think of a way to start the Macro “At Full” so you can type in [Channel Number, Macro*] instead of typing [Macro*, Channel Number] and potentially missing the M-wait delay window.
[Rec] [Cue 999.9] [Enter] [Time] [0] [Enter] [Enter] [Cue 999.9] [Go C/D] [Rel] [Clear C/D] [M-Wait 1.5] [At] [Full]
To clarify what this does: It records a very unlikely Cue 999.9, then change the time of that Cue to 0, then goes to that cue and releases the channels and clears the cue. Then the cue will fade to whatever the default cue clear time is on the board. It should be 5 seconds by default, but I like to change it to 2 or 3 seconds. Your default time should be longer than the time you allow in the M-Wait command though that follows. Then there is a M-Wait which allows you to type just the channel number or group number during 1.5 seconds or however long you would like it to be and brings it at full. For channels you can type just the number as it defaults to channel, but if you want to bring a group up to focus on this Macro you have hit [Group] [Number] The result is a nice fade of the current light or look followed by your new fixture popping on at full. There are a few other things I might alter to make it better, but for me it works just fine.
[Stage] [Rec] [Group 999.9] [Stage] [Chan] [M-Wait 1.5] [At] [Full] [Group 999.9] [At] [0][0]
To clarify what this does: This is very similar to the above Macro, except that it is a little more crude, as rather then having a nice fade of your other lights, your new light pops on and then your old light pops out.
If anyone else has any really great Macros let me know.
George Lucas once joked that he loves making movies except that he has to deal with actors. Seems like he finally made his own dreams come true: to make a Star Wars film with no actors. Now, I realize that this is not exactly the forum for discussing Star Wars, but I also know how many of you cannot deny your adoration for the genre (yes, I think it gets its own genre, and the term “sci-fi” just doesn’t do it justice), so maybe not so inappropriate after all, eh?
I feel maybe it’s time to start compiling a list of things that should never be, this being among the first bastardizations of many. I’m all for technology and how it helps our lives everyday, but doing away with people altogether? Has Lucas seen Terminator? So, let’s start a list, specific to our industry, of things that should never be (or should never come back).
I’ll start: iPhone apps that churn out production designs given just a few parameters (no designers required). Hmmmmm?
I just thought I would post a cool time-lapse video I took of the theatre crew loading in 5.5 tons of wet sand for our beach setting in Twelfth Night. Unfortunately it rained the night and day of the delivery. The load in actually only took about 25 minutes thanks to this amazing dump truck that had a conveyor belt that could shoot the sand up to 44 feet away. One thing about wet sand is, once you turn the lights on to try and dry it, the theatre becomes a self contained green house…ugh. Loading out will take a long time, but at least the load-in went well.
(Click, It Will Open a New Window)
In the August issue of Live Design, you’ll see a column by Bob Usdin about environmentally conscious practices, and I have a short rant in there in my editorial letter about how well we’re doing taking care of our planet. Talking with designer Patrick Dierson about issues he’s had trying to be as green as possible, I was heartened to hear that his company, Artfag, certainly does its share. Here’s what the designers at do, so far…
-donate to “1% for the Planet,” an organization that accepts 1% of a company’s sales and distributes it to environmental groups across the globe who are actively trying to protect & restore the environment.
-promote the goal of creating carbon neutral productions wherever possible, encouraging clientele to embrace it without making them feel guilty about it. “It basically comes down to offering the client possible environmentally sustainable solutions and not having them have to go out of their way to attain them,” Dierson notes.
-where possible, specify recyclable and/or sustainable materials for construction of scenic pieces and sets.
-alter and reuse existing scenic pieces and sets wherever possible to keep them from ending up in a dump somewhere.
-use LED and other energy-efficient light sources in designs to lower the overall energy consumption of a production
-promote the use of bio-diesel fuel in generators, tour buses, and trucking
-utilize pre-visualization technologies as much as possible to promote energy savings by not having the equipment fired up for days on end just to appease our need to program shows
They’re not suffering for their efforts either. Have you seen the roster of tours they’ve done this year alone?
