Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1980 - 20

A solution was suggested by the original.' Jte and drum music, written to underscore the choral odes Ct·' i the developing
theme in the character of Dionysus. It appeared that the lighting might be used in conjuncli01 with the music, but how?
More experiments followed, mainly testing various ways of
making contact between speakers and the water-filled trough.
Finally, the alignment of components shown in Figure 2
yielded the most satisfactory results.
The method was as follows:
Two pieces of pine, 3Y2" wide by 10Y." long were cut and
two eye-bolts were placed in each, approximately 1" down
from the top and 1" from each side. These pieces were
clamped to either end of the trough with a single "C" clamp.
A length of #18 galvanized wire was twisted to the eye-bolt
at one end and drawn to the other end. Tension adjustment
was made by attaching a turn-buckle to the wire and the eye
bolt at the other end with an "8" hook. This was done on both
sides so that there were two wires running the length of the
trough; each could be separately .. tuned" as necessary. The
height of the two end pieces of pine was fixed so that the
wires were just touching the surface of the water.
, - - - - speaker cone

funnel

./Y

plastic strip

,-,

~.wire

~waterline

1
/11

'/ f

steel mirror

;

".

i/

r----

-

-

------ -- - - .-- -

~

vi

Figure 4
One of the light patterns.

Figure 2

Next, an inexpensive, 8", air-suspension speaker was
mounted on a three-sided frame with the back open. A lightweight, 6" diameter, plastic funnel was attached to the
speaker cone with hot-melt glue. On the small end of the funnel, a 1" wide strip of
plexiglass, 10" long, was centered
and attached with hot-melt glue (see Figure 3).

-rs"

Figure 3

A three-sided box was built on top of the trough, the inside
dimensions being slightly larger than the outside dimensions
of the speaker frame. The speaker frame was held to the inside of this box with two "C" clamps so the speaker height
could be adjusted, allowing the plexiglass strip to make contact with the galvanized wires firmly enough to cause them to
vibrate and yet not heavily enough to submerge them (see Figure 4-speaker frame not shown).
18

Theatre Design & Technology

The "contraption" worked. Once it was in place and the
components properly set, it was quite fool-proof. The only
maintenance factor was to restore the water level before each
performance to make up for normal evaporation.
The sound waves which passed from the speaker, through
the cone mechanism, and along the wires, moved the water in
subtle, unrepeating patterns. The result was a series of light
images which responded synchronously to the music-the
drum and flute clearly distinguished-and acted as a metaphor to the action of the play. 0
Jay O. Glerum was Technical Director and Designer at Marquette
University. Mary Elizabeth Tallon designed the lights for the production of The Bacchae at Marquette.

USITI /FalJ, 1980
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1980
