Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983 - 14

John Napier: "We'd like you to
do the impossible, and we'd like
it to happen in ten seconds. "
Richard Huggins: "I think fifteen
seconds is the best we can do. "
J.N.: "Tell you what, let's shoot
for five, O.K.?"
The conversation above, somewhat
condensed by Richard Huggins, concerns the Broadway show Cals, but it is
typical in Huggins' work. Huggins'recent work on Cats and Agnes of God
has made him one of the most soughtafter people in theatre. For Huggins,
nothing is impossible. But the Broadway
producer looking for Huggins will not
find him in the New York phone book.
Theatre Magic, Huggins' company, operates out of his home in Columbus,
Ohio.
Huggins was interested in technical
theatre from the first time that he saw a
show-a bus-and-truck of A nnie Gel
Your Gun with Robert Preston at the
Casa Manana theatre-when he was in
high school. While figuring out how
Annie was "shooting" balloons out of
the hands of cowgirls in the audience
(the old "pin concealed in the ring" bit),
he caught a "disease" that has plagued
him ever since: "You could probably
change much of the dialog over to a
railroad timetable, and I wouldn't know
the difference, because I'm always
watching what makes things happen."
While pursuing an undergraduate
degree in engineering at
orth Texas
State, Huggins took some theatre
courses and started seriously considering
the career opportunities. [n the meantime he worked summers at General Dynamics Corporation, an aerospace manufacturer. [n 1968 he transferred to the
niversity of Texas, from which he received a BFA degree. After the Army
he spent a while working with computer
and then went to Temple University for
his MFA. He credits people at both institutions (David
ancarrow, David
Hale, Dick Devin, and others) with having gi\'en him the background to do the
kind 0 I' \\'or k he does now.
While at Temple, Dick Deyin ga\'e
him a finely detailed gobo, \\'hich had
been hand cut by a jeweler, and uggested that he find a way to make them,
Hi allempts to etch detailed art work
into steel (which included. at one time.
exposing the resist using a trouper 1'01lowspot with the access door open) resulted in the pallern no\\' used as the logo
l~

Thealre Design &

Technolog~

THE
SPECIAL
EFFECTS
OF
RICHARD
HUGGINS
by Michael Rourke

for his company, Theatre Magic. Persistence was, and is, the key to Huggins'
success at this and other projects: "I'm
very persistent. , ,I don't give up until
I get the damn thing to do what I want
it to do, even if I have to change the
rules or the parameters a bi t."

Theatre Magic
Theatre Magic began a a small partnership with Dick Devin doing the advertising and sales and Huggins making
gobos one at a time with a small labvariety etching machine. He was using
a process that he had worked out with
people at Kodak, using liquid chemistry
quite similar to that used in etching
printed circuit boards.
Huggins and his wife Beverly moved
to Columbus, Ohio, their current home,
in 197-l when he accepted the position
of Technical Director at Ohio State ni\'ersity, He taught there for eight years,
finally resigning to de\'ote full time to
Theat re :-'Iagic and to a gro\\ ing demand
for his special effects expertisc in I ew
York, The company, \\'hich markets
gobos, cobwcb spinners, fog machines,
and almost every custom effcct desired,

SITT Winter 1983

was incorporated in [980, and employs
Richard, Beverly, and a staff of three
or four. Columbus was a good place to
start the business, for a number of reasons, but especially because there is an
unusually large number of corporate and
manufacturing headquarters there. The
Theatre Magic manufacturing operation, which began in the Huggins' house,
still, for the most part, remains there.
(But now, whether the operation is in
their home, or they live in the operation's facility, is debatable.) An increasing amount of fabrication, however, is
being jobbed out to other locations,
and they are looking at purchasing land
on which to build a separate manufacturing and marketing facility.
Gobos remain the staple item. They
currently have 1269 patterns in stock
and can do custom wor k on a fortyeight-hour turnaround. The process still
involves liquid chemistry etching but is
now done by a commercial unit the size
of a small sedan. The key to the extraordinary detail achieved is that the metal
is etched from both sides at once and
timed down to the second. This results
in an edge that is almost nat (90 0 to the
surface), rather than the "wedge shape"
common to other etching processes.
This provides the ability to do lines that
are actually thinner than the metal stock.
(Huggins was informed by commercial
etching firms that this was not possible.)
Since these ultra-thin lines will not resolve in the relatively crude optical system of an ellipsoidal spotlight, they can
provide a "grid work" that carries the
rest of the artwork. Hence, the design
need not be interconnective-pieces can
"nom" in an otherwise clear field. This
approach of constant developing and
improving marks Huggins' work, He
consults with experts in chemistry, engineering, and other fields throughout
the country and in Europe, Yet he i ultimately in full control of materials, design, and construction. Theatre Magic
bui/cls everything it markets under its
name. [I' they distribute someone else's
product, it is sold under the original
name (e.g., the Cabbage Cases a\'ailable to house some of Theatre i\[agic'
equipment).
Huggins is concerned \\ith efficiency.
He prefer to do things alice. By utilizing a modular approach to de ign, for
instance, he a\'oids "re-ilwenting" the
same item O\'er and oyer. Huggins does
most of the research and development
himself by working directly with the

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983