Broadway Lighting Master Classes

Kevin Adams: The Fine Arts Influence A Lighting Designer

Kevin Adams discusses his journey from trained set designer to self-taught lighting designer and how that transition was influenced by fine artists that use light in their work. He also discusses the influence of those artists in his recent design of a trio of contemporary pop/rock musicals: Passing Strange, Spring Awakening, and Next To Normal. The discussion of these three designs will include his use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, incandescent light bulbs, neon, and LED technology as illuminative devices as well as sculptural objects.

Howell Binkley: Finding Your Path As a Lighting Designer

LD Howell Binkley notes: “I never had any guidance at all from someone in the business until I was already deep into my Broadway career and even then I was lost. I so wished I had been able to sit down with someone and ask pointed questions about what to do next, where to turn.” His goal with this session is to create the feeling of an open colloquium, where participants can come with a list of questions which pertain to finding a path for one's self in this very confusion and wonderful business. He will also discuss his lighting for the current Broadway revivals of Guys and Dolls and West Side Story.

Peggy Eisenhauer: Cueing The Musical—Sculpting Time and Rhythm

In “Cueing The Musical–Sculpting Time and Rhythm” Peggy Eisenhauer will discuss both a practical and philosophical approach to creating dramatic and musical timing styles specific to every production. What is time in a dramatic sense in the theatre? What makes time dynamic in a dramatic environment? How does music affect ones timing style? What is rhythmic within musical cueing? In addition, she will discuss practice and precision in the digital manipulation of time.

Peggy Eisenhauer: Emoting and Motion: Communicating With Movement

Peggy’s second Master Classes session: “Emoting and Motion: Communicating With Movement” deals with her sense of movement in lighting, about which she says: "This talk is a discussion that was born of a series of questions that Jules asked me to answer philosophically, about using movement artistically and emotionally in theatre lighting. There are some practical aspects to it, but it's mainly about the emotion of integrating motion into one's work. It seemed like a natural level of discussion for designers, which is outside all of the technical aspects of automated lighting, which occupies so much space in everybody's psyche, about what does what and how it's done. This is really about why and how one chooses motion, and what can you hope to create with it from the point of view of design."

Beverly Emmons: On Color

In thinking about color, LD Beverly Emmons asks: What are the underlying principles of color? How do we choose color? How do we think about our color choices? How do we explain to ourselves what we see happening on stage with our color mixes? How do we communicate with words to someone else about color? We have all heard about the primaries of light being Red, Blue, and Green but what does that mean and how is that information useful? What is “No Color?” What is “White?” Are there identifiable “styles” in color choice? Does an audience have any idea about any of this? Does that matter? She will discuss and demonstrate some of the answers.

Jules Fisher: An Approach to Stage Lighting

Winner of more Tony Awards than another other LD, Jules Fisher will present his personal approach to stage lighting: “In analyzing what I have been doing for the last fifty years, I have discovered what drives and compels my designs. There are numerous definitions of stage lighting to discuss that all contribute to holding on to this evanescent craft. I will try to communicate why the theatre and light is still magical for me.”

Wendall K. Harrington: Who asked for these projections anyway?

Projected images are everywhere, and it does seem that they are more than just a fad, so the godmother of projection design takes a look at how to think about projections, when they're right, less right, and just plain stupid. Lighting and projection must work together to create a unified stage image, so Harrington shows us how to smooth out those edges.

Donald Holder: Lighting the Cyclorama

The quality of the light that reveals the surround, or ‘frame’ of a play (often a sky or illuminated background of some kind) is crucial in informing all of a designer’s lighting choices. In this session, Holder will discuss the varying philosophies and techniques for lighting cycloramas, scrims, and other surfaces in a manner that both informs and elevates the overall quality of the design. In addition to hands-on demonstration, he will share his work on the Broadway productions of The Lion King, The Boy From Oz, and South Pacific as case studies.

Brian MacDevitt: Visual Aids: paintings and photography for inspiration and communication in the theater

"The idea of the lecture is to describe the influences from outside of theater art that I can bring to the table with directors and other designers, so we can nourish and generate new ways of seeing and approaching our work. I feel that too many times I have fallen back on the conventions of the theater and my work regurgitating what we "know" and what "works," especially in the commercial world where there is a premium on the safety of not challenging our audiences."

Nine To Five: A Case Study

Lighting designers Ken Posner, Jules Fisher, and Peggy Eisenhauer, along with projection designer Peter Nigrini, present a case study on the lighting and images for the new Broadway musical, 9 to 5, as it evolved from its premiere in Los Angeles to its debut at the Marquis Theatre in New York City.

Scott Parker: Paper-Aided Beam Spreads

Scott Parker presents a streamlined set of steps for lighting designers to create the preliminary lighting magic sheets needed during the design process. Using plain sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper, as an alternative to using protractors, calculators and other complicated tools, this short, hands-on session will aid the designer in choosing stage lighting equipment that is appropriate for given distances and situations.

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Broadway Sound Master Classes

Jonathan Deans: Keynote Address

Acclaimed sound designer Jonathan Deans, who has delighted BSMC audiences in recent years with his in-depth—and often hilarious— discussions of his sound design for such shows as The Pirate Queen and Young Frankenstein, returns to present the keynote address for the 2009 BSMC. From his work on more than a dozen hit shows for Cirque du Soleil to a wide range of Broadway shows, Deans is indeed a leading dean of contemporary sound design. Current work includes a show in Macau, Ragtime at The Kennedy Center, Spiderman on Broadway, the new Cirque touring show and a new Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.

Designing Hair: Then and Now

Nevin Steinberg and Sten Severson of Acme Sound Partners present an in-depth look at the sound design for the current Broadway revival of the rock musical, Hair, while the legendary Abe Jacob talks about the design for the original production and tour back “then.” Moderated by David Johnson, associate publisher/editorial director, Live Design. All attendees at the 2009 BSMC will recieve a ticket for Hair on Friday, May 15.

Scott Lehrer: Acoustical Issues in the Vivian Beaumont

How to respect the sonic world of a classic American musical using appropriate new technologies and good old fashioned physics (with special thanks to our laser disto and spreadsheet). In doing my third musical at the Vivian Beaumont theater over the last 15 years, I finally felt that we had the tools available to begin to conquer the unique acoustical issues encountered in designing live sound in that thrust style space. We haven't by any means fully solved the puzzle, but the solutions we came up with for South Pacific were a good start.

Bob McCarthy: Preparing the Sound System for Optimization

Bob McCarthy will detail the keys to creating sound designs that can be reach their full potential through the process of tuning with high-resolution analyzers. The challenges of physical acoustics, the available solutions in speaker technology, signal processing, analysis tools and objective optimization methodologies will be discussed.

Duncan Edwards, sound design, Beijing Olympics

Duncan Edwards was on the team charged with creating effective sound in the 91,000 seat Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 summer Olympic games in Beijing. To do so, the audio team needed to create the largest sound system ever designed. Edwards discusses this challenge, as well as the challenges of working in a foreign country.

Darron L. West, From The Page To The Stage

An open forum with Darron L. West on design from the page to the stage and a discussion on tools for collaboration with actors and directors.

John Taylor: Achiving Sound Design

John Taylor from d&b audiotechnik's Education department will take a fresh look at the problems of archiving theatre sound design.

The Changing RF Landscape: What's Happening, How it Affects Production

Henry Cohen of Production Radio Rentals, Chris Lyons from Shure, and Joe Ciaudelli from Sennheiser, present a clear explanation of the FCC rules changes governing the TV broadcast RF spectrum used by production wireless equipment, how that wireless equipment will likely be affected, with the 700MHz band re-allocation and proposed white space devices being predominant considerations, and ways in which the sound designer can minimize potential problems. Followed by a short Q & A.

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Broadway Projection Master Classes

Create a sharper image with this one-day exploration of cutting-edge LED video and digital lighting, from creative design applications to in-depth technology presentations.

The 2009 Broadway Projection Master Classes will focus on the image design and projection technology used for two current Broadway productions: the new play, Impressionism, and the musical, Rock Of Ages, which was a hit off-Broadway. Join projection designers Elaine McCarthy for a case study on Impressionism, and Zachary Borovay for his case study on Rock of Ages, in conjunction with lighting designer Jason Lyons, they will discuss the integration of lighting and video for the show. Additional panels include a look at selecting the proper gear—from projectors to media servers, screens, and beyond; as well as a look at the future with special guest, projection designer Jake Pinholster, whose work has been seen in NY on numerous Frere Corbusier productions.
View the full BPMC schedule here.