Pericles iv.

We are moving in to our first dress rehearsal tonight! I am very excited to run the show with as few stops as possible. Our Lighting designer, Thad Kramer, a 1st year graduate student at UMASS (and a fantastic designer), has been developing his ideas for several months and building cues for several days, and he finally get's to see the fruits of his labors. Although he will be making adjustments to the cues while I take notes for him, he is pretty much finished and ready to go. It is has been a wonderful experience working with Director, Shawn LaCount, a third year grad in our program at UMASS, and Artistic Director of Company One in Boston, MA. His constant communication, interaction and support during the development of the production and specifically during the technical runs, has been absolutely integral to the success of this production. I cannot say how important it is for a lighting designer to have constant interaction with the designers and especially the director. A steady flow of communication ensures that the cues being built by the lighting designer are those that have been dreamed of and blocked by the design team and performers.

So, thank you to you all for such a great experience, and I hope these next few days result in a production that excites audiences, gives joy to the cast and crew, and does justice to the artistic process!!!

Congrats to all!

Pericles iii.

Wow! What an amazing process!! I love working on productions that require lots of communication (funny right...what show doesn't require lots of communication)...perhaps, what I ought to say is...I love working on productions where we actually do a lot of communicating! I think this production of Pericles will be a fabulous and exciting production. Lot's of promising moments and scenes. We will be adding costumes to the tech process tonight. This will add the final missing and exciting element to the production. The costumes are amazing. Heather (our third year grad student) has developed an incredible array of costumes. Somewhere near 50 costumes for 18 different actors. What a feat...and our costume shop is working hard to make this a reality. Thank you guys! Your work is deeply appreciated!!! Hurray!!! for the cast and crew of Pericles... :)

Pericles ii.

Check out a video interview with Director, Shawn LaCount, and Dramaturg, Liana Thompson, about the UMASS, Amherst Theater Departments production of Pericles! Don't think just GO!

Pericles i.

Yesterday, our rough plot was due for Pericles. The campus was closed due to extreme weather conditions, so we presented the rough plot today.


Plot drawn in Vectorworks 2008 Educational Version...

It has been a wild ride so far. The image above is from Revision G...I am sure I will have at least three more before the final is due on Monday. I will also have attached a Center Line Section...


Center Line Section...lots more to do before Monday...

Also, I will need to produce a Boom Plate for booms directly on the deck, the floor in the Front of House , and Box Booms in FOH. The great thing about this project is that the tiring parts of getting started, and the detail work just flies by. I just have a lot of detail work to do before Monday. I will need to modify a few symbols, build booms, create a key that I like, place notes where necessary, and then double check my instrument placement and information to the paperwork in our Lightwright4 files. We create our Lightwright file first, then we create the plot from that information...a long process that I am sure has a shorter route, but we don't have the time on this project to learn it...so, for the next one that will be my goal.

Vectorworks Workshop pt. 3

On Friday, we finished the final day of our Vectorworks workshop. I wanted to get a picture of the 12 students that were having fun playing around, but I forgot to bring my camera. Friday was the best day of the workshop, since we got to take the basics that we learned to guide us through the 3D functions. Everybody was horsing around with all kinds of wall gadgets, doors, windows, and especially the lighting options, rendering files, and finally meandering through viewports and doing walk throughs of their results. Here are a few shots...


Wire frame Right Isometric view...



Top plan using the Open GL view...


Front view using Open GL...


From below the image using the fly-over option...

These are all obviously very rudimentary, but it was really a lot of fun! When I first heard about Vectorworks in 2003, I wanted to use the 3D functions right away, but I never had time to play. Now I have some time, and I am sure I won't be disappointed :)

After a few days of playing, here is what I have converted, copy and pasted, and transformed into the basic layers and classes for a final design project I am working on for Pericles as the Assistant Lighting Designer. The final project is due in a week...yikes!!!


Architecture converted and modified from the Technical Directors drawings...


Adding in the set, masking, and scenic fabrics on linesets...


Adding in the electric linesets (which aren't finished yet) and the FOH positions...

Current Productions

I am currently working as the Assistant Lighting Designer for a production of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. It is a fantastic adventure through distant and ancient lands, the story of a King strengthened by the gods challenges. A story of heroism, bravery, love, longing, lust, retribution, and romance. The production opens February 26th at 8pm and closes on March 7th at 2pm. It promises to be an adventurous night into many lands of Greece, so please if you are in the Western Massachusetts area come and enjoy one of Shakespeare's last beautiful stories.