LiveBlog

In spite of a rainy New York Sunday, spirits were high at the second day of the BSMC. The morning sessions kicked off with Bob McCarthy, winner of one of this year’s Sound Products awards for his book, Sound Systems: Design and Optimization, who discussed the ins and outs of system design. In fact, a dozen lucky people won copies of his book, a “must-have” sound designer tool, in a drawing during the manufacturers showcase.

Bob McCarthy discusses System Design in his BSMC session.

The second session featured sound designer Dan Moses Schreier, who brought two very special guests, renowned Broadway orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and noted musical director Paul Gemignani. They entertained a lively discussion about the collaboration of the three disciplines as well as the size of the orchestra—well actually the diminishing size of the orchestra on Broadway in general (with exceptions such as the current Lincoln Center Theatre revival of South Pacific). It was quite something to see this triumvirate in conversation, discussing the challenges of sound for Broadway musicals, including the rehearsal process, who decides on the size and composition of the orchestra, the role of technology in how the orchestra sounds (the more natural the better…) and other challenges. It was an extremely interesting angle!

From left to right: Broadway orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, sound designer Dan Moses Schreier, and acclaimed music director Paul Gemignani, being introduced by Live Design’s David Johnson before the session “Sound Designers Collaborating With and Working with the Music Director and the Orchestrator.”

The day continued with sessions by Steve Sockey from SIA Acoustics and John Taylor of d+b, with the closing event a casual Q&A with Abe Jacob. As the sound manufacturers loaded out their gear, everyone promised to be back next year for the 2009 edition of the BSMC or to see one another later this week for the Projection Master Classes or the BLMC which continue through May 22.

My first year at CalArts is finally over now and I can relax for a few days. I had an extremely arduous last week of school. Not only did my show open and close, but I also had to prepare my portfolio for a school-wide review, finish my final paper project (Les Liaisons Dangereues) for Don’s class and prepare myself for my mid-residence review from my mentors.

Everything turned out for the best considering the time restraints I had. Teching the Opera in four days proved to be very daunting and stressful, especially working with the Grand MA for the first time ever. All in all, I was happy with where the design got too based on the time allotted. It was in no way a finished piece, or technically clean to the trained eye. However, I do think it supported the emotional moments of the show and helped in establishing the scenic setting of the LA river/marsh. But it is in the past now, and school is finished, so it is on to bigger and better things.

For starters, I flew back East this morning and I am excited to get into the NYC for BLMC later this week. I will hopefully have time to visit some of my fellow CalArts graduates at the infamous Clambake hosted by none other then Ming Cho Lee. For those unfamiliar to Clambake, it is a multi-school portfolio presentation between recent graduates to show everyone else your work. It is primarily focused on visual design (scenic, lighting, costumes and puppets) and you get to see how other students from top programs like Yale and NYU design.

I also had time on my flight to read the script for a new show I am assigned to next semester called BLU. The piece is written by one of the MFA 3 performance writers and will be performed in one of our smaller black box spaces. The play read very quickly the first time through and gave me a good sense of what the story is about. I’ll need to spend more time with the text to start dwelling on some potential ideas.

I also hope to have some time at the end of the week to go and see Les Liaisons Dangereues, as it picked up 5 Tony nominations, and I’m anxious to see what the actual production looks like, after working on a paper-project version of it for the past month.

And below are some of the production shots from Platee that I included at portfolio review:

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.