THE IRISH CURSE

Traci Klainer, my lighting design professor at the UMass, Amherst, invited me to observe the focus and tech for her lighting design of THE IRISH CURSE. The night before my journey down to NYC I went through a variety of lists to make sure I had everything I would need for stay. I woke up just before dawn the morning of our Spring time change and headed for the train station. On the ride down, I spent a peaceful 9o minutes updating a light plot for BARNUM: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. I think there is nothing better than spending some quiet time creating.

My journey quickly came to an end as we pulled into Grand Central Terminal. I found my way quickly to the Shuttle toward 42nd Street, and then made my way to the C train, which was an unexpected hike in the subway tunnels of NYC. Once I returned to the surface, fresh air, and some wonderful rainy sunlight, I began to make my way over to the SoHo Playhouse. Of course I walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction :)

After a brief phone call to my wife, I ventured into the building where a busy crew was hard at work focusing, re-hanging as needed, and making the appropriate work notes for the afternoon session. This experience was particularly wonderful for me, because it allowed me the opportunity to see my professor execute two-thirds of her design. As she often tells us, 0ne-third of the design is the light plot, 0ne-third is the focus, and 0ne-third is the cuing. Watching Traci command the attention of the room as she rapidly bounced from one side of the stage to the next with her trusty magic sheet in hand was energizing and exciting. It was even better than the peaceful time I spent on the train designing my plot. Turning on lights can be so exciting, sometimes frustrating, and always illuminating :)

Once Traci hit her stride, she brought me up on stage to stand in the light as she made sure each light was accomplishing its prescribed goal. In a way, the focus is like preparing the canvas for the first attempt at creating the background for a wonderful work of art. This process was soon complete, and we all headed off in our different directions to find some much needed dinner and rest. As the sun quickly set and the night sky took over, I found myself drifting off to dreams of lights, sound, scenery, and performance. I love dreaming about work! (At least when those dreams are productive and inspiring.)

After waking up, having a wonderful conversation with my wife and children, I found my way back downtown. Upon arrival, I was quickly assigned the task of procuring a monitor for our ETC Impression light board, which had been used the day before without a monitor (since the original one was no longer working). A few blocks, a hand truck, and a couple of phone calls later we had a light board with monitor all ready to go for the first day of tech. Some last minute lighting adjustments were made, and a lunch break was in order.

Through the process of the afternoon, I was introduced to the playwright, director, sound designer, costume designer, and production staff. A wonderful group of men and women! I was particularly excited about my conversations with the playwright. We briefly spoke about a paper project I worked on with one of his plays, and the potential for working with another of his plays in the future. If this play he was speaking of is anything like SCITUATE and THE IRISH CURSE, then I am sure I am in for a wonderful and exciting ride. There are so many wonderful things about what I do for a living, and meeting exciting, creative people like Martin Casella is just one of the best!

After the day of focus, it was clear that Traci's design was simple, but not without its challenges. The theater is small, low ceilings, and most lights needed to be hung on uni-strut (not the easiest of materials to work with). Yet despite these challenges, Traci was able to shape the space with her lights in a way that created a smoothe wash of the space and drew attention to the center of the space where a majority of the action takes place. She accomplished this in such a way that one's attention would not be distracted by the host of lights hovering a mere 3 feet above the actors heads. Not a small feat to accomplish, I am quite impressed, even though I expected nothing less. Her greatest accomplishments with the simple design were the way she addressed the set so that the audience was able to become that sixth person on stage. The way Traci's light danced in the space not only invited the audience into the atmosphere created by Lauren Helpern's scenic design, but also into the world of the story being told.

Needless to say this was a very exciting couple of days for me, and I wish them nothing but joy and success with this lovely and hilarious production. If you have some free time and want to see a piece of theater, then THE IRISH CURSE would be a perfect way to spend an evening. Congratulations to the team and happy opening!!!

Oleanna

I had the wonderful pleasure of spending a day watching Tony Award winning Lighting Designer, Don Holder, tech the production of Oleanna by David Mamet, Directed by Doug Hughes, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles at the Golden Theater in New York!!!

It was a wonderful opportunity to re-introduce myself to Mr. Holder, watch him work hard and fast, as he moved from cue to cue adding, filling in, removing, adjusting, and cleaning up the already quite neat and tidy design that he had created for the production. Having the opportunity to listen and watch him cue the show, while watching the board-op type key strokes, and seeing Mr. Holder’s associate and assistant working right along side him was a wonderful treat that I will cherish for many years. We even got to go out to dinner with him and ask him a variety of questions about the production and how he works with students, young designers, and others in the field. I can’t wait to come down next month for a chance to see him work on Ragtime. (I will also be taking that opportunity to watch my Sound Design professor Rob Kaplowitz work the acclaimed production of FELA!)

I owe a deep thanks and overwhelming gratitude to Traci Klainer for making this day possible! It is truly an opportunity that not many young designers get to have, and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to learn so much in such a short period of time.

Not only did she set us up to watch Mr. Holder, but she was able to bring Chris Darland from Artec Consultants, Jason Lyons who created the lighting design for Rock of Ages currently playing on Broadway, Brian MacDevitt who recently won a Tony award for best lighting design of a play "Joe Turners Come and Gone", and many other folks to whom I can’t wait to interact with more.

So, thank you very much Traci for a wonderful day, and I look forward to many more in the near future.

James Turell

Last week my new lighting design professor, Traci Klainer, took a few minutes to look over my portfolio. While she was there she observed an image that triggered a memory of work she had seen before. She immediately made a note to herself to send me a few links of some guys work. Below is the image she saw on my portfolio.


Dance Works 2006. Choreographed by Erlyne Whiteman

Here are the images I found of this wonderful artist's work. I would love to meet James Turrell, if for nothing else than to have a beer with a man that was able to take one of the most painful lights to look at or sit in a room with, and turn that source into something truly wonderful. I should say he and one of his compatriots Dan Flavin (who by the way actually inspired my work). Many great thanks to Traci for bringing me back to this memory, and many more great thanks to Darcy Scanlin for turning me on to him!

Here are my images and a little something about why I was attracted to these specific images. Also, I always like to associate what I am seeing with a production I am working on. So these images have really inspired what I would like to do in a few very specific moments for our UMass production of Burial At Thebes.


What if the lighting sucked out all the color in the set...is it possible...or would the set have to be mute...I wish I could take out the color sometimes just for a moment to emphasize a specific sensibility of stale, bare, empty, dead...


I can see creating some kind of box or portal in the Burial at Thebes set with Flourescent light under or in an opening.


This is very exciting, and getting closer to what I might be able to accomplish with a single 4 foot long flourescent light.

This last image is not by James Turrell, but I think it is exciting, so here you go...


I love this because of its forced perspective, its strangeness, and the repeated casting of its shadow onto the dingy, dismal walls.