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MAC 2k washes are still one of the best if not the best,” Nathan points out, adding that they’re ubiquitous, which is certainly an advantage when you’re playing countries like Slovakia. Strictly FX handles the heavy pyro duties. Content for video came from several sources. For the songs on the new album there was a great deal of content created for videos that the team had access to. They had specific songs with built-in movies, and they used different elements for different screens. “For the rest of the show, Chris took elements already in the Catalyst (media server), tweaked it and made it great,” Shipley says. “I never have to say anything about his creative work with video.” Nathan says they rely on a Catalyst V4 media server and have three on this tour. He runs the video elements much as Shipley runs the lights. “That’s the beauty of running video from a Compulite console,” he says. “It does all the things that the lighting rig can do, fading content in and out, bumping the faders, creating white flashes for cymbal crashes — that’s what makes it really cool. “I think a lot of the show’s success has to do with the big looks that are being produced from lighting and video,” Nathan continues. For him, largely because of the Compulite board, it’s different in that he’s programming a lighting console to do video cues and lights and “really enjoying the hell out of it. In the past, you could do some awesome stuff with video, but it’s a lot faster to do with this console.” Both Shipley and Nathan appreciated that the Compulite board allowed him to be his “strong button pusher programmer kind of guy” as opposed to the touch screen aspect. “I personally like the ‘Live and Let Die’ moment,” Shipley says. “Not just because it’s a cool song, but it’s all white — a big, fast, moving white song.” Video director Moll uses color in the I-Mag until it kicks in, then goes to black and white and then red when the pyro goes, transitioning back to color for the calm part. “This is one of those shows where all the songs are good,” Nathan adds. “There are times when you’re working on this side of the business and you get tired of the music quickly. We’ve been doing this for a year and I still really enjoy it.” Big Guns in Pyro, Video Brought Out for GNR Tour Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy Tour When Reid Nofsinger of Strictly FX started working with Axl Rose’s right hand man, Del James, to update the pyro looks that had been part of Guns N’ Roses’ touring shows for 15 years, he began with a completely blank slate. “I didn’t even want to see what they did before.” The album’s title song, “Chinese Democracy,” which opened the show, also gave Nofsinger inspiration for something completely new. “We did a pyro chase that runs around the three runways, and all the sparks coming straight down masks the stage,” he explains. “Then there are some concussion drops, and right there Axl appears and starts singing. Every night the cue had to be dead-on, and it was. It really excited the audience. Axl loved it.” Another signature moment happened during “November Rain.” Instead of going with the whole waterfall idea, Nofsinger chose a series of 20 by 20 gerbs placed around the curving staircase. “Instead of firing all at once, individual gerbs went off to the beat of the music in half-second intervals, and the guitarist standing there became wrapped in sparks.” Once the new pyro design was set, few things changed during the tour, with the notable exception being Japan. “There, you can only shoot 100 pieces of product total, and in the opening we shoot 120 chase pieces alone.” But the crew made it work so that audience got a great show like everyone else. John Wiseman of Chaos Visual Productions was called on to supply the complicated video elements to the Chinese Democracy tour. He’s had a relationship with the band going back to his early days with Vari-Lite. Long-time GNR production manager Tom Mayhue said that he trusts him and his team completely. “Greg [Shipley, show designer] put together a really cool design; Axl saw it and loved it, picking him to work on the show out of a blind group,” Wiseman says. “He just knocked it out of the park, and we brought his vision to life.” Wiseman and his team worked on the rehearsals in Los Angeles, and seven crew members went to Canada, Asia, and South America with the tour. Once in Europe, Alex Leinster, who runs Chaos’ new U.K. office, got involved to oversee the shows. Among the video package supplied by Chaos was an Element Labs Stealth LED lowres video curtain, PPU HD camera system, and a group of “Super Catalyst” media servers. From Wiseman’s perspective, the video aspect of the show “stayed big the whole time. Axl wants to do the full show every time he can.” He complimented Shipley on his ability to make that happen. “There was really no ‘B’ show — just ‘A’ and maybe ‘A minus.’” Wiseman has a definite opinion and Rose, to. “The guy has balls, and you can quote me on that. He spent the money to go large. He’s out there singing his head off for three and a half hours every night. He’s a mad genius.” Original Crew List: Production Manager: Chris Gratton Stage Manager/Production Manager (Europe): Tom Mayhue Production Designer: Greg Shipley Video Programmer: Chris Nathan Video Director: Peter Moll Video Engineer: Josh Alberts Catalyst Engineer: James De Stefano Control Freak System Technician: Josh Levin Lighting Crew Chief: Steve Roman (Epic Lighting); Glen Power (PRG Europe) Head Rigger: Ryan Murphy; Charles Terrell (Europe) SGPS Crew Chief: John Purciful Automation Programmer: Brian Lolly Video Company: Chaos Visual Productions Gear 432 Element Labs Stealth tiles (110,600 pixels) 540 Philips/Color Kinetics iColor Flex Strings (27,000 pixels) 99 Winvision 8mm tiles (405,500 pixels) 4 Barco R20 20k projectors 4 Catalyst Media Servers 1 Control Freak System 4 Compulite Vector Red lighting consoles 4 Compulite E- Ports 98 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures with narrow lens 30 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots with custom gobos 19 Martin Atomic Strobe 3000s with Atomic color scrollers 17 Martin Stagebar LED fixtures 6 9-way Mole Fays 24 PixelRange PixelLines 1044s 2 Lycian M2 Followspots 6 Strong Gladiator 3 followspots 2 Reel EFX DF-50 hazers 2 High End Systems F-100 smoke machines 1 SGPS moving motor/tracking system 2010 DECEMBER PLSN 19
INSIDE THEATRE P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S By BryanReesman Michael J. Passaro Stage Manager as Translator Megan Sikora and Sean Hayes are just two of the moving parts in in Promises, Promises Michael J. Passaro Kristin Chenoweth and company with one of the changing scenic elements. Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth in another of the many scenic settings. All of the scenic transitions happen in full view of the audience. Promises, Promises production stage manager Michael J. Passaro calls PLSN just after his show has brought Molly Shannon in the key supporting role of Marge McDougall. It’s the same role that won Katie Finneran her second Tony Award this year. While oftentimes bringing in a new cast member, even an ensemble player, can induce extra effort from cast and crew, this transition went fairly smoothly. The advantage was that director Rob Ashford and his creative team and associates were in Los Angeles, where Shannon lives, as they prepared Leap of Faith for its L.A. run. The pre-rehearsal time before her New York rehearsals with scene partner Sean Hayes made everything work more fluidly. Challenges of the Craft plsn The job of a stage manager is always a juggling act. As Passaro points out, once the creative team has left a production, everyone working in the theatre on a given night fall under his jurisdiction. He is the one to keep the show running, and in this age of technological innovation, his job is both easier and trickier. “We certainly wouldn’t be able to stage Rob Ashford’s production of Promises, Promises as he envisioned it without the enormous amount of automation that we have in all departments; scenery, lighting, sound,” asserts Passaro. “We wouldn’t be able to do that accurately and safely eight times a week. We’re at the forefront of it and also at the mercy of it, to some degree.” But technology is one key to a show that, despite staying true to its traditional musical theatre roots from the original production four decades ago, is jazzed up with a couple new (if familiar) songs, faster choreography and quicker and more dazzling scene changes. “As I’m approaching my 23rd or 24th year stage managing — this is my 20th Broadway show — I’m always amazed, despite all the technology that we have to work with, coordinate and organize, it really still is a mom and pop business at its heart,” declares Passaro. “It is still handcrafted to a great degree, and it’s still a one-off. It’s not mass-produced. It is still made by people for people in a live setting, and to that end, my greatest challenges are always in coordinating a team of people to put on a show eight times a week. Always the challenges to me are how to motivate that team, how to work with the different personality types, how to speak all the different languages that the crew, actors or producers might have and be the central translator of all that information.” Passaro has many languages with which he must be proficient. He estimates that the number of lights cues for Promises, Promises alone reaches 450 to 460, including numerous point cues. In terms of automation cues, one cue in some sections of the show can move up to 15 pieces of scenery, whether it’s something that the audience witnesses coming on and offstage or whether it is something that moves invisibly and silently backstage, like light ladders, winches or dogs getting into the right positions for the next setup. “Be that as it may, every single one of the transitions in Promises, Promises is done in front of the audience’s eyes,” says Passaro. “We never go to black out or bring a drop in. It all materializes in front of the audience. In that respect, stage managers have also become what I like to call ‘associate choreographers’ because we have to make the scenery move, dance and work with the music. Rob [Ashford] is a dancer, choreographer and director, so he especially is very specific about when things start to move, when things land and even internally when things are moving within phrases of music, so were very conscious of that. We could not have been able to achieve that without the automation that we have.” Safety First plsn Coordinating so many people requires not only precision and attention to detail but also concerns about individual safety. When it comes to safety, Passaro has no qualms about interrupting the show in case of a technical glitch. It has only happened once on Promises, Promises but happened a few times with the car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. “I am not one of those guys who’s like, ‘The show must go on’,” he reveals. “Or that we must have a backup plan for every foreseeable thing that could happen with 85 automated effects. There’s just no way. You could spin yourself out of control trying to figure out backup plans for scenarios that may never happen, or when they do present themselves, are completely different than any other kind of plan you could come up with. Frankly, I don’t waste my time trying to figure out any of that stuff when it comes to this sort of thing. All we try to do is make sure that people are safe — cast and crew, audiences in some cases — and move on as quickly and as safely as we can.” The veteran stage manager has moved his way up the Broadway ladder since he landed his first stage managing gig on Starlight Express in 1986. While he has seen many technological changes since then — theatrical automation was just coming into play on that production — the human element has been the one important constant. “To me, difficult, challenging or easy always comes down to the personalities,” declares Passaro. “We have a fantastic group of production managers and crew [on my current show], but the technology itself has come so far that we’ve had very few problems; none really to speak of, on Promises, Promises.” On A Steady Rain, which he stage managed last year, the technology was minimal and easily dwarfed by the presence of the play’s two highpowered stars, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. “There were very few things to move in A Steady Rain,” recalls Passaro. “It was 90 minutes long with no intermission. The two actors went on stage, performed the play and then we went home.” It was business as usual, “except that we had two of the biggest movie stars currently in the world performing on that stage. They were the nicest men you’d ever want to meet — completely down-to-earth, totally separate from the characters they’re famous for, gentlemen in every respect of the word. But they also came with a lot of staff and security, and our job was the coordination of those elements to make sure that those guys were safe when they walked in the building and could just concentrate on performing a difficult play. Our job was to make sure that that was a safe space for them emotionally and physically, so they didn’t have to worry about anything when they walked in the door except doing that play eight times a week.” Learning the Ropes plsn Passaro is clearly quite adept and seasoned at his profession. Ironically, he never planned on being a stage manager. Back in 1986 he had been working for a general management firm at the time called Gatchell & Neufeld, “which was one of the last of the mom and pop general managing firms. Peter Neufeld, one of the principals of that firm, told me, because I wanted to be a company manager, that I should be a production assistant on one of their shows or a show to see how it’s done in the trenches. Work with a stage manager and see how the shows were put together before I sat down behind a desk with a calculator and figured out payroll.” The young Passaro took Neufeld’s advice and snagged himself a production assistant job on Starlight Express around the age of 23 or 24. The show was so complicated that 20 PLSN DECEMBER 2010
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