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• Wireless audio infiltrates high school 

• Sine wave dimming’s bright future 

• Westlake High turns its tech around 

www.stage-directions.com 

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 

to Turn UP the Heat 

in Your Production

Table Of Contents 

S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 7 

Feature 

16 Light on the Subject 

It’s touted as the newest of the new, but sine wave dimming 

has old roots. By Andy Ciddor 

22 Picking a Program 

Some guidelines for choosing and applying to an undergrad 

theatre program. By Erik Viker 

28 Walking in a Wireless Wonderland 

Wireless tech is trickling down to high schools, and cast and 

crew alike have to make adjustments. By Bryan Reesman 

Special Section: Special Effects 

32 What Happens in Vegas… 

The shows may be huge, but here are some effects you can 

take home with you. By Jacob Coakley 

35 Thriller by the Bay 

The Thrillpeddlers have reached deep into the heart of San 

Francisco — and pulled it out, still bloody and thumping, 

for their Grand Guignol house of horrors. By Jean Schiffman 

35

Departments 

10 In the Greenroom 

The Society of American Fight Directors names its 

new Certified Teachers, Equity reaches an agreement 

with the Association of Non-Profit Theatres and other 

hirings on the boards. 

14 Tools of the Trade 

It’s a new month, and here’s the new gear 

15 Vital Stats 

Jack Reuler keeps Mixed Blood Theatre infused with a 

social conscience. By Kevin M. Mitchell 

18 Theatre Space 

The Alden Theatre in McLean, Va., upgraded its rigging 

system, for safety’s sake. By Kathleen Burke 

20 Sound Design 

Paul Charlier created a tennis match and more for 

Broadway’s Deuce. By Bryan Reesman 

26 School Spotlight 

How Westlake High’s tech theatre department found a 

purpose. By Phil Gilbert 

44 Answer Box 

A RADA student shoots for the moon for a production 

of Salome. By Thomas H. Freeman 

Columns 

7 Editor’s Note 

A few introductions before we begin. . . 

By Jacob Coakley 

38 Show Business 

Can a blog help your theatre create community? 


39 TD Talk 

Running the shop at a performing arts center is hard 

enough without adding unwritten extras into the mix. 

By Dave McGinnis 

40 Off the Shelf 

Acting and directing get examined from many angles. 

By Stephen Peithman 

41 The Play’s the Thing 

Scripts on love become the object of our affection. 

By Stephen Peithman 

Special Advertising Section 

25 Catalog Showcase 

15 

ON OUR COVER: Ray Wold in Cirque du Soleil’s “O“ 

PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Cirque du Soleil 

20

Dan Hernandez 

Editor’s Note 

Greetings 

& Salutations 

If you look to the left of this column, 

you’ll see a new face grinning 

back at you. My name is 

Jacob Coakley, and this is my first 

issue as editor of Stage Directions 

magazine. Welcome! 

I appreciate the history and 

mission of Stage Directions and am 

honored to be a part of carrying it 

on. This is a 19-year-old magazine 

dedicated to serving the theatrical community, and to 

helping everyone reading it put on better shows from all 

aspects: technically, artistically and financially. Everyone 

involved in theatre is doing it from a place of love and 

dedication — that’s why so many of us stick around, 

despite all the challenges and struggles. 

You need to know that I’ve experienced these challenges 

first-hand. I’ve worked in theatres across the 

country, in all aspects of production — onstage, offstage 

and in the business office. Currently I’m a member of 

IATSE Local 720 here in Las Vegas, and I still go to gigs 

wearing my stagehand blacks and Leatherman/Gerber/ 

multipurpose tool of choice. And while the world is better 

off without me onstage, like many of you I was introduced 

into the world of theatre through acting. 

Acting led me to New York City and Off-Broadway. 

From there, I leapt across the country to the San 

Francisco Bay Area, where I worked at some of the 

regional theatres before deciding to study sound. Sound 

led me to different theatres, and it also opened the 

doors to IATSE for me. I dove deeper into the production 

side of things and returned to school again, spending 

time interviewing theatre companies about how they 

were integrating video into their productions. Along the 

way, I kept writing about what I found, and writing the 

works I thought would be interesting on stage. 

I mention struggles, but the fact of the matter is, I 

truly believe that live theatre is one of the most amazing 

experiences in the world. I trust you do, too, and 

I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure 

that Stage Directions continues to create vital, compelling 

content for you — so you can keep on creating 

amazing work. 

Let’s get started! 

Jacob Coakley 

Editor 

Stage Directions 

www.stage-directions.com • September 2007

www.stage-directions.com 

Publisher Terry Lowe 

tlowe@stage-directions.com 

Editor Jacob Coakley 

Editorial Director Bill Evans 

jcoakley@stage-directions.com 

bevans@fohonline.com 

Audio Editor Jason Pritchard 

jpritchard@stage-directions.com 

Lighting & Staging Editor Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 

New York Bureau Chief Bryan Reesman 

Managing Editor Geri Jeter 

bryan@stage-directions.com 

gjeter@stage-directions.com 

Contributing Writers Kathleen Burke, Drew Campbell, 

Andy Ciddor, Phil Gilbert, 

Evan Henerson, Dave McGinnis, 

Kevin M. Mitchell, Jean Schiffman 

Consulting Editor Stephen Peithman 

ART 

Art Director Garret Petrov 

Graphic Designers Crystal Franklin, David Alan 

Production 

Production Manager Linda Evans 

levans@stage-directions.com 

WEB 

Web Designer Josh Harris 

ADVERTISING 

Advertising Director Greg Gallardo 

gregg@stage-directions.com 

Account Manager James Leasing 

jleasing@stage-directions.com 

Audio Advertising Manager Dan Hernandez 

dh@stage-directions.com 

OPERATIONS 

General Manager William Vanyo 

wvanyo@stage-directions.com 

CIRCULATION 

Subscription order www.stage-directions/subscribe 

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Joshua Alemany 

Rosco 

Julie Angelo 

American Association of 

Community Theatre 

Robert Barber 

BMI Supply 

Ken Billington 

Lighting Designer 

Roger claman 

Rose Brand 

Patrick Finelli, Ph.D. 

University of 

South Florida 

Gene Flaharty 

Mehron Inc. 

Cathy Hutchison 

Acoustic Dimensions 

Keith Kankovsky 

Apollo Design 

Becky Kaufman 

Period Corsets 

Todd Koeppl 

Chicago Spotlight Inc. 

Kimberly Messer 

Lillenas Drama Resources 

John Meyer 

Meyer Sound 

John Muszynski 

Theater Director 

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Stage Directions (ISSN: 1047-1901) Volume 20, Number 09 Published monthly by Timeless Communications 

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Ann Sachs 

Sachs Morgan Studio 

Bill Sapsis 

Sapsis Rigging 

Richard Silvestro 

Franklin Pierce College 

OTHER TIMELESS COMMUNICATIONS PUBLICATIONS

Letters 

Hoosier Hooray 

Thanks for including us in the August issue of Stage 

Directions (“The Cream of the Crop”). It is an honor to be 

featured with such notable programs. 

Dana W. Taylor 

Mt. Vernon Sr. High School 

Evansville, Indiana 

From the Continental Divide 

The article on how to select lighting instruments really 

helped me, even though it was a little hard for me to follow. 

(“Photometrics 101,” August 2007.) Our high school doesn’t 

have a tech theatre department, and I depend on this kind 

of thing to help me work the shows. 

Thanks, 

Ann MacGregor 

Cheyenne, Wyoming 

To Monstrous Effect 

Wanted to thank you for running the Answer Box feature 

on East Carolina University’s production of The Tempest. 

I was really intrigued by the way the mask and costume 

turned out — do you know where I could go to find more 

complete info on how to make a mask like that? 

Mark Stevens 

Portland, Oregon 

The first place to check out would be the Costume, Wigs, 

Makeup and Costume Supply section of the Stage Directions’ 

Theatre Resources Directory. There are many costume and 

makeup companies listed there, and their Web sites will have 

lots of links to resources and info you’ll need to make a stunning 

mask. Additionally, the book Stage Makeup, by Richard 

Corson is considered a classic in its field. —ed. 

Correction 

Please note that in the July Theatre Space, the dates 

for Kansas City Rep’s new Copaken Stage productions of 

Love, Janis and The Syringa Tree were misstated. Love, Janis 

closed on April 1, 2007, and The Syringa Tree closed May 27, 

2007. Also, another production, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, ran at the 

Copaken Stage from June 1–24.

By Iris Dorbian 

In The Greenroom 

theatre buzz 

Elephant Eye Theatrical Completes Funding 

Elephant Eye Theatrical (EET), the Broadway development 

and production company formed by Stuart 

Oken, Michael Leavitt and Five Cent Productions, has 

announced that it has received its total capitalization 

goal of $8 million, which includes private investment 

funding of $4.5 million. 

A theatrical development and production company 

dedicated to the creation of new book musicals for 

Broadway, the company’s mission is to find and initiate 

projects, fund their genesis and ongoing development, 

and serve as lead producer when projects are 

fully staged. 

In the pipeline for Elephant Eye are musicals The 

Addams Family, Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, and Saved. 

Summer Combat Sessions Draw No Blood 

The Society of American Fight Directors just completed 

its summer 2007 National Stage Combat 

Workshops. The events took place from July 8–July 29 

in Winston-Salem, N.C., and July 9–27 in Las Vegas, Nev. 

Classes offered in North Carolina included Summer 

Stage Combat, a basic class for actors interested in 

learning the essentials of safe stage combat; the Actor 

Combatant Workshop, which offered training with 

rapier and dagger, broadsword and unarmed; and 

the Teacher Training Workshop. At the University of 

Nevada Las Vegas, Intermediate and Advanced Actor 

Combat Workshops were given, offering combatants 

the opportunity to take their skills to the next level. 

The workshops focused on performance as well as 

on technical and theatrical applications of advanced 

weapon styles. 

A typical day’s schedule at the Vegas workshop 

consisted of lessons on the quarterstaff by Fight 

Master Geoffrey Alm, followed by either single 

sword fighting by Fight Master Drew Fracher or an 

hour and a half with Fight Master Chuck Coyl with 

instruction on advanced broadsword techniques, 

then followed by another hour and a half with Fight 

Master Michael Chin on fighting with a sword and 

shield. Evenings were filled with master classes on 

specific weapons, film 

fighting, demonstrations 

and discussions. 

Weapons vendors 

presented their products, 

and Mark Allen 

of Western Stage Props 

gave a short demonstration 

on gun safety 

and whip techniques. 

The North Carolina 

session was capped 

by the certification 

of the newest teachers 

of stage combat. 

The newest Certified 

Teachers (CTs) are: Students check out Rogue Steel’s weapons 

at the Vegas Stage Combat Workshop 

Lacy Altwine, H. Russ 

Brown, Jonathan Cole, Ted deChatelet, Matthew E. 

Ellis, Robert Hamilton, Gregg Lloyd, Jill Matarelli 

Carlson, Martin Noyes, Darrell Rushton, Lee Soroko, 

Katharine Cuyler Stage and Michael Yahn. For more 

information and for upcoming events, please visit 

the Society of American Fight Directors Web site at 

www.safd.org. 

JESSICA HIRD 

industry news 

Actors’ Playhouse to Close 

The New York Times is reporting 

that the Actors’ Playhouse Theatre, 

a 62-year-old off-Broadway theatre, 

will close soon. According to the 

Times, the theatre’s rent had doubled, 

and the facility has become 

too expensive to maintain. 

The Times quotes theatre 

operator Peter Breger as saying, 

“Basically, we just couldn’t make 

it,” as well as his relaying his 

understanding that the property 

owners were planning on turning 

the building into something 

other than a theatre. 

10 September 2007 • www.stage-directions.com

Equity Reaches Agreement with Nonprofit Theatres 

Actors’ Equity has signed a 

new three-year contract with the 

Association of Non-Profit Theatre 

Companies, with gains in salaries and 

health rates. The pact was approved 

by Equity’s Eastern Regional Board at 

its meeting on July 31. 

Minimum salaries, currently ranging 

from $265–$441 for actors, will 

increase by 10 percent during the 

term of the agreement, by 4 percent 

in year one, 3 percent in year two and 

3 percent in year three. The increments 

for stage managers and assistant 

stage managers will go up by the 

same percentages. 

Health rates will increase by 23 

percent over three years, increasing 

from $155 (current) to $167, $180 and 

$193 in each successive year. 

Other improvements were achieved 

in the areas of program bios, billing 

and advertising, costumes and smoke 

and haze. 

To accommodate the theatres’ 

growth, the average weekly box office 

ranges (used to determine a theatre’s 

category) were upped by 5 percent, in 

addition to a higher cap on the threeyear 

operating expenses cut-off. 

Various NYC nonprofit theatre companies, 

including the Atlantic Theatre 

Company, Classic Stage Company, 

MCC Theater, The New Group, Primary 

Stages, Signature Theatre Company, 

the Vineyard Theatre and the Women’s 

Project, use the ANTC agreement. This 

season, the York Theatre has been 

approved to use the agreement. 

changing roles 

Managing Director Exits Stage Left 

In a surprising turn of events 

for Seattle’s ACT Theatre, managing 

director Jolanne Stanton 

is leaving her post after only a 

few months. Stanton, a nonprofit 

consultant who served on ACT’s 

board, was hired in March to 

succeed Susan Trapnell, who ran 

ACT for nearly two decades, ending 

in 2000. Trapnell, who is now 

the theatre’s endowment fundraising 

campaign manager, was 

rehired by ACT as its manager in 

2003 following a financial crisis. 

A committee has been formed 

to find a replacement for Stanton; 

Trapnell will be an adviser in the 

search. 

www.stage-directions.com • September 2007 11

changing roles 

San Jose Theatre Hires Trio 

American Musical Theatre of San Jose is expanding its 

administrative team with the recent appointments of Amy M. 

Peabody as director of development, D.J. Zwicker-Sobrepeña 

as director of education and outreach and Michael French as 

P.R. manager — all are newly created positions. 

Peabody comes to AMTSJ from the fundraising division of 

Theatreworks, where she served as the associate director for 

individual giving. During her six years with the company, the 

budget grew from $3 million to $6.4 million; she also doubled 

The Inner Circle (major donor group) from 136 to 280 donors 

and increased the percentage of subscribers who give from 

30 percent to 40 percent. 

Petosa Leaves Olney Theatre Center 

Jim Petosa, artistic director of Olney Theatre Center, will be stepping 

down from his post the end of next year to concentrate on 

running Boston University’s theatre school. Petosa began the latter 

position in 2002, commuting between Boston and Washington, D.C. 

“I needed to move on or come back to this place full time,” said Petosa 

as quoted in a Washington Post article by Jane Horwitz dated July 4, 2007. 

“I realized the best thing now for the institution to do is to really look at 

where we are and determine what the desires for the future are.” 

Debra Jean (D.J.) Zwicker- 

Sobrepeña comes to AMTSJ 

after years of experience as an 

arts educator and performer. 

Prior to his new post at 

AMTSJ, Michael French was 

the communications manager 

for three seasons at PCPA 

Theaterfest, the California D.J. Zwicker-Sobrepeña 

Central Coast resident professional theatre company and 

training conservatory. He also held the same position for two 

seasons at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre. 

Since Olney’s new main stage opened in 2005, “it’s been about 

how do you function now as a fully completed facility,” noted 

Petosa. “Nothing does that better than a search for new artistic leadership. 

. . . The most potent and creative act I could do on the part of 

the institution was to allow it to start to ask these questions.” 

Brad Watkins will continue as Olney’s producing director. 

Petosa will continue as an Olney adviser and board member; “I 

still feel very tied to the Washington region,” he said. 


New York Troupe Adds Co-AD 

The NYC-based off-Broadway troupe, 

the LAByrinth Theater Company, which 

began in 1992, is beefing up its artistic 

team. John Gould Rubin will join 

Oscar-winning-actor Philip Seymour 

Hoffman as co-artistic director. Rubin 

and Hoffman will serve as co-artistic 

directors of the company proper, while 

John Ortiz will assume the artistic reins 

of the downtown troupe. 

Rubin also will become executive 

director of the group. A member of the 

company since 1998, Rubin has produced 

for the LAByrinth Stephen Adly 

Guirgis’ Our Lady of 121st Street and 

Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train as well as John 

Patrick Shanley’s Dirty Story. 

His directing credits with LAB 

include Dreaming in Tongues, Stopless, 

The Trail of Her Inner Thigh and 

Shanley’s A Winter Party and Mémoire. 

He also is slated to helm next season’s 

staging of Rebecca Cohen’s Penalties 

and Interest. 

in memoriam 

Canadian Impresario Passes Away 

Toronto-based entrepreneur, theatrical 

impresario and producer Edwin 

Mirvish died on July 11, 2007; he was 

92 years old. 

Known as “Honest Ed,” also the name 

of his world-famous discount emporium 

at Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto, 

Mirvish entered the theatrical business 

when he purchased the Royal Alexandra 

Theatre in Toronto in 1963 and saved it 

from demolition. Lavishly restoring the 

legendary venue, he began producing 

shows and soon became a major force in 

the theatre. He also bought and restored 

the Old Vic in London, England, and with 

his son, David Mirvish, built the awardwinning 

Princess of Wales Theatre in 

Toronto in 1993. 

Mirvish was a Commander of the 

Order of the British Empire, a Member 

of the Order of Canada and the recipient 

of more than 250 awards. 

Edwin Mirvish 


Tools Of The Trade 

Avolites’ Pearl Tiger 

Avolites Pearl Tiger 

— set to launch at PLASA 

2007 — is a streamlined, 

10-roller playback version 

of Avolites’ Pearl 

console. The Pearl Tiger 

is designed for small theatres, 

schools, colleges 

and small to medium 

scale venues. The Pearl Tiger is fully show compatible with all 

Avo Pearls, and shows can be loaded and swapped between 

these consoles. The Pearl Tiger includes: Theatre Playback; 

timecode; MIDI triggers; the ability to output 2,048 channels 

to 240 moving lights on 4 isolated DMX outputs; 10 playback 

submasters, expandable to 15 with external playback wing; 

full personality library in the console, with free updates on 

the Web site; the ability to save multiple shows to internal 

flash disk or external memory stick; a color LCD VGA screen; 

a 67 cm by 48 cm by 14 cm footprint (it goes from 14 to 30 

cm with VGA screen). www.avolites.org.uk 

Elation’s EWDMX System 

Elation’s EWDMX systems 

consists of a transmitter 

and one or more 

receivers and is designed 

to supply wireless DMX 

at a range of up to 3,000 

feet. The EWDMXT wireless 

transmitter connects 

to a DMX-512 controller 

via 3-pin or 5-pin XLR 

plugs. The transmitter 

sends all DMX data from 

the controller to the EWDMXR wireless receiver, which can 

be linked via XLR directly into the first light fixture in the 

DMX daisy chain. One EWDMXT transmitter can be used 

with up to 1,000 EWDMXR receivers. 

The EWDMXT wireless transmitter measures 5 inches by 

6.5 inches by 1.5 inches and weighs 1.6 pounds. It carries a 

list price of $799.95. EWDMXR has the same dimensions and 

weight and has a list price of $699.95. 

www.elationlighting.com 

Look Solution’s TINY F07 

Look Solutions Tiny- 

Fogger 2007 (or Tiny F07) 

is a modified successor 

of the battery-operated, 

programmable Tiny- 

Fogger. With its small 

size, it is designed to be 

incorporated into costumes, 

props and scenery 

for special effects. It 

features a higher-quality pump and more rugged vaporizer 

than the earlier model, and the PCB is now sealed in an enclosure 

so fog can’t back up into the machine, potentially causing 

a malfunction. The Tiny F07 has a momentary fog switch 

on the top of the fogger and an efficient Sleep-Mode. It operates 

with a smaller, lighter Lithium battery half the size of the 

former lead-acid battery. The TINY F07 has a programmable 

microprocessor to control fog emission. Continuous fog output 

with the battery lasts 10 minutes. A special fluid ensures 

that dense fog is produced with the lowest fluid and power 

consumption. The fluid tank is external and connected to the 

machine by a thin hose. The tank can vary in both size and also 

distance from the machine. It carries a list price of $1599.00. 

www.looksolutionsusa.com 

QSC’s PowerLight 3 Series Amps 

Q S C ’ s n e w 

P o w e r L i g h t 3 

Series amps consist 

of three models 

ranging in size 

from 2,500 to 8,000 

watts in 2 RU and 

offers the option 

o f n e t w o r k e d 

functionality. Each 

model is adjustable via a series of rear panel switches with 

color-coded LED indicators. The 8,000-watt model PL380 

uses a four-layer printed circuit board with three-ounce 

copper and is designed so that the PL380’s electrical power 

travels through a revised grounding and shielding scheme to 

keep switching noise out of the audio circuitry. Models PL325 

and PL340 complete the PowerLight 3 Series. The PL340 

offers 2,000 watts per channel at a two-ohm power rating, 

and the PL325 offers 1,250 watts at two ohms. Estimated 

street prices for the PL380, PL340, and PL325 are $2,735.00, 

$1,633.00 and $1,253.00. 

www.qscaudio.com 

Martin’s LC Series 

The LC Series from Martin 

Professional is a semitransparent, 

modular system of 

lightweight LED panels (40 

mm pixel pitch). With their 

semitransparency, they are 

designed to be used for 

moving images, lighting 

and set design. The panels 

can move through a range 

of intensity, from a solid 

wall of images and color to 

near-invisibility, and they 

allow light, air and effects 

to pass through. The LC 

series was designed to 

offer a large variety and depth of achievable colors at a 

bright output, allowing the accurate broadcast of digital 

media, which remains true to the source formatting and the 

color and intensity of other lights in the design. They were 

designed for durability and ease of set-up to help with loadins. 

The LC series offers an all-in-one solution with direct 

in/out DVI connections for video signal and simple daisy 

chain capability for up to six units. There are no external 

power supplies or drivers. 

www.martin.com 


Vital Stats 

By Kevin M. Mitchell 

In the Blood 

Meet Jack Reuler, an artistic director who uses theatre 

as a vehicle for raising social consciousness. 

Schooling: BA in zoology from Macalester College, 

St. Paul, Minn. 

Getting personal: A daughter named Taj and a 

Samoyed named Meeko. 

Founder: Founded Mixed Blood Theatre in 1976 at the 

young age of 22. 

Theatre’s philosophy: “To use theatre to address 

artificial barriers — race, culture, language, ethnicity, 

disability — that keep people from succeeding in 

American society.” 

Recent productions: Messy Utopia, a collection of 

works by five biracial playwrights about mixed race 

identity in America; Vestibular Sense, about autism; and 

Yellowman, about perceptions of skin privilege within 

African-American communities. 

Up next: Two Queens One Castle, an original musical 

dealing with stigmas of homosexuality in African- 

American communities. 

First “gig”: In 1971, produced You Can’t Take It with 

You with a cast that included future founders of 

Steppenwolf — Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise. 

Awards/Honors: Ivey Award (Minnesota Theatre 

Awards) for Lifetime Achievement (2006); City of 

Minneapolis Minneapolis Award, UNCF Local Legend 

(2006); and Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award 

(1993). 

Proudest achievement so 

far: “My daughter Taj, then 17, 

played a lead in our production 

of Queen of the Remote Control 

and did an amazing job with a 

demanding role.” 

I’m excited by a project if… “Attitudes and behaviors 

are changed as a result of participation or witnessing.” 

Favorite production: 

“Bill of 

(W)Rights, which 

had 10 short plays 

by nine playwrights, 

each a 

c o n t e m p o r a r y 

manifestation of 

the amendments in 

the Bill of Rights.” 

What I tell people 

wanting to break 

into the business… 

“Don’t look 

for handouts, be 

the one giving the 

handouts.” 

Biggest misconception about running a theatre: 

“That the months between the seasons are ‘off’ when, 

in reality, that is the time when the creative work is 

done, when the financial planning is done and when 

marketing and promotional plans are put into place.” 

If I weren’t doing this, I’d be… “a veterinarian 

or a Major League 

shortstop.” 

If I could change 

one thing about 

American theatre, 

it would be… “that 

catty competition 

would be replaced 

by generosity.” 

Jack Reuler 

Courtesy of Mixed Blood Theatre 

Ann Marsden 

Amy Matthews, Warren C. Bowles, Jevetta Steele, Ansa 

Akyea and Austene Van in Mixed Blood Theatre’s 2005 

world premiere, multiplaywright project Point of Revue 

The cast of Mixed Blood Theatre’s 2004 

production of Flags by Jane Martin 


Light on the Subject 

By Andy Ciddor 

Hang Ten 

Sine wave dimming: 

what’s all the (lack of) noise about? 

The Strand (Genlyte) C21 

dimmer rack cabinet  

Strand C21 sine wave 

dimmer module  

Swisson sine wave dimming 

Sine wave technology is being touted as the solution to 

all our dimming problems, and like any campaign to get 

us to replace our perfectly good existing equipment, we 

should look closely at its benefits. 

Sine wave dimming is both the latest and the most ancient 

of electrical dimming technologies. For the first few decades of 

electric lighting, it was the only technology available. It wasn’t 

called sine wave dimming at the time. That title only became 

necessary to differentiate this method of dimming from the 

type that changes the shape of the incoming power waveform 

to control the level of our lights. 

All the original methods of dimming lights involved putting 

some form of electrical resistance in line with the lamps 

to limit the current flowing through them, consequently 

reducing their brightness. The output waveform of a resistance 

dimmer has the same sine wave shape that arrives at 

the input: it simply gets lower in height as we reduce the 

current flow. But resistance dimmers had some significant 

drawbacks: They produced a lot of wasted heat, dimmed 

smoothly only with a particular load wattage, were rather 

bulky and could not easily be remote controlled. 

Thyristor Dimming 

The thyristor (SCR or Triac) dimmer was developed in the 

middle of the 20th century and remains the major dimming 

technology in use today. It is compact, energy-efficient, dims 

smoothly across its entire load range and is easily remotecontrolled 

by a small control signal — just about everything 

the resistance dimmer lacked. 

As a thyristor is a type of high-speed electronic switch, 

dimming is achieved using a technique known as “phase 

control.” Rather than lower the height of the sine wave of 

input power, phase control dimmers omit a variable-sized 

chunk of the sine wave at the start of each half cycle of 

power. The chunk is cut from the start of each half cycle 

because, although it’s quite easy to turn a thyristor on, once 

it’s carrying current, it is very difficult to switch it off again. 

Phase control systems switch on, then simply wait for the 

current to stop when the voltage returns to zero at the end of 

the half cycle. The lower the output level required, the larger 

the amount of each half cycle is omitted. The thermal mass of 

the filament smoothes out the bumps in the current output 

so it doesn’t flicker, it just gets cooler and less bright as the 

missing chunks get larger. 

But phase control brings with it some serious side effects. 

The sudden surge of current in the lighting cables and luminaires 

produces a burst of electromagnetic interference (EMI) 

that finds its way into everything from unshielded audio 

and video cables to someone’s hearing aid. Plus, the uneven 

waveform of the current being drawn causes major imabalance, 

harmonic distortions in the power supply network, 

and overloads in neutral cables. The sudden inrush of current 

to the filament of the lamp being dimmed also brings with it 

mechanical stresses that not only shorten the working life of 

the filament, but also cause it to vibrate at audible frequencies 

— a phenomenon known as a “singing.” 

To reduce these effects, the output of thyristor dimmers is fitted 

with a choke coil (a lot of copper wire wound around a core 

of ferrous material). The choke magnetically constricts the rapid 

rise of current in the load circuit. The larger the choke, the longer 

the rise time and the less severe the side effects. Unfortunately, 

to have any significant benefit, the chokes required are large, 

heavy, expensive and reduce the efficiency of the dimmers. 

Consequently, budget dimmers have small chokes to keep the 

cost down, while touring dimmers have the smallest and lightest 

chokes possible to keep their weight and size down. Places full 

of electronics, like TV studios, concert halls and recording halls, 

have the largest chokes that money can buy. 

Controlling Sine Waves 

Electronics engineers have been working to develop a system 

that would combine the benefits of electronic remotecontrolled 

dimming, with the low impact of a dimmer using a 

smooth sine wave as its output. The answer has been known 

for a while, but the electronics needed to bring it to reality 

have been a long time coming. 


The idea is that instead of chopping 

out one big chunk from the start of each 

half cycle of power, the dimmer should 

chop out many small chunks throughout 

the cycle. This ensures there is no sudden 

rush of current and no substantial 

distortion of the waveform. This requires 

a switching device like a thyristor — one 

that can be switched off as easily as it 

is switched on. In the early 1990s, the 

IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) 

a high-power, high-speed switching 

device became available, and R & D teams 

throughout the industry began building 

prototype sine wave dimmers with them. 

Like the switch-mode power supply 

units used in most modern electronic 

devices, sine wave dimmers use pulse 

width modulation (PWM) to control their 

output. Each cycle of power is divided 

into a fixed number of slots, and the 

amount of time that power is switched 

on during each slot (the width of the 

power pulse) is used to vary the amount 

of power being allowed through the dimmer. 

Instead of one big pulse per power 

cycle, there are hundreds of smaller ones. 

A small choke inductor can remove virtually 

all of the switching side effects, leaving 

something very close to a sine wave 

coming out of the dimmer. 

While the concept of a PWM sine wave 

dimmer is relatively simple, building one 

that works reliably proved to be a difficult 

task. Some companies even shelved their 

sine wave R & D projects due to the cost 

of development. Pumping kilowatts of 

power through an IGBT that is switching 

at 25 to 35 kHz, while maintaining a 

smooth dimming curve, turns out to be 

an impressive juggling act. Switching a 

heavily loaded IGBT on and off 250 times 

per cycle makes it quite hot and changes 

its switching characteristics. As a result, 

sine wave dimmers fairly bristle with temperature, 

voltage and current sensors to 

monitor their activities and allow the CPU 

to keep all of its balls in the air. 

A benefit of intensive monitoring is 

that most sine wave dimmers are virtually 

short-circuit proof. The moment the 

monitor program notices that too much 

current is being drawn through an IGBT, 

it just shuts the dimmer channel down 

to protect it, then checks every few 

milliseconds to see if the problem has 

gone away. Unfortunately, there have 

been problems where dimmers decided 

that a lamp firing up or a motor starting 

was actually a fault condition and 

refused to give the load enough current 

to operate. 

Start Sine 

Bytecraft demonstrated the first commercial 

sine wave dimmer in September 

1998, and it won the award for the best 

new product at PLASA. The first installation 

of these dimmers was in The Studio 

of the Sydney Opera House, where a 

system of 192 x 2.4 kW channels was 

commissioned in time for the Olympic 

Arts Festival in 2000. The reason given for 

the selection of sine wave dimming was 

the reduction of acoustic lamp noise in a 

venue that is used extensively for recording 

and broadcasting of acoustic music 

concerts; this remains the reason for most 

sine wave installations to this day. 

When it comes to acoustic noise, sine 

wave dimmers may eliminate singing 

filaments, but the cooling fans generally 

make the dimmers themselves noisy. 

While sine wave dimming effectively 

eliminates the EMI problems of thyristor 

dimmers, this problem has been so effectively 

managed by lighting, sound and 

video departments that its impact is virtually 

unknown to theatre managements 

and boards of governors. On the other 

hand, thyristor dimmers are responsible 

for substantial amounts of power supply 

distortion in our electrical installations, an 

issue that requires our attention as we try 

to minimize our environmental impact. 

Sine wave dimming almost totally eliminates 

power system harmonics and highneutral 

currents, a factor that may attract 

the attention of our marketing, public 

relations and accounting departments. 

Sine wave dimmers are currently 

available from Compulite Systems of 

Israel, Dynalite of Australia, ETC (IES) 

of Wis., Lite-Puter of Taiwan, Sinewave 

Energy Technologies of Penn., State 

Automation (formerly Bytecraft) of 

Australia, Strand Lighting (Genlyte) of 

Calif. and Swisson of Switzerland, with 

others in advanced prototype. 

In an ideal world, we should be looking 

at moving all our installations over to sine 

wave dimming; perhaps we may eventually 

be required to use more utility-friendly 

dimmers. But at a 50 percent premium 

over even the most highly specified thyristor 

dimmer, we will have to make a very 

compelling case for quiet lamps and a better 

global environment before we will see 

them in many venues any time soon. 

Andy Ciddor has been involved in lighting 

for nearly four decades as a practitioner, 

teacher and technical writer. 


Theatre Space 

By Kathleen Burke 

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID AND FRAN SMITH 

Revving Up 

A community staple upgrades its rigging 

while making safety a top concern. 

A view of Alden’s new rigging features 

The Robert Ames Alden Theatre, part of the McLean 

Community Center, was built in 1975 when the 

McLean, Va., community voted to create a center 

to support the arts. Over the years, the Alden Theatre has 

hosted many professional tours as well as been a home for 

several community theatre and music groups, including 

the local symphony. According to Jennifer Garrett, Alden’s 

technical director, the success of the theatre is because of 

the local support and foresight in wanting to offer both 

strong professional and community performances in a 

well-maintained space. From the Virginia Opera and Les 

Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo to the bluegrass band 

Molasses Creek and the Flying Karamazov Brothers, the 

Alden Theatre seems to be booked nearly every day, be it 

for a rehearsal or a performance. 

Since the original construction in 1975, the Alden underwent 

a single full renovation in 1988. In the last few years, 

Garrett has started to do a rolling renovation by updating 

a single system every year or so with the financial support 

of the community board and her boss, Clare Kiley. She has 

upgraded the lighting system, bringing in Strand C21 dimmers 

and adding an additional rack. The interior upholstery 

and carpets are next on the list, along with a re-engineering 

of the audio system. However, last August, Garrett was able 

to overhaul the rigging system after carefully evaluating 

all the unique conditions present in the Alden. This update 

was a bid project, with the spec written by Garrett and 

awarded in October 2005. Barbizon Capitol won the bid as 

general contractor and used Pook Diemont & Ohl Inc. of 

New York as the rigging installer. 

The Alden Theatre’s size led Garrett to carefully consider 

the new system, as well as the different user demands that 

would be made when the system was done. 

“The initial motorized system we had from the 1988 

renovation was a very basic system,” she admits. “There are 

a number of idiosyncrasies about this space that made me 

have some safety concerns with the system. The way the 

theatre was designed in 1975, the fly tower itself is only 

slightly wider than the proscenium arch; so when you get 

sway in the battens, you can come up under something. 

With the old motorized system, the motors didn’t know 

that.” 

There were other safety issues that troubled Garrett. 

“I found out that the emergency stop didn’t actually kill 

power to the motors,” she says. “It killed power to the controls, 

but if the problem had been in the relay, like if it didn’t 

release, it didn’t matter what you hit, and you couldn’t get 

to the power cut off for the motors.” 

Garrett worked up a priority list of features she was looking 

for when upgrading the rigging. Ease of operation was 

a major point for any changes at the Alden. 

“We train different people to use this equipment so they 

can run their shows,” she explains. “We wanted the ability 

to teach something not too complicated, but yet wasn’t 

limiting for us. Something the community groups would be 

comfortable handling safely, but wouldn’t limit the space 

for the professional presentations booked in either. 

The PowerLift from J.R. Clancy was a system that Bill 

Sapsis, president of Sapsis Rigging, suggested Garrett 

take a look at. PowerLift creates a standardized motorized 

system that adapts to existing theatres, since it has a wide 

range of mounting options to allow installations without 

major structural changes. It comes standard with a host of 

features, including Garrett’s priority — load sensing. Optical 

electronic monitoring detects any changes in the load, such 

as snags or contact with 

objects, and stops motion 

immediately. This affords 

the security and protection 

her old system lacked. 

By using PowerLift with 

Clancy’s SceneControl 500, 

Garrett is also able to now 

set internal trims and have 

complete repeatability. She 

feels this also is an important 

safety feature. “The 

nice thing is you can do 

presets and cues, which 

are two different subsets, 

and it is computerized and 

consistently replicated,” 

she says. “You can press 

that button and watch the 

A side perspective of the theatre’s 

stage and seating 


From the Alden Theatre stage 

An Alden staffer operates the Clancy’s SceneControl 500 

set so that you can react if there is 

a problem. We have control locations 

both stage left and stage right. 

There is only so much people can 

concentrate on at one time. With 

our old system, you also had to 

smell because the brakes would lock 

up sometimes on us.” 

The Alden had 13 motorized linesets 

in the original system; now, 

after the upgrade, they went to 12 

motorized sets. The farthest upstage 

set was turned into a roll drop for 

the cyc, but it is still controlled by 

the SceneControl 500 controller. 

The Alden has 12 PowerLifts, nine 

are variable speed, and the three 

electrics are fixed rate. The roll drop 

has a motor, but is not a PowerLift. 

“People may ask, ‘Why are you 

spending all this money?’ The 

answer is that I don’t want to be limited 

by the technology,” maintains 

Garrett. “I don’t want the theatre 

or our users to be limited. We take 

good care of our systems, and we 

expect them to be with the theatre 

a long time, so the money is well 

spent if it helps us maintain a level 

of professional function. I am very 

happy with the results of the rigging 

upgrade as are all our users.” 

For more information on the Alden 

Theatre, visit www.mcleancenter.org. 

Kathleen Burke is a freelance writer 

who has 20 years experience in the 

theatrical industry. She also teaches 

and works as a production manager 

on special event productions. 


Sound Design 

By Bryan Reesman 

Volley 

Paul Charlier 

Up 

Paul Charlier serves up 

his sound artistry in 

the Broadway drama 

Deuce. 

Veteran sound designer Paul Charlier is nothing 

if not devoted. When he speaks to Stage 

Directions, it is 1 a.m. where he is in Australia, 

and he has just finished a crazed day at work. But 

he is more than willing to discuss his work on the 

Tony-nominated Broadway drama Deuce, which stars 

Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes as retired women’s tennis 

pros who made a stellar doubles team back in the day, and who 

are now guests of honor at a modern match between two new 

stars. But as their verbal interplay proves, the game has become 

much more about achieving stardom and nabbing endorsements 

than the love of the sport. The 90-minute drama grips 

audiences because of its luminous leading ladies, engrossing 

story and Paul Charlier’s dynamic sound design, which creates 

the illusion that a live tennis match is going on just in front of 

the cast. It is complemented by Sven Ortel’s clever video design, 

which includes large projections of digitized audience members 

that help create the illusion of a live stadium audience. 

Charlier is a veteran of film, television, radio, dance and 

theatre whose credits include Democracy, Copenhagen and 

the Heath Ledger/Geoffrey Rush film Candy — not to mention 

being involved in the early 1980s with pioneering Aussie 

industrial group SPK (which also featured Hollywood composer 

Graeme Revell). He knows his stuff, and he loves chatting about 

the artistry of sound. In this case, Deuce provided Charlier with 

an exciting opportunity to truly create a world with which we 

are somewhat familiar — that of a live tennis match — by using 

his sound techniques to their full potential. 

Stage Directions: How many years have you worked in 

sound design? 

Paul Charlier: About 25. A long time ago, I used to joke that 

it was a little bit like seasonal fruit picking, because I had to go 

where the harvest was. I worked as a radio producer at ABC 

Radio for a while, making programs there and doing installations 

elsewhere. I’m more interested in crossing over between 

and bringing techniques from one to another. Doing music 

and sound design are part of that anyway because I don’t usually 

distinguish between the music and the sound design that 

much. With a show like Deuce, I think of the effects in the same 

way as I think of music cues anyway. 

The volleys back-and-forth definitely have a certain rhythm. 

That was one of the good things about working with the 

actors in rehearsal. I worked a lot of it in rehearsal because the 

sound is like a character. There are also musical things that happen. 

For example, the tempos of the games vary throughout 

the show in the same way that music does. Then there are some 

other music production techniques because trying to get the 

Paul Charlier at work 

sound of the tennis hits turned out to be quite a huge task. It was 

a little bit like trying to perfect a snare drum sound. It’s a sound 

that lasts for a fraction of a second and has a certain impact, and 

it has different expectations for people. It was actually a little bit 

harder with this one than, say, doing a film because you don’t 

have any visual reference to help the audience hear what you’re 

doing. Everything has to be in the sound. 

You help to create the illusion. Obviously the video projections 

of audience members behind the two leads help that, 

but you do need sound. It’s very cinematic, and I assume 

your experience with film probably helped with that. 

The odd thing for me, which is different from a cinematic 

experience, is that you don’t have that visual connection. Walter 

Murch said that 90 percent of sound is what people hear in their 

head, and often in film that’s triggered by what they’re seeing. 

When you don’t have that actual physicality of seeing the 

effort that the tennis player puts into hitting the ball and what 

that generates in you, you have to imbue this very short sound 

with all that energy that you can’t see. Obviously, having the 

spectator reactions is part of doing that, but also manipulating 

the timing. There was a lot of detail work in trying to build up 

the tension with bouncing the ball before the serve, the delay 

before the serve, and then getting the shock from the hit. 

How did you create those sound effects? Did you tape 

people playing? 

I do a lot of field recordings myself. My initial assumption 

was that I would get someone and record the hits. Then the 

Australian Open was on while I was doing prep in Australia, and 

it suddenly occurred to me that there are only a 100 people in 

the world that can actually hit the ball like that; I wasn’t going 

to get any access to them because they’re all professional tennis 

players. There wasn’t any point in getting a good player 

out somewhere because there’s the racket, the ball, the tennis 

surface, the acoustics of the stadium and just that energy that it 

takes to hit a ball over 100 kilometers per hour. 

So I took the path that was closer to recording drum sounds. I 

recorded a lot of the Australian Open, and I was listening back to 

the sound, which isn’t a strong indication of what it sounds like 

in the stadium, but it is the sound that people identify as it. Most 

of those recordings were off-miked because it’s all shotguns on 

the edge of the court. So I actually turned the sound off and 


started watching the tennis without the 

sound to hear what I heard in my head 

when they hit; then I set about to create 

that sound. I took elements of tennis hits 

that I could find and other percussive 

elements to build the sound from scratch 

just to get something that had that sense 

of the ball traveling a 100 kilometers per 

hour. 

There’s a sort of a development in the 

piece, too, that wasn’t an original concept 

of the sound design, but developed 

out of the need in the rehearsal room 

where the early games are quite slow and 

polite. Over the period of play, it became 

like a history of women’s tennis. The 

first games are slower and more polite. 

As it goes on, they talk about modern 

tennis and how it has changed, and the 

games get a bit faster and the hits get a 

bit harder, then they start grunting and 

the tempo continues to increase. They 

start swearing. By the end, the last two 

games that you hear are much more 

energetic than the ones that you heard at 

the beginning of the show. So there was 

some sense of that shift in tennis. 

Then there are the other little details. 

The foot sound is an important part of 

recording, but early on we decided not to 

incorporate the sound of them running 

to the ball because it just got too distracting. 

It was one of those things where you 

can’t use it, drop it and then bring it back 

again. So the only foot sounds we ended 

up using were with some of the serves as 

it built up to make the serves bigger. My 

family has a tennis background, so I sort 

of grew up with all of that. 

The performances are very closely 

linked to your sound design. How 

closely did you work with the actors? 

Director Michael Blakemore is important 

because he’s really interested in 

sound design. The three shows I’ve done 

with him have had no music. It’s all been 

structured around sound design. He also 

likes to bring the sound into rehearsal 

very early, both for the performers’ sake 

and also because he says it’s the only 

thing he can tech before getting to the 

theatre. So I went into rehearsal with 

pieces that I started putting together. 

We could change around the games and 

change the nature of them. When the 

performers began to realize that I could 

do it on the spot, they started realizing 

that it was a flexible thing and began 

asking and making suggestions. The way 

I work is I basically have a mini studio 

in the rehearsal room with 

Logic, so I can put the thing 

together and take it apart and 

put it back together again 

and change the timing. We 

couldn’t expect dialogue to fit 

within firm, timed pieces, so a 

lot of the elements, like the 

bouncing of the ball in the 

game itself, were all designed 

to go as long as they needed 

to go and are all separate elements 

within the playback. 

Some of them were then 

linked later on. Just about everything you 

hear are separate elements that could be 

fired separately. 

A big part of getting that to work was 

that in the theatre, the design was about 

localizing the game. Especially with musicals, 

the idea is to give an evenly dispersed 

sound throughout the theatre 

so everyone hears the same thing, but 

we wanted the game to be quite localized 

down in front of the performers, as 

well as in the speakers on either side. 

We hung the balcony speakers quite low 

so that from the balcony you heard the 

sound from below. It was consistent with 

the performers’ eyeline. We put speakers 

in the platform underneath the performers 

so that the net was located in the 

center. Then, all of the announcements 

came from the cluster, and the crowd 

was spread around through the surround 

in the front of house as well. 

You used Meyer speakers on this production. 

Which ones did you employ, 

and how did you place them? 

It was a combination of UPAs and UPJs 

and some UPMs for fills. We used UPAs 

on the side for the grunts and the hits. 

The UPJs were in the center for the hits 

on the net. We ended up using that to 

Marian Seldes and Angela Lansbury in Deuce 

Joan Marcus 

localize the radio mics, which was fantastic. 

It’s so rare that you can put a speaker 

underneath the performers so that the 

sound is reinforced and totally localized. 

There were also UPJs up for the TV commentators 

because we wanted to localize 

their sound, too. We didn’t want them 

being in the whole system because they 

would have ended up being the “voice of 

God,” which would have been a bit out 

of proportion with everything else. So 

they were localized through a UPJ that 

was underneath them, with delayed reinforcement 

through the system. 

So how far back in the theatre does the 

sound reach? 

There were rear delays underneath 

the balcony and above the front of the 

balcony itself. I have this rule of thumb 

that if an unamplified actor is standing on 

stage, and what you hear is them in the 

space, then the bottom line is the speaker 

needs to do that as well. Here we’re lucky 

in that we didn’t want the sense that 

everyone was on the line of the court, so 

obviously if you’re down in front, it felt 

like you were closer to the game, that 

there was a natural acoustic roll-off from 

the stage. It keeps your perspective to the 

continued on page 42 

Joan Marcus 


Feature 

By Erik Viker 

Picking a Program 

College application tips for high 

school theatre technicians 

All photos courtesy of Erik Viker 

Gaining a working knowledge of state-of-the-art tools is a definite bonus for students when applying for college technical theatre programs. 

Some students are happiest when they are working on a 

theatre production backstage or behind a control board, 

but may not realize they can turn their favorite hobby 

into a career. Professionals in theatre production include technical 

directors, master electricians, costume shop supervisors, 

union stagehands, production managers and scenic, lighting 

and costume designers. It is never too late to embark on a theatre 

career path, but students who begin career planning as 

early as high school may be more likely to succeed in the areas 

of theatre technology, operations and design. 

A quality undergraduate education in theatre is the best 

way to make sure you are attractive to graduate schools and 

eventually to employers. You can improve your chances of 

being accepted into top-rated university theatre programs 

by considering two factors: your potential, including the 

experience and skills you offer, and your presentation, or how 

you prepare your documentation and application materials 

for consideration. 

The best undergraduate theatre programs are highly 

selective, due to small class sizes and the value placed on 

individual attention for students. If your résumé includes a 

range of practical experiences, both in school and off campus, 

you may present yourself as a promising student with a 

serious interest in theatre. 

Early Career Experience 

High school students can approach their résumé development 

by augmenting school production experience with 

non-school theatre participation. College professors who 

review applications are often impressed by work experience 

requiring professional-quality responsibility; high school is 

the time to accept a few short-term positions where you can 

enhance your portfolio-in-the-making. Contact local civic 

theatres or small professional theatres for volunteer opportunities, 

because even simple stagehand or costume shop 

assistant positions can help you demonstrate commitment to 

the theatre. Actively pursue opportunities to be in charge of 

specific projects. For example, you might become the stock 

scenery inventory manager for your local theatre group or 

serve as assistant technical director for a season, if you have 

modest stage carpentry skills. 

Volunteer theatre positions provide valuable experiences 

with diverse people and can lead to excellent references 

and letters of recommendation. The Gainesville Community 

Playhouse in Florida, for example, welcomes high school student 

participants in all areas of theatre production. Technical 

director David Twombley says the Playhouse staff assigns 

entry-level activities for new volunteers and monitors their 

progress. “Based on acquired skills, demonstrated maturity 

and dependability,” he points out, “we then allow them to take 

on progressively more responsibility.” 

Twombley’s theatre group, the oldest community theatre in 

Florida, plans to develop a structured technical theatre education 

program aimed at local high schools. “Many of the area 

drama teachers have been supportive of this concept since 

they often do not have extensive experience or resources for 

teaching technical theatre,” he explains. He frequently writes 

college application recommendations, often commenting on 

the applicant’s reliability, teamwork and problem-solving skills, 

as well as the student’s technical theatre expertise. 

Quality documentation can make a difference in the college 

application process, but unfortunately many high school 

student designers and technicians do not document their 

work. Begin collecting photos and drawings demonstrating 

your contributions to theatre productions as you participate 

in them. Recreating paperwork and diagrams for older productions 

is usually acceptable, provided you do not alter or 

enhance your original design or contribution. Volunteer to 

create a scenic design from researched images related to 

the script and draw up a set of diagrams to build from. If you 

enjoy lighting, sketch out the positions of each instrument 

and how it affects the stage. If you are involved with costuming 

decisions, make watercolor paintings or drawings of each 

character in costume. You can use these designs as the basis 

for costume creation and later display them during college 

application visits. Student costumers might create image 


collages from magazines and other 

media to demonstrate design ideas. 

Student designers may want to compile 

samples of their work in a portfolio 

for easy display during interviews and 

campus visits. Student stage managers 

should collect any cue lists, property 

plots or staging diagrams they create 

during their production work and use 

them as proof of their experience when 

applying to universities. 

Even without extensive production 

experience, a student portfolio can still 

convey a sense of the student’s potential 

and readiness for undergraduate 

study. “The undergraduate applicant’s 

portfolio we hope will tell us about the 

student’s ‘whole life’ experience,” says 

Assistant Dean Dennis Booth of North 

Carolina School of the Arts. “What are 

their artistic background, training and 

experiences? What books do they enjoy 

reading? What does the applicant enjoy 

doing for personal recreation? Has the 

applicant held positions of responsibility 

and to what level? Has the applicant 

been involved with home renovation, 

decoration or construction projects?” 

Be creative and include things that 

might not seem immediately relevant 

to theatre production and design. 

Essays, Cover Letters and Résumés 

Even the most dedicated theatre students 

will not be taken seriously if their 

application materials are riddled with 

errors or sloppy presentation. To demonstrate 

your potential as a conscientious 

and detail-oriented student, you 

should prepare your application materials 

and résumé with great care. 

You can find résumé format examples 

through your guidance counselor 

or online resources. There is no one 

right way to organize a résumé, but 

you should keep the following common-sense 

guidelines in mind. Your 

contact information should be accurate 

and attractively presented. Also, you 

might create a separate e-mail address 

for college applications: “Susanjones@ 

provider.com” makes a much better 

first impression than “backstagebabe@ 

hotmail.com.” 

Don’t let text-messaging habits and 

pop culture trends influence how you 

write your cover letters and application 

essays. Use well-crafted sentences 

describing your interest in the university 

and why you are an excellent candidate. 

Use accurate and respectful forms of 

address for all recipients, and research 

the correct academic titles for those who 

will receive your material. Any letter to 

somebody you do not know well should 

be treated as business correspondence, 

so avoid slang, fragmented words or sentences 

and overly familiar terms (“Hey, 

Professor Viker”) in all your application 

correspondence including e-mail. 

Make Personal Contacts 

Students who are serious about 

applying to a particular school might 

contact the theatre faculty there and initiate 

conversations about the program. 

Most college admission departments 

will consider the professors’ opinions 

and insights about specific applicants, 

so you should pursue opportunities 

to share your résumé and experience 

with the faculty members who might 

become your mentors. Although some 

undergraduate theatre technology and 

design programs do not require work 

samples during the application process, 

it is understandable that students who 

demonstrate ability and potential will 

impress the professors. 

Like other fine institutions, the North 

Carolina School of the Arts also places 

importance on less-tangible aspects 

of an applicant’s experiences. Dennis 

Booth states their their undergraduate 

programs “endeavor to train a student 

who will get work, continue to get work, 

survive the profession of live performing 

arts production and further that profession 

by making their mark with creativity, 

integrity, excellence and quality of craft.” 

Getting experience is critical when beginning a backstage technical career. 


Feature 

Students learn by doing when working on high school theatre 

productions. 

He indicates that “sheer volume” of productions 

will not necessarily impress the 

faculty, but a demonstrated passion for 

the theatre and a creative spirit will often 

capture their attention. 

Professional associations are invaluable 

for making career networking connections; 

they also look good on a résumé. 

Student organizations such as the 

International Thespian Society are excellent 

resources for the young practitioner, 

but are featured on many undergraduate 

applications and may not stand out 

as anything special. You might consider 

a student membership in the United 

States Institute for Theatre Technology 

(USITT, www.usitt.org), which may demonstrate 

a mature professional interest 

in the industry. As veteran theatre technician 

Richard Stephens indicates in his 

2006 address at the USITT conference, 

such affiliations allow you to “learn from 

established experts, help build the future 

of the profession and begin relationships 

with peers that may last though 

your career.” It is never too early to 

begin making contacts in the profession 

through organization membership and 

hands-on experience. 

The theatre production industry is 

becoming more complex and sophisticated 

every day, and now is an exciting 

time to enter the profession. Richard 

Stephens notes that previous generations 

“took us from canvas and glue 

into the digital age, but your generation 

will take us forward toward innovations 

we can hardly dream about.” 

Long-term success depends on a number 

of factors including dedication, skill 

level and good fortune. An early start on 

a career foundation will serve you well if 

you hope to embark on a career in theatre 

design or technology. 

Erik Viker is an assistant professor of theatre 

at Susquehanna University in Penn., 

where he serves as technical director for the 

Department of Theatre and currently sits 

on the faculty admissions committee. He 

teaches courses in theatre production, stage 

management and dramatic literature. 


CATALOG SHOWCASE 


School Spotlight 

By Phil Gilbert 

What a Difference 

a Decade Makes 

How Westlake High School’s fine arts facility 

changed its focus and found a purpose 

All photography by richard cadena 

The end of a dance number during the 

popular annual show Zenith. 

Westlake High School technical 

theatre teacher David 

Poole briefs the entire crew 

before the show. 

Ten years ago, the theatre at Westlake High School was 

like so many others. Built during a period of growth 

in the Eanes Independent School District, the theatre 

looked much the same as it had when it was built almost 

20 years before: same reel-to-reel, same light fixtures, same 

speakers, same dimmers and same seats. 

School assemblies, band/orchestra concerts, choir and 

dance shows were run by a small group of students, most of 

whom had taken the technical theatre class as an easy elective 

— an hour when they were assured of little responsibility 

and even less homework. Then something changed. 

Old Haunts and New Beginnings 

David Poole didn’t ever think that he’d be a teacher. After 

graduating from Westlake High School and earning a degree 

from the University of Texas, he had spent time as a touring sound 

engineer and then as a realtor in Austin. During this time, he’d 

never really lost touch with his alma mater, returning annually to 

provide a sound system for the school’s spring dance show. 

In the mid-1990s, Poole convinced a friend at Austin-based 

High End Systems to loan the school a dozen automated lighting 

fixtures. With a little help from this friend, Poole gave the students 

their first glimpse into the modern look of staged events. 

It was near this time that Poole did something he had promised 

would never happen: he went back to school. Returning to 

the University of Texas, Poole dove into the required coursework 

that would let him teach in the state of Texas. Within a year 

of graduation, he was hired by Westlake as technical theatre 

teacher and fine arts facility director. 

Left to right: Olivia Vescovo, primary Wholehog III console 

op, Chad Garyet, the backup Wholehog III op and Lewis 

King, the audio console op. 

A New Direction 

Under Poole’s supervision, the focus of the program was soon 

turned on its head. Students could no longer get by just by showing 

up. A spirit of learning, a sense of pride and a drive to do the 

best work possible was not only expected — it was demanded. 

Amid all of this, an organization was formed to support 

the students’ extracurricular activities. Dubbed the Technical 

Entertainment Crew, or TEC, the organization became an 

outlet for hundreds of students over the years. 

The students would eventually coin the following mission 

statement: “The Westlake Technical Entertainment Crew 

works together to put on professional-level productions 

while promoting leadership, camaraderie and fun.” 

As the program grew, the composition of the group began 

to quickly change. Formerly a small band of students who 

shared only a lack of direction, the Technical Entertainment 

Crew began to attract boys and girls who already were actively 

involved with programs as diverse as choir, football, dance, 

cheerleading, computer science and lacrosse. 

While working with the students to constantly improve 

themselves and their program, Poole worked tirelessly to justify 

larger budgets to the school district. By staffing the outside 

events solely with TEC students, he offered the teens a 

way to earn money with what they had learned in class, gave 

them an outlet for their spare time and showed the district 

that increased operating budgets were directly benefiting 

the students and community. 

By 1999, TEC had grown four-fold. Since then, the program 

has doubled in size again, with roughly 100 members currently 

involved with the program. Under Poole’s tutelage, the 

students have expanded the technical capabilities of their 

workspace, moving beyond the theatre and having a direct 

impact on almost every student organization on campus, as 

well as many more throughout the district. 

Progress 

On any given day, the students of the Technical Entertainment 

Crew handle just about any kind of event. While they get gen- 


eral training in all areas, some eventually 

will gravitate toward a specialty. This has 

become inevitable over time, with a constant 

influx of modern lighting, audio 

and video technology. 

In the fall, you can see them at 

home or on the road, manning a 

three- or four-camera shoot of the 

Friday night football games. First year 

technical theatre students quickly 

learn the fundamentals of theatre 

and shop safety, scenic design and 

construction, live audio engineering 

and theatrical lighting. 

Before holiday break, the TEC organizes 

the annual Nutcracker Spectacular, 

working with the choir and drama 

departments for a stylized production 

incorporating a multimedia lightshow. 

In January, they begin work on the 

annual musical. The next month is 

dedicated to building sets, designing 

lighting and working with the audio 

and video crews to be ready for the 

technical rehearsals. Within a day of the 

final performance, the students begin 

to prepare for the annual Zenith dance 

show, a production that has become 

the technical centerpiece of their year. 

Over a dozen students sign up to 

program the automated lighting for 

individual dance routines. Each student 

is given a four-hour block of time to 

work one-on-one with a professional 

programmer, creating and time-coding 

the lighting for a single dance piece. 

Once Zenith is complete, the seniors 

are nearing graduation and, those who 

have proven themselves reliable, begin 

to sign up for a series of back-to-back 

facility rentals that arrive every spring. 

They’ll be given the chance to make use 

of everything they’ve learned, making 

Automated Lighting Equipment 

2 HES/FPS Whole Hog IIIs 

8 HES/LWR Cyberlights 

6 HES Technobeam 

2 HES Studio Color 575s 

4 HES X.Spots 

5 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 575s 

more money than any mall job could 

offer and enjoying every minute of it. 

Then, summer arrives again. And the 

process starts all over. The students 

of the Technical Entertainment Crew 

have already started their 2007–2008 

school year under the guidance of the 

new Fine Arts Facility Director, Adam 

Bernstein, a Westlake TEC alum. 

A graduate of Westlake High School, 

Phil Gilbert is now a freelance lighting 

designer and programmer. 

You can contact him by e-mail at 

pgilbert@ plsn.com. 

Gear Alert: Check out the equipment used at Westlake High School. 

Audio Equipment 

1 Yamaha PM3500 Console 

1 Mackie SR40.8 Console 

Crown Macro-Tech amplifiers 

JBL Array-Series loudspeakers 

Eventide processing 

Lexicon processing 

Tascam playback and recording 

BSS Soundweb speaker processing

Feature 

By Bryan Reesman 

Walking in a Wireless Wonderland 

How Broadway’s slick sound is influencing 

more and more high school productions. 

While high-end live sound has overtaken the Great 

White Way for many years, enhancing multimilliondollar 

productions that want the audience to hear 

every syllable, footstep and dramatic sound effect, it has also 

begun seeping down to the high school level. The days of 

kids modestly performing a classic musical with a couple of 

foot mics, and occasionally being trounced by a full orchestra, 

are disappearing. More than ever before, teenage thespians 

are using the latest technology, orating and singing 

their hearts out while their voices are projected throughout 

auditoriums via souped-up sound systems. 

Naturally such a technological upgrade comes at a price, 

and it’s nice when a school system has the budget for it. “We 

have a fantastic sound system,” declares Ramsey Kurdi, choral 

music director and general music teacher for Hopkinton 

High School in Massachusetts. “We have a nice Crown amp, 

beautiful Mackie speakers and a nice Sennheiser set up with 

eight wireless mics, all dedicated with one power supply. 

“Every parent thinks their kid is the 

next star, so it’s become kind of a 

necessity to have wireless microphones.” 

— Matt Harris 

Sometimes we actually borrow some mics from another 

system because we simply don’t have enough. We use a 

couple of condenser mics on the floor, but if we’re doing a 

show with a big cast, we sometimes have up to 16 mics in an 

800-seat auditorium.” 

Here’s another good example. Matt Harris serves as the A/V 

technician for the South Huntington School District in Long 

Island, N.Y., and has taken his years of experience working for 

ABC-TV and translated it to high school theatre. He started 

this gig 15 years ago, and in 1999, his school’s facility was 

upgraded. On this, he said, “The district decided to redo their 

high school auditorium and turn it into what they now call 

the Performing Arts Center.” The school now regularly rents 

the theatre out to dance and theatre companies, although 

the concerts and three annual productions by the students 

take precedent in terms of scheduling. 

Obviously, the Huntington situation is not typical of 

most high schools — it is more the norm in actual artsbased 

schools — and people see different reasons for 

the use of mics at the high school level. The relatively 

large orchestra at Hopkinton High, whose drama department 

recently staged My Fair Lady, Smile and The Pajama 

Game, is not miked, because there can be as many as 20 

musicians. Kurdi recalls performing in a Moss Hart Awardwinning 

production of West Side Story at Lexington High 

School in 1986 which, at best, may have used a couple of 

From the Madison High School production of Joseph and the Amazing 

Technicolor Dreamcoat 

From the Stimson Middle School’s staging of Disney’s High School Musical 

From the Madison High School production of Joseph and the Amazing 

Technicolor Dreamcoat 

Another scene from Madison High School’s production of Joseph and the 

Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 

condenser mics for general sound. He could not imagine 

doing that production that way today. 

It seems that amplified sound is indeed here to stay for 

this younger generation growing up with advanced technology 

all around them. “At this point, especially for actors 

and especially for musical theatre, it’s hard to take micro- 

Cate Magrane 


phones away,” remarks Mercer Alpin, 

a recent graduate of, and sound crew 

head for, Madison West High School 

in Madison, Wis. “This year someone 

wanted to do a musical revue for Fine 

Arts Week,” an annual school event 

that includes student-directed, oneact 

plays, “and there was no budget 

for any of the student plays, so they 

couldn’t afford to rent microphones. 

They had to improvise and figure out 

ways to get around that and be heard 

in a 1,000-seat auditorium.” 

Harris recalls that schools in the 

1960s often only had a microphone on 

a stand to work with; superior audio 

technology was unavailable to them. 

“This whole high school stage production 

stuff has become a bit out of control, 

and I think a lot of it has to do with 

television shows like American Idol,” he 

asserts. “Every parent thinks their kid is 

the next star, so it’s become kind of a 

necessity to have wireless microphones 

and all the fancy lighting and everything 

else that a lot of these schools 

didn’t have years ago.” 

Harris says that using the equipment 

at the high school level is “no different 

than doing stuff on Broadway. The 

Walt Whitman High School Performing 

Art Center in South Huntington has 

a 24-track ADS board, and sound is 

delivered in stereo via two 1,200-watt 

Crown amps to a custom Altec/JBL 

speaker stack I designed on each side 

of the stage. I use Crown 1000 PZMs on 

the floor and Shure UCX UHF diversity 

wireless body microphones on the talent. 

We have a very nice package.” 

The availability of such gear at the 

high school level raises the question 

of how well equipped many teenage 

performers are to deal with all of this 

technology. “Most of the time they do 

all right,” says Kurdi, who teaches a 

music technology course at his school. 

“You give somebody a toy like a $600 

Sennheiser microphone, and they 

think they know what they’re doing. 

Sometimes they’re really cute about it. 

I get a couple kids who I start grooming 

at the beginning of every couple of 

years to help me out. I had kids running 

the mixing board for the first time this 

year. They assigned the levels. All I had 

to do was set it up and set levels, and I 

could sit back and watch the show. 

“Kids today grow up with much 

more technology than you or I ever 


“What they don’t understand is that equipment is very sensitive.” 

— Ramsey Kurdi 

did, and consequently, they 

think that once they’ve seen 

it, they can run it in 10 seconds,” 

continues Kurdi. “They 

think everything’s an iPod 

or a Windows operating system, 

and that it’s really hard 

to break it. What they don’t 

understand is that equipment 

is very sensitive. It’s a 

little bit different than when 

you’re teaching them in the 

classroom. You can establish 

a rule and a procedure, but 

you get them onstage with a 

nice Sennheiser mic, and all 

of a sudden they really want 

to know why they can’t just 

screw around with it. Sometimes you have to spend a couple 

minutes to tell them why they can’t touch it.” 

Technological savvy can sometimes extend down 

from staff to members of the student body. Eighteenyear-old 

Mercer Alpin began running sound for outdoor 

events and community functions while in sixth grade 

Another moment from Disney’s High School Musical at Stimson 

Middle School 

Cate Magrane 

at an elementary school 

in Hawaii. Upon transferring 

to Madison West for 

his sophomore year of 

high school, he became 

involved in both acting and 

sound work. His school has 

produced shows including 

The Laramie Project, Fiddler 

on the Roof, Joseph and 

the Amazing Technicolor 

Dreamcoat and Noises Off. 

“At this point we can’t 

afford to buy a lot of equipment, 

but we do spend 

thousands and thousands 

of dollars on rental equipment, 

which includes at 

least a handful of wireless mics,” says Alpin. “We predominately 

go for Countryman head-worn microphones 

and Audio-Technica or Shure wireless packs, and for any 

given show we’ll probably get between five and 10 of 

those for principals. Any other reinforcement is done 

with area mics and shotgun mics.” The school, which 

Alpin says is one of the few student-run auditoriums still 

around, has a Midas Venice 320 console with 32 inputs, 

and it uses hanging choir mics and shotgun mics for 

straight plays. 

While Walt Whitman High School is fully wired for 

sound, Harris grappled with an unexpected challenge 

this past spring when veteran children’s theatre director 

Cate Magrane staged a one-act version of Disney’s smash 

hit movie High School Musical in the town’s Stimson 

Middle School, which had only ever done musical revues. 

Harris was taken aback, initially believing the complex 

show beyond the capabilities of the average seventh and 

eight graders. The middle school also had a stage in a 

large room intended for assemblies, but not plays; there 

was no wing space and no sound system, so he brought 

in his own 16-channel Mackie mixer for the event. 

“Cate told me that she didn’t want any high school kids 

working her show, and I respected that,” continues Harris. 

“So I actually got some of the middle school kids that I 

trained in my summer class, because we have a summer 

theatre program, to be part of the tech crew. I showed 

them what to do, and they ran it. She had some good kids, 

and the four main characters were able to deal with it. The 

one problem I always have is mic placement and whether 

they accidentally turn the switch off, but for the most 

part, with only one or two minor problems, they handled 

it very well.” 

For older kids working on even bigger shows, one wonders 

how microphones will affect their ability to project, 

given the ease with which their voices can be amplified 

through a P.A. system. If a director is wise, this issue can 


Feature 

be avoided. “If a kid is new to a show, 

unless another cast member tells him, 

they don’t see any of that technology 

until maybe a week before production 

week at best,” says Kurdi. “I never 

give any of the mics out until then. 

Sometimes if there’s a difficult costume 

or something, sometimes the 

kids end up sharing mics, which is 

kind of exciting. We have a few characters 

that end up doing that every 

year. Sometimes it’s got to happen.” 

Kurdi does not believe that the use 

of mics affects his kids’ ability to project. 

“They can barely hear it,” he maintains. 

“There are no monitors. They 

almost have no idea how loud they’re 

being. I don’t think it has a lot of bearing 

on them learning the material.” 

For better or worse, it seems that 

live sound is here to stay in schools, 

and naturally this technological evolution 

in high school theatre has its 

pros and cons. Harris loves teaching 

technical theatre to high school students 

because many of them, such 

as Alpin, go on to study it in college. 

However, there has been an unexpected 

consequence of the concept. 

“Certainly the high school principal 

was amazed and thrilled with the 

whole thing,” notes Harris of the successful 

High School Musical production. 

“What I’m afraid of is that we’re 

going to have to outdo this every 

year, which means that I’m going 

have to come up with some pretty 

interesting stuff technically for the 

production to fly.” 

That’s the price of progress. Given 

the advanced state of Broadway and 

even off-Broadway sound today, 

upgrading high school performance 

systems may simply be the next logical 

progression for a live art form that 

continues to thrive in an age of effectsladen 

movie extravaganzas and hightech 

video games. Even if it still baffles 

some people, at least Shakespeare can 

sound a whole lot clearer now. 

Bryan Reesman is the N.Y. Bureau Chief 

for Stage Directions. His work has 

been published in the New York Times, 

Playboy, Billboard and MovieMaker. 


Special SFX Section 

What Happens in Vegas . . . 

The shows may be huge, but these special effects don’t have to stay here. 


No offense to Broadway, but no 

one does flashy like Vegas. Not 

all of this flash can be taken 

back home and put to use at your theatre, 

but there’s a few special effects 

here that can be recreated just about 

anywhere. We talked with three big 

shows on the Strip about some of their 

special effects and how you might be 

able to do them, too. 

Phantom — The Las Vegas Spectacular 

Despite the technical flash of the 

four-tiered chandelier that swoops 

around the theatre and a seven-ton 

opera house facade that rises from 

the stage deck and flies away, the 

Vegas presentation of Andrew Lloyd 

Webber’s Phantom of the Opera is full 

of old-school theatre tricks, just like 

the original. 

One of the tricks they’ve kept in 

the show is the Pepper’s Ghost effect, 

in which the Phantom appears in 

Christine’s dressing room. 

As the stage fills with smoke, 

Christine’s mirror changes from reflecting 

her image to showing a hazy figure 

of the Phantom. He becomes crisper 

in the mirror, and eventually Christine 

walks through the mirror and away 

with him. 

“It’s actually a pretty simple trick,” 

says Michael Carey, technical director 

of Phantom. The “mirror” is actually 

a piece of heavy Lexan glass already 

split down the middle, sitting on a 

sliding track. 

“The glass is lit behind and underneath, 

to almost give it that look of a 

hologram,” explains Carey. Then, as 

the room fills up with smoke, the glass 

slides out on either side in the tracking 

like a sliding patio door, and Christine 

can walk through the mirror with the 

Phantom. 

That’s a trick that can easily be replicated 

in theatres anywhere. A new 

twist to the show introduced in the 

Vegas production is a little more complicated, 

but still reproducible, with 

a trained staff and the right safety 

equipment. 

“One thing 

that I think is a 

great stunt, and 

it’s not that difficult, 

is the 

hang stunt,” says 

Carey. During 

a scene when 

the Phantom is 

escaping through 

the rafters, he 

comes upon 

Joseph Bouquet. 

They struggle, 

and the Phantom ties a line around 

Bouquet’s neck like a noose and throws 

him from the catwalk, hanging him. On 

Broadway and everywhere else, the 

show uses a dummy. For this version, 

they throw over a live actor. 

“The stuntman is actually in a full 

body harness,” says Carey. “The noose 

itself is sewn into his collar, so it looks 

like he’s got a noose on his neck. 

There’s a line coming down that’s 

covered in hemp that’s attached to 

the back of the harness. So when the 

Phantom throws Bouquet over, he’s 

struggling in the air — then he’s just 

hanging there looking like he’s dead.” 

During the scene change, the actor 

is lowered to the floor. Because it’s just 

a harness and a motor, Carey thinks 

it’s a relatively inexpensive effect — as 

long as you can afford to bring in a 

professional like Flying by Foy to train 

somebody. 

“I sat with my boss the first time 

I saw it, and I said ‘How did they 

do that?’” Carey says. “It’s an easily 

achieved effect, but to me such a simple 

thing looks so realistic.” 

Right: The Phantom (Anthony Crivello) 

appears in Christine’s (Elizabeth Loyacano) 

dressing room mirror in this effect. 

Brent Barrett as the Phantom 

Spamalot 

Robin “Bird” Sheldon, lead pyro technician 

on Spamalot, is also in charge of 

the show’s fog effects. Five Le Maitre 

LSG Mark IIs dead hung beneath the 

stage provide all the fog for the show. 

Three provide fog through grates in the 

castle, and two more provide fog further 

down 

the stage 

via two circular 

“popups.” 

When 

it’s time for 

the fog, the 

circular popups 

raise a 

few inches 

off the stage, 

and the fog pours out. 

Getting the fog right can be tricky, 

a task that the desert doesn’t make 

any easier. “If the fog doesn’t get cold, 

it rises,” Bird says. “When it’s really hot 

and dry in here, the fog will automatically 

rise. We have a pre-chill section 

before we run it. If that doesn’t get it 

to the proper temp, I stop it and run 

it again to make it even colder. It gets 

cold to the point where it’s freezing 

the floor on the pop-ups. So I run back 

and forth throughout the show and 

wipe down the pop-up areas so the 

performers don’t slip on it.” 

With some foggers and duct tubing 

you can have your own fog effect, too 

— but if you’re going to run multiple 

machines, Bird advises against getting 

a fluid delivery system to all of 

the foggers and recommends keeping 

the fluid reservoir separate for each 

machine. 

“Running a fog fluid delivery system, 

when the line gets clogged or jammed 

or screwed up, you’ve got to follow the 

entire line back and find out where it’s 

Joan Marcus 

Joan Marcus 


John O’Hurley, Nikki Crawford and the cast of Spamalot in Las Vegas 

Carol Rosegg Carol Rosegg 

Justin Brill (left) and John O’Hurley 

as Arthur in the Las Vegas production 

of Spamalot 

screwed up 

— and sometimes 

there’s 

hundreds of 

feet of that, 

as opposed 

to just looking 

at the 

unit and saying 

‘Oh, the 

r e s e r v o i r ’ s 

empty.’ ” 

Another effect in the show is when 

the Black Knight loses all his limbs 

to King Arthur and Excalibur. While 

lead props technician Monica-Marie 

Coakley (yes, theatre is a family affair) 

couldn’t reveal all the magic behind 

the trick, she was more than willing 

to share some safety tips for anyone 

wanting to play with swords. 

“The really important thing combatwise 

— which I can’t stress enough 

— is that you can’t use any retractable 

swords, knives, anything,” she says. 

“You can’t use anything that operates 

on mechanics for the blade, because 

what happens if that gets jammed? 

You’re stabbed.” 

Rather than rely on mechanics, she 

advocates giving the blade “somewhere 

to go. That way it’s not going 

into the actor, it’s not sharp, and you 

mask it the same way you mask any 

stage combat.” 

For the Black Knight scene, Monica- 

Marie has a metal “sword-catcher” set 

up behind the door. The sword-catcher 

is a metal cylinder that’s slightly 

wider in diameter than the blade, 

and is made with a wider mouth than 

body. She lines the cylinder up with 

a premade hole in the Knight’s costume, 

then shines a flashlight light 

through the cylinder. The actor playing 

King Arthur looks for the hole in 

the costume and the light coming 

through the hole from the cylinder. 

Only if those are lined up, does he 

stab the Knight. 

“It’s amazingly 

simple,” says Monica- 

Marie. “The biggest 

pain is how fast you 

have to do it.” 

While this trick 

needs plenty of 

rehearsal, with a staff 

versed in stage combat, 

good tools and an 

eye toward safety, it 

can be done by just about anyone. 

“O” 

For a show built around more than 

a million gallons of water, it may seem 

odd to have one of people’s favorite 

acts be a man who sets himself on fire. 

Every show, Ray Wold sits in a chair 

next to the pool of water, takes out a 

newspaper and starts to read. His foot 

is “accidentally” set on fire by another 

performer. The flame travels up Wold’s 

legs, lighting the chair, the newspaper, 

Wold’s hands and his hat on fire. Wold 

stands and calmly walks off the stage. 



Assistant head of carpentry Cody 

O’Dell and a crew of trained stagehands 

meet him backstage,. 

“Wold walks offstage and stands next 

to a Kevlar blanket,” says O’Dell. “He drops 

the newspaper, he drops his hat and he 

drops his chair into some very saturated 

plain old towels full of water.” The water 

extinguishes the fire on these items. 

Ray lies on the Kevlar blanket, and the 

team wraps him up “like a big burrito.” 

“Rather than try to put out the fire, 

or extinguish the fire, we go the opposite 

direction and remove the oxygen 

from the area. When he’s wrapped up 

in the Kevlar blanket, the fire has no 

more oxygen,” says O’Dell. 

This is an effect that requires more 

specialized training than others and 

certainly isn’t recommended for anyone 

who hasn’t been doing it for years. 

“These artists are specialized,” 

warns O’Dell. “It would be the best 

option to hire 

someone who 

has been doing 

this for most of 

their life.” 

But even with 

those artists, your 

crew needs to be 

highly aware of 

the danger and 

trained in the 

appropriate safety 

protocols. 

Ray Wold lights himself on fire in “O.” Ray has done over 4,000 performances 

and never missed a show. 

“If you’re going to have this kind of presentation, 

it’s vastly important that everyone 

knows they’re putting this person’s 

life in jeopardy,” O’Dell continues. He recommends 

that you make sure you have 

someone — preferably multiple someones 

— who are licensed by the state you’re 

performing in to operate pyro effects, and 

that as much of the crew as possible has 

been trained by a state agency — the 

National Fire Protection Agency, OSHA, 

a local fire department — and not just a 

contractor. These agencies will be up-todate 

on all rules and regulations. 

All effects take work, and are a 

step out of the norm for a play, but 

with the right training and safety 

measures, you can put a charge into 

your play no matter what the size of 

your theatre. 



Thriller by the Bay 

For 16 years, this San Francisco theatre company has been titillating 

audiences with its unique shock box effects. 

All photography courtesy of www.DavidAllenStudio.com 

By Jean Schiffman 

The Psychiatrist Office and Padded Cell make up the ghastly pairing of Shock Box seats called “The Asylum of Shock.” Pictured: (left to right) Kara Emry and Will 

Freitas, Aaron “Gonzo” Gonzales and Laura Osburn 

Next to a freeway overpass off the city’s beaten theatreand-tourist 

path, tiny Thrillpeddlers has been attracting 

San Francisco’s more daring patrons to its venue, 

the Hypnodrome, for the past several years. Founded in 1991 

by Russell Blackwood and Daniel Zilber, the company patterns 

itself after Paris’ Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol, which terrified 

and titillated the French and thrill-seeking tourists from 1897– 

1962 with its bills of five or six short gothic plays featuring 

sex, violence and legendary special effects. Turns out, there’s 

also a healthy American appetite for bloody, bawdy and 

downright gross period playlets. And Thrillpeddlers creates a 

total — albeit low-tech — ambiance, including creepily dim 

red house lighting, spooky chandeliers, player piano, wafting 

stage fog and pitch-black blackouts. 

One of the most unusual aspects of Thrillpeddlers’ fare 

materializes not on stage but in its “shock boxes” — six private 

box seats for two in the theatre’s top row. Blackwood modeled 

them after the loges grilles, a popular seating option 

at the Grand Guignol and other turn-of-the-century Parisian 

theatres. These private box seats, fitted with grillwork fronts, 

allowed these patrons to see the performance without being 

seen themselves. 

The Hypnodrome’s shock boxes consist of three themed 

pairs, each with its own distinct decor and built-in special 

effects. Two art-deco “towers” separate the three pairs of 

shock boxes. Made of luon (lightweight plywood), each halfbox 

is 4 feet long and 2 ½ feet deep. They were built by Don 

Corr in a nearby shop also used by the Discovery Channel’s 

MythBuster series. 

Blackwood, a cheerful redhead in a frayed black smoking 

jacket, with luminous blue eyes and a loud, diabolical chortle, 

seats the shock box patrons personally and explains the special 

features (he’s also the theatre’s producer and director). 

Shock boxers (who pay higher ticket prices for the privilege 

of being unnerved) can — and many do, avows Blackwood 

— pull a sheer-fabric curtain rather than the more historically 

accurate grillwork. When the house is dark and the stage lights 

are up, they can see out, but nobody can see in. What they do 

inside is their own business. Through at last part of what they 

experience inside is the business of Thrillpeddlers’ designers 

and three or four volunteer operators who hover in complete 

darkness and silence in a long, narrow alley, 27 feet by 2 feet, 

behind the boxes, working by sense of feel and Glo Tape. The 

need for absolute darkness is so great that even the laptops in 

the tech booth, also situated behind the risers, must be closed 

during the blackouts. 

Blackwood is no novice to the chills-and-thrills genre. His 

father, Jim Blackwood, is a retired scenic designer on the faculty 

of the University of Missouri who also worked with Missouri 

Repertory Theatre. Consequently, Blackwood grew up around 

theatre and earned a BFA in acting from Boston University, 

where he also spent summers working as a propmaster. 

He still remembers the impact of a production of the Gian 

Carlo Menotti opera The Medium that his father designed, and 

of him bringing home leftover blood bags. Blackwood says 

he’s also been fascinated since childhood by the fraudulent 

spiritualist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

He was also influenced by the 1950s horror flicks of William 

Castle, who arranged for buzzers beneath the audience seats 

that were wired to switches in the projection booth. Over the 

past summer, Blackwood Senior and Junior worked to redesign 

the shock boxes for the new season’s annual Halloween 



A glowing mummy’s hand reaches for a couple in 

the dark during Thrillpeddlers’ “lights-out” spook 

show. Pictured: Kara Emry and Will Freitas 

pageant, Shocktoberfest!! (October 4– 

November 17). 

Blackwood reserves the right to hold 

back a few of his trade secrets, but is 

otherwise willing to turn on the 500- 

watt work lights to reveal much of 

his trompe l’oeil trickery. “The special 

effects of grand guignol were always a 

well-guarded secret,” he explains, “primarily 

because most of the tricks themselves 

were simple. It was the sleightof-hand 

and the production’s other 

assets that made performing them so 

impressive. It’s the same way with these 

shock boxes.” 

Each box appears to be little more 

than a thematically decorated hidey-hole 

with an upholstered banquette. But, for 

example, the mirrors on each wall are actually 

secret doors to the operators’ towers. 

Silently, during the Thrillpeddlers’ traditional 

“lights-out” finale, operators may 

open the door from behind to briefly reveal 

various glow-in-the-dark apparitions. 

Doorbell buzzers and vibrating massage 

pads are buried inside selected seat 

cushions and can be turned on and off 

by the operators. More intense vibrations 

are created by running a whirring 

Mixmaster, weed-eater and car buffer 

against the thin back walls of the boxes, 

or even a birch branch, which simulates 

the scratching sound of malevolent rats 

scurrying in the woodwork. 

In “shock box alley” behind the seats, 

operators have full access to both towers 

as well as the space above, behind 

and under the private booths. Through 

one of the three PVC pipe “speaking 

tubes,” operators can make hushed, 

spooky sounds to any pair of boxes. 

Also in the alley is an air tank attached 

to a series of tubing (for those unsettling 

air blasts), assorted glow-in-thedark 

objects (charged in advance under 

black light) and various noisemakers. 

Part of the fun, says Blackwood, is transforming 

simple found objects into fearinducing 

effects. 

On far house right is the Egyptian 

booth, the most realistic of the three 

shock boxes. Half of it is the “new tomb,” 

tricked out to look like a pharaoh might 

have just been laid to rest there. A 

PVC pipe, stuffed with a wad of cotton 

soaked in sandalwood, occasionally 

wafts potent perfume into the box when 

blown with the air hose. A well-stocked 

canopic jar (an ancient Egyptian funerary 

vase to hold mummy’s organs) emits 

a disgusting odor (purchased from a 

joke shop) when opened by a patron. 


The other half is the same tomb 

thousands of years later, set up as an 

archeologist’s worksite with translated 

hieroglyphics posted on a wall that’s 

actually made of stretchy spandex, so 

operators can press their faces against 

the fabric and right between the unsuspecting 

couple sitting in the box. 

On house left, a psychiatrist’s office 

is paired with an asylum cell. A switch in 

the office allows a patron to administer 

“shock treatment” to the loonies next 

door. (All are circuited with the house 

lights so they can’t be used during the 

show.) The walls of the padded cell next 

door are made of tufted squares of tan 

burlap, and a ceiling panel descends 

onto patrons’ heads, evoking a claustrophobic 

thrill. Squares of wallpaper 

in the shrink’s office echo the adjoining 

cell’s burlap pads: Tan and red squares 

cross and mix in the middle, a unifying 

design element that represents the 

blurred line between sanity and madness. 

Since the padded cell shock box 

butts up against the wall of the theatre 

itself, there’s no room to access a secret 

door. Instead, a sheet of aluminized 

acrylic covers the nine inches of space 

between the cell and theatre walls. 

When lit from behind, the acrylic acts 

as a two-way mirror, revealing a ghastly 

face that is a mask rather than the 

patron’s own reflection. 

The middle box represents a kitschy 

interpretation of heaven and hell, with 

the two halves separated not by a solid 

divider (as with the other two boxes), 

but by a curtain. 

“Heaven and hell, yin and yang — 

how close are they? Just pull back the 

curtain,” says Blackwood. Baby dolls 

made up as winged demons and fairies 

are suspended from the ceiling. Patrons 

can pull a string, and the flying babies 

flap their spring-loaded wings. 

“This box was inspired by adjoining 

restaurants in Weimar-era Berlin named 

‘Heaven and Hell,’ ” he notes. “It’s an 

homage to a clever concept, and it’s 

just as valid today that we question the 

concept of heaven and hell and how it’s 

being presented to us.” 

Blackwood notes that scoring the 

shock boxes’ special effects can be a 

challenge. “We’re always asking ourselves: 

How do we accentuate the 

theatre experience and enhance the 

fun without simply distracting from 

it? The audience has to want to forget 

that there are operators behind 

the boxes. If the audience gives us 

their willing suspension of disbelief, 

why not take them someplace they’ve 

never been before?” 

For more information about the 

Thrillpeddlers, visit www.thrillpeddlers. 

com or call 415.377.4202. 

Jean Schiffman is a San Francisco arts 

writer. Her book The Working Actor’s 

Toolkit was published by Heinemann. 

Hypnodrome producer Russell Blackwood 


Show Business 


Starting a Conversation 

Creating a virtual community can lead to physical benefits. 

When I asked people how they were trying to generate 

more subscribers, the consensus was that theatres 

needed to engage with the audience more fully outside 

the performance space and give audiences a greater level 

of involvement. In addition to more traditional methods of 

engaging with the audience, one of the ways you can engage 

your community is by posting an institutional blog. 

Essentially, a blog is a less formal, more frequently updated 

Web site. While your main Web page contains info about 

what’s playing, professional pictures and a link to buy tickets, 

a blog could consist of posts by an actor going through a 

rehearsal process, a designer talking about how they worked 

on a show or short messages about last-minute ticket availability. 

It can be whatever you want to make it, but the idea is to 

make it interesting enough that your audience wants to read it 

and feels as if they can respond back and talk to someone. 

“What we’re trying to do, in a lot of areas with programming, 

is to give transparency and foster engagement,” says Edward 

Sobel, director of new play development at Steppenwolf 

Theatre in Chicago. “This is another way of doing that.” 

“Its primary objective is getting patrons more involved 

with the activities of theatre,” says Steven Kang, direct sales 

manager at the Pasadeana Playhouse in Pasadena, Calif. 

But since blogs are so new and informal, they often are 

not integrated into a marketing plan or people’s workloads. 

While people may be “overwhelmingly receptive” to the 

idea, as Kang says his company was, getting them the time 

to post is another matter entirely. 

“I spend a lot of time encouraging people in the organization 

to submit articles,” says Kang. 

“When we’re in the middle of a show, I’m not as involved,” 

admits Matt Slaybaugh, artistic director of Available Light, 

and prime mover of that theatre’s blog. Sobel is even more 

blunt as to how he gets people to participate: “We beg.” 

But even with these time demands, the rewards are there 

— and not just in perception, financially, too. Sobel, Kang and 

Slaybaugh all point to increasing numbers for their Web site 

traffic, which means that their harder news — like ticket sales 

and upcoming show info — are reaching more people. 

“The ultimate goal is to get people to buy tickets,” says 

Kang. “Web purchases are an increasingly important part of 

our business; over the past few years, they’ve increased from 

18 to 30 percent of our total single ticket sales.” More Web 

traffic can only serve to drive those numbers higher. 

But what happens if you give people more of a voice, but 

that voice is negative? No one has an answer for that yet. 

The Pasadena Playhouse has a policy for their reader 

reviews, summarized by Kang: “As long as you’re polite and 

well-behaved you can post your opinion, and I’m not going 

to take it out if you didn’t like the show. Because I do want it 

to be an honest feedback.” 

But as with the mantra “There’s no bad press,” sometimes 

even negative feedback or controversy can feed your readership. 

At the Steppenwolf site, a furious debate on the ethics of 

reviewing workshop musicals led to some of the highest traffic 

and number of responses experienced on their blog. 

“We’re not trying to be controversial; that’s not the purpose 

of it.” says Sobel, “But we certainly tend to consider if this is 

something that’s going to be provocative. I don’t mean that in 

a pejorative way. We’re trying to generate conversation with 

what we’ve put up on the blog.” 

The trick is to balance a conversation with an institution’s 

demands. 

“Ultimately, this is a Steppenwolf Web site, but we want to 

give a kind of freedom to the voice that the medium demands,” 

says Sobel. “Trying to make sure that happens while maintaining 

a high level of discourse is definitely part of the task.” 

For now, it may require a leap of faith in your audience 

— a leap that they want to be a part of your theatre, and 

theatre in general, enough so they’ll play nice. Slaybaugh 

at Available Light Theatre started a blog aggregrator called 

Theatre Forté, which automatically updates itself when a 

blog they track changes. He started it as a way to monitor the 

online conversations about theatre. 

“We’re in the middle of the country, and we really feel 

a desperate need to communicate with people all over 

the country, to be connected with the art community as a 

whole,” notes Slaybaugh. “Theatre Forté was a way to try and 

gather people together for that conversation.” 

Your audience wants to be connected with you, too. This 

is one way to make that happen. 

Start a conversation with Jacob at jcoakley@stage-directions.com 


TD Talk 

By Dave McGinnis 

Making Room in a Closet 

Keeping a sound schedule in a busy rental house 

Many TDs have found themselves employed at performing 

arts centers that specialize in bringing in shows for 

limited runs on a rental basis. In a situation like that, 

scheduling can become, let’s be honest, a nightmare from hell. 

While one show attempts to load in a 30-foot wall that for 

some reason won’t break down through your 29-foot diagonal 

measurement bay door, another group of screaming banshees 

is chewing up the paint on your second stage, and both of these 

threaten to interrupt the peace of your state dinner in the main 

lobby hosting the governor and two state cabinet members, 

all of whom have some inexplicable control over your budget…and 

job. 

The key to maintaining sanity here is scheduling, but it’s difficult, 

to say the least. There are a few secrets, though, that might 

alleviate your need to reach for the ibuprofen. 

The first thing to do is set absolute ground rules that apply 

to EVERYBODY (note the caps). I’ve seen what happens when 

certain entities get preference over others, and it is ugly. If your 

ground rules have laid out specifically what will and will not be 

provided for the client and when, the client will know what the 

boundaries are, reducing the number of requests that you or 

your crew have to field at the last minute. 

Also, always leave lag time between events, even if they happen 

in different spaces, and never give it up. No equipment has 

ever been invented that runs perfectly every time, and the gear 

in your house is no exception. Assume the worst will happen, 

and be happy when it doesn’t. In addition, every crewmember 

and TD, no matter how good or hardened, needs breathing 

room. If you push a crew long enough and hard enough, they 

will crack and mistakes will be made. Period. 

Finally, there is a growing debate among tech theatre providers 

regarding whether it is better to have additional resources 

ready for an incoming show or to only provide everything 

requested in advance to a quality standard. I fall on the side 

of only providing what is noted before the client arrives at the 

dock. While having pleasant surprises may make you look better 

today, it will cost you and your crew in the long run, especially if 

you are dealing with a recurring client who remembers all those 

pleasant surprises from their last few visits. The day will come 

when they cross that threshold into what is not possible at short 

notice. Worse yet, the day may come that you are not able to 

provide something that you were able to provide before, which 

can result in a client who is both confused and angry. 

In order to maintain smooth operations, I hold that it is best 

to provide everything a client has asked for in advance that is 

within your power, but to add nothing to their rental without 

some prearranged process for incurring expedite charges, no 

matter who they are. Every company that makes a last-minute 

request should sign a contract addendum to pay extra before 

the service can be rendered, unless the request has been made 

last minute by some oversight on the part of facility personnel. 

There is one elephant in the room here, though — booking 

agents. All of these suggestions go out the window if the people 

booking the facility are failing to make certain that the clients 

understand these rules, and booking agents and technical staffs 

often have diametrically opposed needs. Technicians need 

more time to keep the facility up to snuff, and booking receives 

pressure from above to keep the acts coming and going as fast 

as possible. Of all of the challenges facility coordinators and TDs 

face, this could be the Big One. There comes a point where your 

administration will have to choose one of the following: 1) Hire 

more tech personnel; 2) Increase lag-time between bookings; 

or 3) Replace the squeaky wheel who asked for one of the prior 

options. (Let’s hope for 1 or 2.) 

Tech direction at a rental facility will often feel like trying 

to dig Jimmy Hoffa out of a marble floor with a plastic spoon, 

especially if there is some client who is, for whatever reason, 

not accountable for certain fees or regulations. Some of us have 

learned this lesson the hard way — be civil to your incoming 

clients, but make it clear from day one that they will receive only 

what they already have requested. Your crew works hard, so 

don’t make them work any harder than they need to. 

Dave McGinnis is currently adjusting to the humidity in Florida, but 

can be reached at dmcginnis@stage-directions.com. 


Off The Shelf 

By Stephan Peithman 

Together or Solo 

New books on acting and directing 

A 

number of new books look at acting and 

directing from both the individual and 

group perspectives, emphasizing the 

importance of both. 

Organized in three sections (“Actor Training,“ 

“Rehearsal Processes” and “Performance 

Practices”), The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit 

by Bella Merlin, provides a basic guide for actors, 

directors, teachers and students. Merlin explains 

key terms and concepts, then illustrates each with 

examples from Stanislavksy’s work and that of 

other practitioners. Also provided are exercises to 

help actors and students become familiar with the 

“toolkit” of the title. While “Rehearsal Processes” is 

the heart of the book, “Performance Practices” goes 

where many other acting books do not — addressing 

what happens to the creative process when the 

actor’s work goes public, focusing on the tools that 

can help keep the performance on course. Bravo! 

[ISBN 0-89676-259-7, $23, 

Drama Publishers] 

In similar fashion, 

Acting Teachers 

of America: A Vital 

Tradition is based on 

Ronald Rand’s interviews 

with teachers and coaches 

about their approaches 

to teaching the craft. 

These include Michael 

Howard, Lloyd Richards, 

Olympia Dukakis, Austin 

Pendleton, Anne Bogart, 

Anne Jackson, André De Shields and Marian 

Seldes, among others. Each teacher interview is 

immediately followed by one with a former or 

current student, such as Edward Norton, Billy 

Crudup, Steve Buscemi, Doris Roberts and Lillias 

White. Illustrated with portraits by photographer 

Luigi Scorcia, this book is both enjoyable 

and informative. [ISBN 1-58115-473-9, $19.95, 

Allworth Press] 

“When a company of actors works together 

to create life onstage, the living play can strike 

an audience deeply and unforgettably,” writes 

Marshall W. Mason in Creating Life on Stage: A 

Director’s Approach to Working with Actors. 

What the audience doesn’t see — at first hand, 

at least — is the work of the director, who has 

inspired the actors (and designers) to subsume 

their individual contributions to the collective 

creation of the world of the play. Mason shows 

how a director’s imaginative ideas can lend thematic 

structure and coherence to costuming, 

design, music and lighting — and how his vision 

can bring this to life through the actors. [ISBN 0- 

325-00919-8, $19.95, Heinemann Books] 

Diz White highlights ensemble work of a 

somewhat different kind in The Comedy Group 

Book as she discusses the steps in creating a successful 

comedy group. This you do, she explains, 

by creating your own show that is so noteworthy 

that the movers and shakers come to you to supply 

their theatrical and programming needs. She 

makes a persuasive case, based on her own successful 

experiences. [ISBN 1-57525-452-2, $15.95, 

Smith and Kraus] 

Sometimes time constraints make it difficult to 

rehearse as much as needed, particularly in film and 

television. In How to Rehearse When There Is No 

Rehearsal: Acting and 

the Media, Alice Spivak 

describes her process for 

developing and building 

a character when time is 

short — including how 

to read a script, develop 

relationships, reveal subtext, 

find the character’s 

objective, follow up on 

place and circumstances, 

write a character background, 

decide on character 

traits and create a 

character chart for quick reference. Nicely done. 

[ISBN 0-87910-342-6, $19.95, Limelight Editions] 

The BBC Acting Series is an amazing resource of 

video presentations now transferred to DVD, covering 

virtually every aspect of acting, most particularly 

acting in styles ranging from Shakespeare 

to Broadway musicals. Simon Callow’s Acting in 

Restoration Comedy is one of the best. Taking 

scenes from John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse (1696) 

as the text, Callow directs a workshop of young 

actors, shaping their actor’s sensibility, coaching 

their performance in the conventions of the 

age, the life of the costume and the audience in 

performance. “Restoration comedies are bursting 

with life, and it is the giving of life that is the job of 

the theatre,” Callow points out. The 60 minutes of 

this remarkable video go by all too quickly. [ISBN 

1-55783-688-4, $39.95, Working Arts Library] 


The Plays The Thing 

By Stephan Peithman 

All About Passions 

Plays that focus on love from many angles 

Love in all its variations is the theme of this month’s 

roundup of recently published plays. 

In Norm Foster’s The Love List, Leon buys his friend 

Bill a subscription to a dating service as a birthday gift. Bill 

must write down the 10 characteristics he wants (the “love 

list”), and the service guarantees to provide someone to fit 

the bill. The two men collaborate on the list; an hour later, 

in walks Justine, every voluptuous inch of her Bill’s dream 

woman, and acting as though they have been lovers for 

months. He quickly falls under the spell of his fantasy woman, 

but he soon finds her perfection a bit troubling. This sex 

comedy winds up with the obligatory twist, but Foster makes 

it believable. In love, he suggests, we may not get what 

we wish for. More often than not, we get exactly what we 

deserve. Two males, one female. [Samuel French] 

Three recent works by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John 

Patrick Shanley, are collected in Dirty Story and Other Plays. 

In the dark comedy Where’s My Money? [three males, three 

females], Shanley takes on marriage, infidelity and divorce 

lawyers in a play that is both scary and funny. In Sailor’s Song 

[three males, three females], love becomes an act of courage 

in a seaside romance about the certainty of death, the brevity 

of youth and the importance of living in the moment. And 

Dirty Story [three males, one female], an improbably sexy 

satire of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, centers on a couple 

of writers who fight over rights to a New York City loft. [ISBN 

1-55936-282-5, Theatre Communications Group] 

The Light in the Piazza brings together the talents of 

Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Craig Lucas (book) in 

an adaptation of Elizabeth Spencer’s novella of the same 

name. Set in Italy in Summer 1953, it tells of American mother 

Margaret Johnson, who is touring the Tuscan countryside 

with her daughter Clara, a beautiful, surprisingly childish 

young woman. In Florence, Clara takes up an intense 

romance with a handsome young Italian, which upsets her 

mother greatly. As the story unfolds, we learn that in addition 

to the cultural differences between the young lovers, 

Clara is not quite all that she appears. Unable to suppress 

the truth about her daughter, Margaret is forced to reconsider 

not only Clara’s future, but her own hopes as well. 

The score by Guettel is both romantic and passionate, ably 

supported by Lucas’ script. Four females, six males, plus tourists 

and Florentine citizens. [ISBN 1-55936-267-2, Theatre 

Communications Group] 

Twelfth Night is not only one of Shakespeare’s funniest 

plays, but one of his most romantic. A young noblewoman, 

Viola, shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother, 

Sebastian, dresses as a man in order to enter the service of 

Orsino, Duke of Illyria. Orsino is in love with Lady Olivia, whose 

brother has died recently; he decides to use “Cesario” as an 

intermediary. Olivia, believing Viola to be a man, falls in love 

with the handsome and eloquent messenger. Viola, in turn, 

has fallen in love with the Duke, who also believes Viola is a 

man and who regards her as his confidant. When Sebastian 

turns up alive, confusion ensues, but all ends happily. Editor 

Burton Raffel offers help with vocabulary, pronunciation and 

prosody, and provides alternative readings of phrases and 

lines. His on-page annotations help the actor or director 

explore the many possible interpretations. Also included 

are an introductory essay and a concluding essay by Harold 

Bloom. [ISBN 0-30011-563-5, $6.95, Yale University Press] 

Twelfth Night also turns up in Douglas Newell’s 

Shakespeare for Two: A Comprehensive Collection of 

Two-Person Scenes. Providing two-person Shakespearean 

scenes for audition, performance or practice, it combines 

the expected love scenes [Kate and Petruchio, Romeo and 

Juliet, Viola and Olivia], as well as less-expected selections 

highlighting a wide variety of emotions [the Clown and 

the Shepherd from The Winter’s Tale, Margaret and the 

Earl of Suffolk from Henry VI, Part I, and Mistress Ford and 

Mistress Page from The Merry Wives of Windsor]. Newall 

provides helpful context for understanding and playing 

each scene — including plot and scene summaries, 

a guide to pronunciation and definitions of words no 

longer in common usage. [ISBN 0-32500-889-2, $19.95, 

Heinemann Drama] 


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Sound Design 

continued from page 21 

game the same as your perspective to the 

voices of the actors on stage. 

The hardest thing about it was actually 

getting the 40,000-spectator sound when 

you can’t actually put a huge P.A. behind 

the audience. Getting the sound of 40,000 

spectators is huge as it is, especially in tennis, 

because tennis crowds are unlike any 

other sporting crowd as they’re traditionally 

quite polite; they don’t tend to react the way 

baseball or soccer crowds do. Unlike soccer 

or football, they’re not cheering constantly 

through it — they’re very quiet in between 

points. Probably the hardest thing was pulling 

together enough crowd sounds. I joked 

with Michael that the acting range of the 

crowd was the biggest problem I had with 

the sound design, just being able to get 

enough of various reactions — those “oohs” 

and “aahs” when a ball’s almost hit or when 

someone does something good in the middle 

of a rally, and then trying to create the 

sense that there is actually that many people 

in the stadium. We didn’t try to go with making 

it sound like there are 40,000 people with 

you in the theatre because it just didn’t make 

acoustic sense, and because there is also this 

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State University of New York, 

Fredonia 

false perspective that you’re hearing these 

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court at the same volume as you’re watching 

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What kind of console were you using? 

We had a Yamaha DM2000 as the desk. As 

far as the sound design goes, I end up using 

the mixer as an extensive matrix because all 

of the localizing is done in Cricket. It comes 

out of the computer and is routed directly 

one-to-one through the inputs/outputs of the 

mixer, and I think we had 10 outputs coming 

out of the MOTU into the mixer. I could start 

programming Cricket in the rehearsal, then 

just take that into the theatre and open up the 

outputs and just keep working on it, so I didn’t 

have to start all over again. By the last week 

of rehearsal, they had 90 percent of the show 

with the playback as it would be in the theatre. 

It’s fantastic for being able to break everything 

into small elements and roll them over. 

Then Jake Rodriguez, who wrote Cricket 

and some modules specifically for the show, 

put a MIDI show control module in it because 

sound triggered half the video, which is running 

off the Hippo system. In order to keep 

their heads in sync with the game, Cricket 

triggered the video when it needed to be in 

sync with the sound. Cricket also triggered 

cue lights to help the actors know where 

they had to look, because often from their 

point-of-view, it was not easy to tell which 

way they were supposed to be looking. We 

had two lights at the back of the theatre that 

Cricket also triggered. Cricket became like 

a pacemaker that was running the show. 

It’s probably the biggest show I’ve done 

on Cricket because there were about 2,000 

modules in the sound design, and we got 

up to about 400 cues at one point. I think 

that came down to about 320 by the time it 

opened, and they were linked within 80 cold 

cues. It’s possibly much more complicated 

than it sounds, but it’s a tribute to the system 

in a way. There are a lot of fail-safes built 

in to make sure those games run in open 

time. 

Bryan Reesman is the N.Y. Bureau Chief for 

Stage Directions. His work has been published 

in the New York Times, Playboy, 

Billboard and MovieMaker. 


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Answer Box 

By Thomas H. Freeman 

Rising Star 

Turns the Moon 

Red 

Student solves tricky puzzle for RADA’s Salome 

Michael Nabarro is currently a student in the 

Specialist Lighting Design course at the Royal 

Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and due to 

graduate in December 2007. He has worked on productions 

ranging from Shakespeare to Gilbert & Sullivan, 

Leonard Bernstein and 

even Barry Manilow, and 

has been designing lighting 

for productions since 

the mid-1990s when he 

was at University College 

School in London. He also 

served as manager and 

licensee at the Amateur 

Drama Club Theatre while 

at Cambridge University. 

Recently, Michael needed 

help in solving a tricky 

puzzle for a RADA production 

of Oscar Wilde’s 

Salome staged at RADA’s 

John Gielgud Theatre. 

Michael had met David 

Lapham from Rosco earlier 

in the year after he came 

and conducted a session 

with the students, and 

Michael turned to him for 

help. “As Lapham is an LD 

as well, it was really interesting 

to talk to him about 

combining products in 

various ways to create different 

effects.” 

Michael continues, 

“Sadly, budgets are usually 

so tight that what we 

can do in practice isn’t 

always so straightforward, 

but it was a very 

inspiring session.” 

From RADA’s production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome 

However, by lending the production a glass moon 

gobo, Lapham was able to help solve Michael’s problem of 

creating a convincing depiction of the moon in Salome. 

“The original intention was to do the moon as part 

of the set, but I wasn’t convinced it would work,” 

says Michael. “I really 

wanted to use gobos 

for it, and David really 

helped me by lending 

a visually superb moon 

gobo and further technical 

assistance.” 

The moon also had 

to turn red as part of 

narrative. To achieve 

that, Michael projected 

a precisely edged red 

light on top of the gobo 

effect. “It worked really 

well, I was very happy 

with it,” he says. “I’m a 

good old-fashioned gel 

person; I always prefer 

a light with a colorscroller 

to automated 

fixtures,” he smiles. 

Answer Box 

Needs You! 

Every production has its 

challenges. We’d like to 

hear how you solved them! 

Send your Answer Box story 

and pics to answerbox@ 

stage-directions.com or go 

to www.stage-directions. 

com/submissions to upload 

your story.

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