Top projection designers Sven Ortel and Howard Werner will play the leading roles at the 2011 Broadway Projection Master Classes to be held on Monday, May 23 at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York City.
The morning sessions at the BPMC will be devoted to Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark* with Howard Werner, the show's projections coordination and additional content designer, in a solo session about the image design, plus a panel discussion with Werner and members of his design/programming team to reveal the technical challenges of this mega-musical.
In the afternoon, projection designer Sven Ortel will present an in-depth look at his Broadway design work, focusing on the new production of Wonderland. He will also be joined by members of his team for a panel on Broadway projection design and technology as seen in Wonderland, and his recent productions such as Women On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown.
Ortel grew up in Cologne, Germany, where he lit small-scale theatre shows, complemented with lighting for movies, advertisements, and music videos. His subsequent studies of theatrical lighting design in London led him to develop a keen interest in digital technologies and their potential for the live arts. Since 2001 he has been an associate of mesmer, a London based collective of like-minded people that explores and further the use of imagery and projection in the live arts. For the National Theatre, London mesmer provided realization and design services for over 20 productions and established a video department which introduced technologies and techniques that have become de-facto standard today. With mesmer he also conceived the video system and process that realized the technologically groundbreaking musical The Woman in White. Current projects include the musicals Wonderland and Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown on Broadway as well as Kandinsky and Music: The Blue Rider for Da Camera of Houston.
Werner, a principal in the lighting design firm Lightswitch, has created lighting and media designs for theater, architectural installations, trade shows, special events, and corporate shows since 1982. He is a member and the resident lighting designer of the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York where among his many credits he designed American Buffalo, starring William H. Macy, which premiered in London before coming to New York. Werner has had the pleasure of lighting several productions at Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theater Company including Death and the Maiden for which he was honored with a Jeff Award nomination for Best Lighting Design. An additional Jeff Award nomination came in 2002 for his work on Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of As You Like It. Werner was also nominated for an American Theater Wing Design Award for his lighting of the off Broadway hit Distant Fires at the Atlantic Theater.
*All BPMC-only attendees are encouraged to purchase a ticket to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark on Wednesday, May 25 with the BLMC attendees. Please purchase online using the Master Classes reg form.
Complete details and online registration information about the 2011 Broadway Master Classes at broadwaymasterclasses.com. Register this week and save!