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Home , Billy Crudup, Brian MacDevitt, David Hersey, Natasha Katz, Richard Easton, Scott Pask

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Copyright Lighting&Sound America March 2007 www.lightingandsoundamerica.com he lights fade, and the darkly highly susceptible to Western European ideas in alluring music begins. A “sea” of politics and . Naïve, yet sophisticated; well- China silk engulfs the stage. read yet untutored in the world, they want to T Behind a scrim, the actor Brian F. change the course of history; history, however, O’Byrne, seated in a chair and has its own plans for them. pensively handling a child’s glove, rises above The action is sprawling, the set’s turntable the waves. After a moment, he sinks down into spinning Stoppard’s characters across countries the turbulent “waters.” The upstage scrim rises and decades to meet unforeseen destinies. It’s and the silk waves recede. A full stage wash a long, eventful voyage, riddled with ironies as reveals what appear to hundreds of people in dreams of radical social change give way to Mapping Utopia peasant dress. The majority of them are imprisonment and exile, friendships and mannequins, yet there is a burst of movement marriages end in and tragedy, and the as, out of this fixed tableau, more than three world turns in ways that nobody could possibly dozen actors sweep downstage. expect. The final scene encapsulates, in a single ’s breathtaking trilogy is brought to life by a vast— It’s as if you’re watching the birth of the image, the turbulence and tragedy that has world, and so you are: Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, defined the lives of these men. , brings to life mid-19th- The Coast of Utopia was first produced at and vastly talented—team of designers and technicians. century Europe in all its political and ’s National Theatre in 2002 in a philosophical turmoil. The action of the plays production staged by with a covers 30 years, beginning in Moscow and production design by Bill Dudley and lighting by By: David Barbour spreading across the Continent; it’s a story of a . (As reported in the January 2006 handful of youthful idealists who alter the issue, Dudley’s design provided Andrew Lloyd intellectual and political map of their world, Webber with crucial inspiration for his musical often in ways they never intended. The Woman in White, which, like Utopia’s Throughout, the focus is on six Russians, London production, made extensive use of who, as students, vow to avenge the wide-screen projections.) Given the logistical Decembrists, the reformed-minded youth of a complexities—each play runs close to three previous generation who challenged the power hours, there are dozens of speaking roles, the of the Tsar. They are Michael Bakunin (Ethan material is relatively obscure—it seemed Hawke), who circles the globe pursuing a dream impossible that an American theatre company of anarchy; (the trilogy’s would take on the task of producing it. protagonist, played by O’Byrne), whose writings However, Theatre has taken spread the gospel of socialism across Europe, the risk, in an epic staging by Jack O’Brien. sometimes with devastating consequences; the From the first preview, it instantly became the critic (), dead season’s top talking point. Soon after the first before he can see his dream of a native Russian production, Voyage, opened, the original literature fully realized; Nicholas Stankevich engagement was extended by two months. (), Herzen’s great friend, who, like Since then, Post columnist Michael Belinsky, will be felled by consumption; the poet Riedel has pronounced it the hottest ticket in Nicholas Ogarev (Josh Hamilton), whose career town. According to The New York Times, copies devolves into a series of tangled, scandalous of Isaiah Berlin’s Russian Thinkers, one of affairs; and Ivan Turgenev (), Stoppard’s key research texts, have sold out in whose devotion to art, not politics, causes him the Tristate Area. Utopia has become such an to be vilified by friends and foes alike. unstoppable cultural phenomenon that, when The six young men are very different, yet the inevitable backlash occurred, contrarian they’re appalled at the medieval nature of critic Charles Isherwood almost apologized for Russian society—its absolute monarchy, it, with a headline in the Sunday Times that serfdom, and lack of indigenous high culture. stated, “The Coast of Utopia is a Bore. There. I Most of them are besotted by German Said It.” Romanticism in philosophy and literature, and For most theatregoers, the breadth of Stoppard’s vision; his elegant, lucid text; the The set of Shipwreck is dominated by an upstage performances of an enormous and pile of detritus, objects taken from the first two accomplished cast (including , plays. Katz’s lighting carefully carves out the objects , , and Amy

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Left: The final tableau shows the characters against a drop taken from the painting The continuous piece. In fact, it’s more Russia. The moment is right, as that suggests theory means nothing. The smart Ninth Wave. Opposite: Much of Shipwreck is like a symphony in three change is in the air: the repressive thing is to conclude that the design is the set in Paris. movements.” Tsar Alexander dies and the serfs result of both men. Rick Mone, project O’Brien is probably correct; each are emancipated. again, manager at Hudson Scenic, one of several other commitments. I was out of town, play contains new locations, however profound social change is scenic houses involved, says, “When it was doing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Ken dramatic actions, and shifts of tone. deferred. Meanwhile, Herzen presented at the bid session, most of the Posner, who’s a friend of Brian’s. I told Voyage, the opener, takes place at becomes involved in an open affair available detail had to do with Voyage and him about the project; he said, ‘I’d kill to Premukhino, the Bakunin family with Natasha Ogarev, the wife of Shipwreck. We’d be told, ‘This is Bob’s idea’ or do it.’ But he couldn’t do all of it, either. estate, and in Moscow and St. Nicholas; the latter responds by ‘This is Scott’s.’” As time went on, we’d ask, ‘Is Meanwhile, Crowley was working with Petersburg; it introduces most of the taking a London prostitute as his this a Bob or a Scott idea?’ and either nobody [on ].” The decision main characters, contrasting the mistress. The Bell’s initial success knew or it didn’t matter.” was made to hire one designer per play. intellectual ferment in the cities with fades as a new generation The tasks of coordinating the work of the As McDevitt notes, Lincoln Center the complicated emotional embraces nihilism and violent designers and keeping the project in forward Theatre is a not-for-profit organization arrangements—marriages, divorces, change, forcing the now middle- motion fell to associate scenic designer Frank and real-life calculations had to be and romances—in the country. It aged Herzen to realize that he and McCullough, who says the designers worked made. “For me to do a LORT show is a establishes the luxuriously bourgeois his friends have been supplanted by fruitfully in tag-team fashion: “I would have kind of a break-even situation,” he says, way of life that will soon be a new ideas. Looming on the horizon been very lonely with just one designer. Scott “and that was the case for everybody. memory for many of them. We also is , who will set the agenda was back and forth to London working on Plus the logistics were so huge—Bob see how the young men’s for the revolutions to come. The play other projects and so was Bob. With all of the Crowley looked at it, and said, ‘How can fascination with German Romantic ends in Geneva, with Herzen, goings-around, one of them was always I do this and stage Tarzan in Holland philosophy gives way to doctrines of Bakunin (finally freed from prison), reachable.” (Everyone agrees that McCullough ALL PHOTOS, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED: PAUL KOLNIK [which he did this year]?’ But Jack social action—expressed in the and Ogarev, now old men, and associate lighting designer Aaron Spivey O’Brien, man—he puts these things desire for revolution and/or anarchy. contemplating the powerful tides of played crucial roles, from conception to In Shipwreck, the focus shifts to history and reversals of fortune that completion, as the designers came and went.) Irving); and an absolutely stunning Only, and The Pirate Queen. (This is together. Who would have thought Billy Herzen, who will dominate the rest have brought them to this place. Each of the three big ideas mentioned by production design are bounty a partial list.) The answer begins Crudup and could take a of the story. Exiled from Russia, he Staging Utopia was bound to be enough. In a theatre scene that with Jack O’Brien. year off from their movie schedules?” heads to Paris with his wife Natalie an enormous task, O’Brien seems increasingly focused on the If it’s not already clear by now, let us and their children. Initially thrilled by reasoned—why not supersize the minimal, both in terms of ideas and Assembling the team state for the record that the careers of the Paris Revolution of 1848 (which creative team? “I’m the president of production values, The Coast of Once Jack O’Brien decided to stage all involved are deeply intertwined. signalled a wave of political the-more-the-merrier club,” he says. Utopia is a three-course feast. The Coast of Utopia, he turned to Crowley and Katz have collaborated on rebellions across Europe), Herzen is “I love a lot of powerful egos. I like The design of The Coast of , with whom he had a number of productions, as have Pask disillusioned by the bloodshed that to set a tone where everyone Utopia is unique, both in its brilliant collaborated on two previous and MacDevitt. Posner and MacDevitt follows and is horrified when the contributes. It makes for a healthy melding of spectacle and intimacy Stoppard plays for Lincoln Center: have worked with O’Brien several times. French opt to restore the monarchy. environment.” and in the way it captures the plays’ and . All three lighting designers have done Meanwhile, other dreams are The first question, then, was, shifts in location and tone. It’s the But Crowley was surprisingly large-scale productions at the Vivian collapsing: Bakunin is imprisoned, what would Utopia look like? product of two set designers (Bob unenthusiastic. Beaumont Theatre, where The Coast of Belinsky succumbs to illness and Crowley and ), three “I had done [the epic] The Wars Utopia is playing. This last fact is poverty. Natalie Herzen begins an The Moscow-Paris-London lighting designers (Brian MacDevitt, of the Roses for Royal Shakespeare particularly important, as it meant all affair with the German poet George Express Ken Posner, and Natasha Katz), one Company and, at the end, knew I three were familiar with the Beaumont’s Herwegh, a decision that will have The set design began, says Pask, costume designer (Catherine Zuber) never wanted to repeat the enormous depths and unusual (for New devastating consequences for her with three ideas: “The room, the and one composer/sound designer experience,” says Crowley. “It was York) modified thrust stage. marriage. Finally, a tragedy shatters turntable, and the serfs who support (Mark Bennett). It’s an astonishing the loneliest thing I’ve ever done.” The decision to go with multiple the Herzen family forever. the estate.” The latter was repertory company of creative artists “I understood the feeling,” adds designers may have been a piece of In Salvage, the action shifts to important, Crowley adds. “It’s a who, in addition to their formidable O’Brien, “so I said, ‘What if I gave serendipity, as it played into O’Brien’s London, where Herzen turns up as world held up by an underclass—a talents, are linked by a network of you someone to play with, someone conception of The Coast of Utopia as a the disillusioned center of a circle of central motif for us, and for Jack.” collaborations and associations. you really like, who would find this trio of interrelated but stylistically seedy émigrés who spend their time Talking about the project, Indeed, so busy are they that one interesting?’ We immediately hit on different works. “They did a monumental hatching ineffective rebellions. Alone Crowley and Pask have a way of wonders how they worked together Scott, and he said yes.” thing in [the original production] in and stripped of his belief in finishing each other’s sentences. on this complex, daunting project, At the same time, a similar London,” says the director. “But Tom revolution, Herzen nevertheless Ask them about who did what, and especially when, during the same situation was brewing in the lighting was assembling the show while they launches one last grand scheme, both get vague. “In theory, I did period, they were working on the design department. “We assumed were putting it up, which gave them no publishing a cheap, muckracking Voyage, in theory Scott did likes of Mary Poppins, Tarzan, A that Brian MacDevitt would do it, perspective. I’ve had four years to sort newspaper, The Bell, designed to Shipwreck, and in theory we both Chorus Line, The Vertical Hour, because he’d done Invention of this through; I felt that, in London, what spread accurate political news in did Salvage,” says Crowley, in a tone Legally Blonde, The Scene, Regrets Love,” says O’Brien. “But he had was wrong was the idea of it as one

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Right and opposite: Posner’s lighting for Shipwreck features a bold color scheme. sumptuous crystal chandelier; and a The designers save one last big pool of light.” This approach, he adds, Similarly, Bennett introduces brass pair of heroic statutes that break apart revelation for the very end of the “creates a real sense of mystery— introduces brass instruments for the first in the heat of revolutionary battle. trilogy—it’s the final moment, in which there’s so much your mind can invent, if time. Neither designer was interested in the play’s survivors, including Herzen, we don’t fill in the picture. The spectacle in its own sake, however. Set Bakunin, and Ogarev, surrounded by audience’s imagination picks up where Pask helped to anchor the plays. First, against these big-idea looks, the Herzen’s family, now living in retirement we leave off.” says O’Brien, “The lesson that Crowley scenes on the turntable rely on the in Geneva—are revealed against a Many scenic houses were involved. and I learned on The Invention of Love minimum number of furnishings. large-scale drop taken from I. K. PRG-Scenic Technologies built the was the idea of the glossy black box, a Most of Salvage is set in London, Aizavosky’s 1850 painting, The Ninth basic box setting, including the luminous world in which you could yet there’s no big London statement, Wave. It’s an image of shipwreck turntable and show deck. Fred Gallo, look at people in space and see them says Crowley. “There was no need; it’s survivors clinging to a piece of president of Scenic Technologies, says as beautiful objects.” Thus the very clear in the text where those wreckage on a stormy sea. It’s a vivid the turntable is a particularly decision was taken to set Utopia, scenes take place,” says Pask. “It’s visual summation of lives buffeted by complicated piece: “It has three radial (which, like Invention, focuses on 19th- more of a state of mind,” says Crowley. the storms of history. sloats built into it with individual stage century writers and intellectuals and In Salvage, Herzen, Bakunin, Ogarev, Speaking of the final moment, Pask lifts below; also, it was built so that, features fantasy scenes and a and, to some extent, Turgenev, find says, “We always had the idea of when it gets to where its set-end digressive structure) in a kind of black themselves near the end of their ending with that image. We feel it’s a position is, an automated electric box, with a reflective floor surface and spectral side lighting. Second, the idea of a turntable proved crucial, as the plays contain wedge is driven into to the turntable, to dozens of short scenes in various with the kind of efficiency one projected successively on a dark scrim, keep it from moving. We also made it locations. “Tom’s last 25 years of work associates with film. In Salvage, the while a bell rings in the distance; the soundproof.” The company built the in film has begun to shape how he turntable appears to be almost projections were designed by William basic surround of the set, as well. thinks and sees,” says O’Brien. “His constantly in motion. Indeed, nearly Cusick.) O’Brien says that Crowley and Scenic Technologies also provided early plays don’t have the fluidity that every person interviewed insists that Pask asked him for a big opening the automation. Herzern’s first his later works do. He no longer the design is less about visuals and statement, to signify the trilogy’s epic appearance, rising up out of the ocean worries about how to get from this more about transitions, keeping the scope. He adds, “I was preoccupied in the prologue, “took a lot of doing to person in this scene to the next; he drama moving at all costs. with the fact that Herzen doesn’t show make right,” says Gallo. “We originally thinks, they’ll figure it out.” The third idea is the serfs, the mass up until the second act of Voyage, yet planned to use a ribbon lift, like you If you’re going to use a turntable, of bodies that remain a fairly constant he’s the central character.” Thus the might use in a rock ‘n roll concert. They however, you’d better cut out the presence upstage in Voyage and sequence opens each play on a note of ended up wanting something different, clutter, in order to simplify the scene Shipwreck reminding viewers of the grandeur, while simultaneously so we went with a new design, which changes. “I looked at each scene,” institutionalized slavery that the lead positioning Herzen as the lead meant we had to core a hole in the says O’Brien, “and said, what is the characters deplore, even as some of character, and introducing the oceanic basement below the stage, down two least amount I need here?” In addition, them profit by it. They also stand as a imagery that is central to the text. stories to where the theatre’s workshop the turntable is covered with Lexan, a reminder of Russia’s entrenchment in Still, “each play has a different is located.” shiny surface that adds a reflective the past, its reliance on an inequitable flavor,” says Crowley. Pask chimes in, Another tricky piece, he says, was layer to many stage pictures and social system that must surely come to saying, “The first is Chekhovian, the the horse sculpture, which, during the allows the lighting designers to create an end. second has a certain bombast to it.” In Paris revolution scene, breaks apart. interesting bounce effects. The floor is One other key scenic element that Salvage, Crowley adds, “all this “That was really something, because always a big element in any set design re-occurs throughout the trilogy is a sweeping action has a dying fall. It’s the turbulent journey, and the set reflects poetic gesture that caps not only the the piece that falls weighs about for the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, which series of scrim drops, many of them most postmodern of the three.” that, with an upstage mélange of third play, but the trilogy as well.” He 320lbs, and, when it comes crashing features steeply raked audience with tattered or uneven bottoms, that Nevertheless, Pask adds, “In the first objects from the first two plays—a adds, amused, “There’s been so much down from 4', the floor gets pretty beat seating looking down on the stage serve to reorient the space, providing two plays, we found a theatre of crashed chandelier, an upright piano, a anticipation about that drop that one up.” Scenic Technologie’s project deck. “Having worked in the filtered views of the upstage area, spectacle.” These moments include the cart left over from the Bankunin estate directing assistant didn’t want to look at manager, Troy Atkinson, says “We had Beaumont before, I know the floor is blocking the upstage to make a more first reveal of the serfs upstage, and, in or, perhaps, the revolution in Paris. “It’s it until it was onstage in a run-through.” to place steel plate below the Lexan your friend,” says Crowley. “It’s like the intimate acting space, or acting as a Voyage, a floating sculpture of the a shoreline of detritus from the first two The combination of big scenic ideas deck surface in order for the show deck National Theatre in London; everyone cyc for lighting effects. onion-shaped domes of St. Basil’s plays,” says Pask. “Behind it, you see with a spare, barely furnished turntable, to withstand the force of the fall. This is conscious of it.” With these ideas in place, the next Cathedral, as rendered in ice. refugees with their luggage—all of holds many advantages, says also meant that the Lexan in the fall O’Brien uses the turntable to give step was to create a specific design for Shipwreck ups the ante with an in- whom have ended up in .” The McCullough. “You can be really intimate path had to become a removable the action an inexorable pace; in each play. First, there’s the prologue perspective rendering of Paris’ Place de pile of refuse remains in place through on the turntable, then open the stage section. It gets replaced periodically Voyage, a lengthy party sequence sequence, described above. (It’s la Concorde, with lampposts stretching most of the play, providing a haunting up and do big vistas—the countryside throughout the run.” features different sets of characters preceded by the preset, which features into the distance ending in the Obelisk; reminder of the trail that Stoppard’s or the Paris barricades—while still During one scene in Salvage, set on emerging from a swirling crowd scene the names of the lead characters a Paris interior dominated by a characters have left behind them. retaining the ability to shrink down to a a starry night, a kind of 360° set of star

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lights comes into place. “That’s a and right. There are spring, winter, and scrims to cover the mannequins. Professional MAC 2000 Performance special winch,” says Gallo. “It’s made autumn scrims, a drop for the scenes in Costume Armour built the Moscow Ice units, 18 City Theatrical AutoYokes, 20 up of 40 points of light at different Nice, and the sea silks for the opening Palace set piece, which is a 25' tall, 14' DHA Light Curtains, and approximately elevations. We drive all 40 light bulbs sequence.” He adds that the tattered 5" wide, and 2' deep piece sculpted 200 Wybron color scrollers, controlled by on a winch with 40 yo-yo drums on it. scrims were a bit of a challenge, because from wood and styrofoam, then an ETC Obsession 3000 (for the Each wire winds around a drum on a it wasn’t possible to build a pipe into the vacuum-formed in clear plastic. conventionals) and a High End Systems winch, but each groove of the drum bottom end: “We had to make larger, Centerline Studios made the steel Wholehog II (for the movers). An has a different diameter, so some braced sides, to stretch the fabric from structure and wood-with-mirror backing extensive system of City Theatrical WDS lights run faster than others.” Thus, the side, to get that nice, even look.” that supports the unit. wireless dimmers is also used. Special the lights come in at different lengths, Hudson also built a number of smaller One thing that everyone agrees on is effects gear includes eight Martin Atomic creating a convincing effect. pieces, including a nude canvas; the that this particular scenic approach was strobes, 12 High End AF100 Dataflash Hudson Scenic did all of the soft yellow room, a dimensional drop seen in made possible by the hundreds of strobes, and two City Theatrical EFX Plus goods and drops in the trilogy, using Herzen’s London house; and various beautifully detailed costumes by scenic projection units, plus two MDG materials purchased from the fabric pieces in Salvage’s upstage junk pile. Catherine Zuber, which delineate any Atmosphere hazers, two Look Solutions number of time frames, nationalities, Tiny Foggers, two Le Maitre LSG units, and levels of class. “Cathy’s costumes and two Bowen fans. are extraordinary,” says Crowley, Speaking of the consoles, Spivey adding, “in some ways they are the says, “We have a new disk in the scenery. And the presence of more than Obsession for each show and a new cue 40 actors onstage is simply incredible.” list in the Hog. However, as Victor “There are more than 100 costumes in Seastone programs the show, if the first play alone,” says MacDevitt. “I something worked previously, he can add don’t know how she did it.” it to his cue list. For instance, there’s a rain effect in Voyage, and, when we Cities of light needed it in Shipwreck, we used the The task of lighting The Coast of Utopia same cue. It worked and it was already in began last May, when MacDevitt, the production’s vocabulary. Once again, Posner, and Katz sat down with a need has come up for it in Salvage and associate lighting designer Aaron Spivey we’re using it.” to put together a plot that would work collaborations that can happen in the scrim. Aaron finds this much room in The process, according to Spivey, for all three plays. theatre, a collaboration between the pit, where we can squeeze in one goes like this: “We had one solid week of “We all sat together and said things lighting designers is the least likely. You unit to uplight the leaves. He does it, tech, followed by two weeks of previews, like ‘I need a high side light,’ and ‘Here might get a set designer working with a and everyone says, ‘MacDevitt! That’s then a week of press previews. We had a are the colors I need,’” says MacDevitt. costume designer who also does sets brilliant!’” week of preproduction before the cast “Of course,” he adds, laughing, “we all and has opinions,” for example. Indeed, Spivey was the man with the was onstage, when we could refocus a wanted 350 moving lights to do Fortunately, he says, the result has overall view. “Most of the production’s little and add a couple of specialty items. whatever we wanted!” Interestingly, he been extremely collegial: “They all lighting systems are designed to cover But the rep plot pretty much takes care of adds, “I think we were all together in a adore each other; they have fun saying the entire space—sidelight, backlight, everything. We added a fog machine, but supplier, Rose Brand. Hudson also Speaking of the junk pile, he adds, room only once.” ‘Let’s use your green,’ or ‘I love your frontlight,” he says. There wasn’t a lot we haven’t brought in any lighting gear.” built and painted the Ninth Wave “So many vendors brought in different Fortunately, everyone was able to leaf pattern.’ It’s hilarious!” of scenery-specific stuff, because, at In some ways, as the first lighting drop. (Both Pask and Mone point out pieces for that effect, we brought in draw on experience, says Posner: “The It’s a way of working that’s more the time we did the plot, there were still designer to go to work, MacDevitt had that Hudson has a number of Russian scenic artists, who spent two days three of us have our foundations in typically seen in opera and ballet a lot of questions about the scenery. the most daunting task; after a slightly scenic painters on tap; two of them painting them to tie them together resident theatres and Off-Broadway. companies, adds MacDevitt: “When The rig’s moving lights do so much of bumpy start, he quickly learned to make worked on this drop, adding that visually.” Essentially, we did a rotating rep light Lincoln Center got nervous about it, I the work lighting the scenery. But we advantageous use of the plot: “The first extra bit of authenticity.) In addition, Showman Fabricators plot. Of course, it was a completely said, ‘There are two theatres next door have to cover something like 70' of day I was in the theatre, I couldn’t light The extensive list of scrims and built the balance of the 80 serf speculative light plot—we thought about [the and New York depth, with a lot of areas to focus on.” the actors or scrims properly,” he recalls. drops includes two sets of distressed mannequins for the prologue, the all the possible scenarios. We had State Theatre] where they do this with a The rig consists of approximately “I was horrified. I planned on lighting the scrims, says Mone—“one set that’s Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde conceptual set drawings, but they were lighting supervisor. I have to give Aaron 900 ETC Source Fours in various scrims from above, but the bottoms tattered across the bottom and is scene, the Monet canvas for a still evolving. We knew the space was credit; he did the plot. We walked in degree sizes (including Source Four looked terrible, like toilet paper. They painted black, and another set that moment in Shipwreck that is staged to defined by this shiny black void, so we there and he gave us magic sheets.” PARs), 68 PAR 64s, 18 Arri Junior 300 looked good when I focused on them has aging and painted effects for a resemble the painting Le Dejeuner had some parameters—but what was MacDevitt adds, “Aaron knows Fresnels, 100 L&E striplights, four from the front, but the actors cast dirtier, more broken-down look. sure L’herbe, and the Paris artist’s going to happen in that space was up better than anybody what’s in the air. followspots (really, Source Fours with shadows.” Then, he remembered, “Kenny There’s also a set in Salvage that studio occupied by Ogarev’s unfaithful for grabs.” We go into one transition with falling City Theatrical followspot yokes), 34 and Natasha requested the DHA Light covers the glossy black towers at left wife, Maria. Rose Brand supplied O’Brien adds, “In terms of all the leaves; we don’t know how to light the Vari*Lite VL3500Qs, ten Martin Curtains—two pipes of them—for scenes

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in Shipwreck and Salvage. I used them to process. The design evolved from a it’s become extremely concrete to The used in Shipwreck’s backlight the bottoms of the scrims, and series of rough sketches; we spent a me. With Brian and Ken, a vocabulary revolutionary battles signifies the they looked beautiful. lot of time transitioning and adjusting has been worked out.” demonic fantasy passages of Salvage. “It worked great, but I was really the color palette.” For example, she says, “We have A transition features light bouncing off nervous at first,” he adds. “If it was just If Shipwreck is different from six positions for four followspots, with the deck and refracting across the me, I could refocus, or try something Voyage, then Salvage is “very, very four operators. Brian worked out room, a look that vanishes in an instant else; here, I couldn’t change the rig different,” from the other two, says where the spot operators should be when the next scene begins. She also without meeting with Kenny and Natasha, Katz, laughing. This is apparent from located and it’s worked out great. I reworks Posner’s Nice color wash for a who were God knows where. I had a the top, when the prologue gives way don’t have to worry about that at all.” sequence set on the Isle of Wight. Katz moment of panic, then I realized that it not to the tableau of serfs but to a As a result, Katz says, “The lighting is also responsible for the final reveal, in was there in the plot.” pile of wreckage onstage, and the of Salvage is a variation on the which the cast is seen silhouetted On the other hand, having worked on sight of Herzen in a dream themes of Brian MacDevitt and Ken against the Ninth Wave drop. The Invention of Love, MacDevitt had a surrounded by of Posner. The first two parts are so All of this is accomplished working leg up on his lighting colleagues. “I crackpot revolutionaries, spouting beautiful, I’m eager to carry them within the already defined parameters already knew about the glossy deck,” he their ideas in a kind of demented through.” However, she’s doing it with of the plot. “The tools are there for me says. “Then again, in Invention, the deck Gilbert and Sullivan parody. The stage a twist. Both Katz and Crowley use to use, but they must be used as they was in a proscenium, where I could use is filled with smoke effects and there’s the word “deconstructed” to describe already are,” she says. At the same low side light to carve people away from a demonic red backlight carving out Salvage, in which a rush of historical time, she must deal with the specific the drops. It was a new challenge here.” action, from talk to upheaval; take place in Nice, where the the actors. It’s nightmarish and events coincides with scenes of challenges of Salvage. “We have many MacDevitt’s lighting of the prologue is Shipwreck also features the most Herzens and the Herweghs have blackly comic, signaling a sharp left domestic disorder, almost farcical more scrims in our show,” she says, so retained through all three plays. “That spectacular scenic effects. All of moved, are played against a drop turn into another sensibility. romantic complications, and heartfelt many that “we can’t use any of the sequence is a designer’s dream,” he these things had implications for washed with gorgeous, saturated, Katz, of course, was in a different reunions. (One of the play’s most sidelight systems on them. I have to says. “The Macs are doing clouds on the Posner, who says, “In the first play, blue-green tones. (It’s one of the position from MacDevitt or Posner. emotionally powerful moments is an find a new way of lighting them. It’s a scrim, while the VL3500Qs are making the entire stage opens up only rarely. production’s many ironies that this “We sat down in May,” she says, embrace, signifying the beginning of kind of creative freedom to not go for the water effect on the deck. The biggest In Shipwreck, we’re working from the alluring color scheme provides the speaking even as the tech for Salvage an affair, between two characters my obvious choice, but to try task was to obscure the scrim, to hide upstage corners of the Beaumont to setting for what are arguably the is taking place. “That was attending a burial in the rain.) something new. I’ve experienced this the mechanism as Herzen descends. the downstage apron; we introduce trilogy’s saddest moments.) months ago, which seems so long Thus, Katz takes aspects of both so often in my years working with Bob That’s some kind of amazing entrance the giant scenic sculptures that “I was able to be more saturated ago. It was a light plot developed in designs and frequently uses them in Crowley. If you go to a place that’s into the world of the play.” represent Paris.” and romantic,” Posner says. “We all the world of ideas. Since then, I’ve new ways to suit the jagged, more unexpected, it’s always better.” All of Voyage is set in Russia, and Interestingly, Posner adds, “I didn’t made our color lists for the gelstring, seen the first and second pieces, and modern, structure of the third play. Spivey adds, “Yesterday, we brought much of it takes place outdoors; as a see Voyage until well into the run. and, of course, many of them are up a new system that had been made result, MacDevitt’s palette is, in general, Brian’s work is glorious. I just sat repeated through the plays. We out of spare units. Natasha said, ‘Pick the most restrained. He creates a number there, mesmerized by the chose common colors that we all up that light and that light, and that of seasonal looks and uses sidelight to production—not even thinking that liked, and that each of us might light, and make a group.’ It’s just like create beautiful tableaux of actors. “My I’d have to light the next play.” He need. But I may have used some working at the Met. It’s kind of taste is always stripped down,” he says. notes MacDevitt’s help in dealing tools differently.” exciting—what’s up there and what we “In some ways, taking color away feeds with the Lexan deck. “Because Brian Like everyone else, he notes the can make work.” the show for me; there’s a lot of color on designed the first play, he told us all importance of the many transitions, Among Katz’s unique tasks has been the drops, but I don’t put it on the actors the tricks for dealing with it. The and adds that “they grow from Mark to carefully highlight and carve each that much.” angles have to be chosen very, very Bennett’s glorious score. I really riffed piece of upstage debris, to help the At the same time, he sets the tone for carefully and refined during the off what Mark was doing in the audience realize that they are visual the plays’ many transitions, which rely on cueing process to minimize transitions.” links to the earlier plays. In addition, fluid crossfades rather than big effects. reflections on the drops or into the Of course, the designer adds, the she says, the lighting is designed to “It’s the brilliance of the set, and how audience’s eyes. Every light had to production was a non-stop race reflect Herzen’s world, which is in a Jack keeps the show moving,” MacDevitt be carefully focused and plotted.” against time. “Each play had four state of disarray. “The lighting is warm says. “You never feel there’s a moment Posner introduces bolder splashes days to tech—but you’re teching in the downstage scenes, to highlight where the show stops. Something will of color that aren’t seen in the more something that’s the scale of a small the comfort of Herzen’s home; it’s an happen upstage—the beating of a serf— restrained world of Voyage. The Paris Broadway musical. That was the island of warmth in a crumbling world. and then something happens downstage revolution scenes, which feature biggest challenge, that and coming in It’s interesting to be working in the style to take us into the next scene. There’s not some dramatically angled beams and getting up to speed with of the first two pieces even as, in this a bump cue in the show. Everything is seen in the smoke of battle, also everyone who had worked on play, everything is breaking apart.” very lyrical.” have splashes of red, partially Voyage. But that’s the great thing The action in Shipwreck shifts from signifying the bloodshed taking about Jack O’Brien—he trusts his The music of ideas Russia to France, from discussion to place. The play’s later scenes, which designers and he trusts a layering Composer/sound designer Mark

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the earlier plays, treating the sound the back of his hand; most of the actors processors, plus two MOTU 24 IO through a dark glass of disillusionment aren’t body-miked, but there’s a ring of audio interfaces. Sound effects are and the passage of time.” 11 foot mics. Most of the time, Mark is delivered by an SFX Pro Tools The complex collage of music and playing a very artful game of foot-mic system. Gear was supplied by effects has been developed “through manipulation; at any given time, you Masque Sound. hours of playing around with the music never want to have more than one or two “The thing that’s fascinating to me and through conversations with Jack. of them in use.” is how much we all keep talking to Often, in tech, Brian or Kenny and I will “You need a system that can blow the each other as designers,” says huddle together about what we need to socks off of the theatre in, for example, Bennett. “There’s never a moment at Set models depicting the Nice make a moment work—then we’ll the prologues, but you also need tech when you feel you’re at your scenes (far left) and Paris’ Place de la Concorde (left). Opposite; discuss it with Jack. It’s all about picking something subtle for the upstage own table. There’s a constant flow the serf mannequins, seen the audience up and depositing you in sourcing, which is elaborate. We have 11 between what’s going on at the

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LINCOLN CENTER THEATRE PHOTO: COURTESY OF LINCOLN CENTER THEATRE during the load-in. the amazing visual world that Jack, Bob, positions behind the proscenium that lighting table, in the set world, and and Scott have come up with.” react in different ways.” He adds, with Jack. The tech has been one of Through all of it, Bennett kept on laughing, “We have two baby dolls that the most dynamic and magical times Bennett, like Zuber, flew solo on The Voyage is based on chamber music says. “Jack described his vision of the multi-tasking. “Part of the trick involves have been cruelly opened up and turned I’ve spent in the theatre.” Coast of Utopia, but don’t think he had ideas, all of which look to the West. I opening, with the idea of water and surrounding yourself with wonderful into mobile radio speakers for crying a small task. Indeed, he composed incorporated my own material and distant thunder, the idea that the force associates; you can’t do this without a effects.” The ever-distant shore music and created sound effects for all quote from the period; you’ll hear a of the elements is analogous to the great support staff. There’s so much to The loudspeaker system for The Coast Of course, many more people were three plays, in addition to designing a piano/violin piece by me, then forces of historical inevitability.” do. If I have people drafting, or working of Utopia includes 18 Meyer Sound UPA- involved in The Coast of Utopia. sound system to provide discreet something by Chopin. I would be doing Interestingly, one of the sound at the library, looking up old Russian folk 1Ps, 16 EAW JF60s, 12 JF50s, nine Among those not yet mentioned, amplification when needed. “Even a disservice if I didn’t use music history design’s most gripping moments is an songs, I can sit at my piano and come up JF80s, nine d&b audiotechnik E0s, four there are assistant set designers Jeff before Jack and I started to talk about as a reference point. approximation of silence. One of with the goods. Then there’s that last Meyer USW-1PS, four Meyer 650-Ps, Hinchee and Lauren Alvarez, the project in detail, it was clear that “In the first act of Salvage,” he Herzen’s children, Sasha, is deaf, and, stage, in the recording sessions, working four Meyer UPA-2Ps, and four EAW assistant lighting designer Kathleen some kind of sonic world was needed continues, “we start to feature wind after a long, garrulous scene in his out with the players what I’ve done in a UB12s. For mics, there are 11 AKG 451s Dobbins, programmer Bruce Rubin, to help drive the story,” Bennett says. instruments; you also hear the ‘Ginger Paris home, in which various characters MIDI sketch, turning it into a live palette.” and 22 Sennheiser MKE2s, with 22 sound designer Leon Rothenberg, Once again, the word “transitions” Cat Waltz’ melody counterpointed with violently debate their ideas, there’s a A flexible sound system was Sennheiser SK5012 body pack production carpenter William Nagle, comes up: “I have to show the passage a woodwind theme that’s associated shift in perception to Sasha’s point of necessary for the music and effects; transmitters, and 11 Sennheiser 3532 production electrician Patrick of time, which occurs in between with Natalie Hertz.” (The Ginger Cat is a view—all he hears is a distant drone, there are times in the production when a receivers. Live mixing is done on a Merryman, production propertyman almost every scene. In Shipwreck, the strange apparition seen at the end of signifying nothing. “It corresponds to small amount of vocal reinforcement is Yamaha PM5D console—one imagines Karl Rausenberger, production task is locational; I have to say, this is Voyage; apparently a costumed the vibration of the top he’s playing necessary, too. “The Beaumont has a that this was an ideal digital console flyman John Weingart, and house the sound of Paris. Before that, we go partygoer, the character is a kind of with,” says Bennett. “Not to be literal basic vocal reinforcement system that we project—plus a Yamaha DM1000 smaller technician Linda Heard. to Germany; after that, we go to Nice. prophet who alludes to much of the about it, but I was trying to create a incorporated,” says Bennett. “The mixer and a MDE64 digital mix engine. As these words are being written, Often, I’m slightly ahead of the visual upheaval to come.) “Gradually,” sound that’s like a haze of spin.” challenge of reinforcing sound in that Effects gear includes two T.C. Electronic the first press preview of Salvage has information—by maybe five seconds— Bennett says, “we add other types of Musical ideas and sound effects space is not small. Fortunately, my mixer, 3000 reverb units, one Waves MaxxBass yet to happen; yet already, the staff is to help you realize where we are. For instruments. There’s a squeezebox for come together, as well. “When we see Mark Salzberg, is one of the best in the BLC, one dbx 1066A dual compressor, beginning to a feel a sense of example, the first time you hear brass Germany and brass and percussion for Michael Bakunin in the first play, there’s business, and he knows the house like and seven XTA DP226 digital audio completion and perhaps even instruments is when we’re going to Paris. When we get to Nice in Act II, we a vision of him done in a musical separation. (Katz, for one, expresses Paris—even before the set is revealed. expand the musical language. In the thunder-wave environment that’s very a certain sadness at having to say In Nice, when the blue scrim comes in, first play, we’re true to tradition, with symphonic,” says Bennett. “It’s the one farewell to these characters; having someone is singing—and you’re in a balalaikas, for example. When we get moment in Voyage, aside from the seen all three plays, one knows what different musical world. I feel a great to Nice, we don’t use the obvious opening and finale, that’s totally she means.) Everyone interviewed for responsibility to mix the palette every mandolins or concertinas; it’s a symphonic. When Bakunin returns, in this piece is aware that of taking part time we go to a new place.” combination of handbells, a harp, a the second play, it’s right after a in a once-in-a-career event. The score is drawn from a vast array marimba, all providing gentle textures drowning has occurred; there’s an “This is one of the greatest of musical sources. “The first act of that drive the action along.” almost underwater perception of a experiences of my life,” says O’Brien. Voyage is my spin on Russian folk In addition, there are many, many ship’s whistle in the scene between him “I’m humbled by this experience and music; the first thing you hear in Act II sound effects, from the toll of a bell and Herzen. Then you get a whale’s the company we’re keeping. It shows is a piano chord, because now we’re in before the curtain rises, to the sounds cry—or is it a child’s?” what American theatre artists can do Moscow, where Russia is imitating the of battle in Paris, to multiple In Salvage, he says, “we move to a when you throw the ball at them and life of the West. Between my years of atmospheric effects. Bennett says he more open palette. It’s a world that’s don’t just ask them to tap dance. doing productions of The Cherry found it all in the text and in fragmented. Now we’re working with Usually, we’re just asked to do Orchard and The Seagull, that world is discussions with O’Brien. “The script live musicians. There are more kitchens—but Tom wants so much more than that.” kind of known to me. The second act of gives us the idea of distant thunder,” he abstracted textures, referring back to PHOTO: COURTESY OF SCENIC TECHNOLOGIES

62 • March 2007 • Lighting&Sound America