Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1971 - 27

SCENERY PROJECTED IN SPACE
AN ABSTRACT
JAMES D. lYON, JR.
BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY
In October 1969, A Midsummer
Night's Dream was produced at
Bucknell University. * The director
stated that he wanted to avoid the
classical baroque image associated
with
Mendelssohn's
romantic
music. He stated that he wanted to
make the production a joyous, contemporary celebration that would in
some manner directly involve the
audience and that would break the
spectator-performer relationship
created by a proscenium theatre.
At the time the setting was being designed, an article titled
"Light You Can Touch" appeared
in the August 1969 issue of Esquire. The article described how
Marvin Torffield, a Yale artstudent,
was using I ight as a sculpture
medium. Torffield used high intensity lamps and projected walls. He
smoked cigars as he worked and
noticed that the smoke particles
acted as "three dimensional lenses,
intensifying the effect." Later experiments led him to use smoke.
The patterns were created by using
high contrast copy film to make
slides. Torffield added color to the
slides by using lacquer. He noticed
that people almost never failed to
"touch" the shafts of I ight and to
move in them.
Three things in the article stimulated my scenic designer's imagination. One was the illustrations in
Esquire: two was the photographic
process by which the patterns were
'It is impossible to list the names of all of the
fine students at Bucknell who made that production of MSND live for a few. brief days. In particular. however. I would like to mention Richard
Gardner. who was my lighting technical assistant
that year. Roger Geer. who served as crew chief
for MSND. Mark Lipschutz. who assisted me with
the photographic work. and Phillip Johnson. who

created; three was the use of theatrica I fog as the "I ight condu ction
medium." The pictures showed an
exciting new way of defining
space, and
the other two suggested means of achieving them.
Experiments at Bucknell led to a
successful use of this effect in A
Midsummer Night's Dream. It was
the major scenic-lighting effect
used in Act III, Scene 2.
The equipment used at the point
of projection consisted of three
Eastman Kodak Carousel Model
850 projectors with 500 watt
lamps. Two of the slide projectors
were equipped with 3.5 inch
lenses, and the other was equipped
with a 4-inch lens. These were
placed in the up-center position
and were pointed directly at the
audience.
Control was accomplished by having the projectionist
stationed there. On cue, he pushed
three projection port covers open.
This occurred during the fogging
which was synchronized with line
references in the play. (MSND,
New Shakespeare Edition, 11 :355-

358.) Electric fans built into the
upstage masking were used to create air currents that dispersed the
fog into the audience.
The slides used for this effect
were high contrast negatives of
simple line drawings. Exposure data
can be found in box below. The
preferred film is Eastman Ortho
6556 Type 3, which is available
in one-hundred foot rolls and must
be loaded into thirty-six exposure
cartridges. This film has a black
which is opaque, whereas the high
contrast copy film does not. The
format was 35 mm.
Some difficulties were encountered in using the effect. Excessive
fogging temporarily choked the patterns of light. The result was that
the fog either flowed off to stageright or that it coli ected in a de nse
pocket on the right aisle. Wind
coming from the southwest created
a draft under a loading door, which
pulled the fog off stage. This last
probl em was solved by install ing
the storm doors on that door.

TECHNICAL DATA
Micro-Nikkor Auto 1 :3.5; f 55 mm
GE Photo EAL; 500W; 120V; 3200K
Kodak Ortho 6556, Type 3; ASA: Tungsten 6
o f stop 0 time
5.6
1/4
8
1/2
Development:
DO Kodalith Developer:
02 1/2 min. at 68°F., use
continuous agitation for
Kodak Stop Bath:
line negative
Kodak Rapid Fix:
Wash at 68°F.'
10 sed.
1 to 2 min.
Kodak Photo Flo:
10 min.
Dry in dust-free room.
30 sec.

Lens:
Light:
Film:
Exposure:

was a most imaginative director.

~ THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER, 1971

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