Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991 - 24

How to protect expensive dimmer
electronics and control consoles from
explosive SeR power cube disasters
caused by age, overheating,lightning,
dead shorts.

Electronics Diversified Inc. has the
answers!
1. DMX Buffer

Permits complete electrical isolation of
DMX-512 control signals between control
console and individual dimmer racks and
dimmer packs. The compact DMX Buffer
can be mounted either at the control
console or at the dimmer rack/pack.

2. DMX 8 Buffer Permits complete electrical isolation of
DMX-512 control signals between control
console and up to 8 DMX devices (either
rack or packs). DMX 8 Buffer comes in
either a rack-mount configuration or desktop style.
3. Fiber-LinkH.l

Created by EDI over three years ago,
Fiber-Link is a DMX-512 control signal
system which utilizes fiber optic cables.
Because fiber optics do not conduct
electricity, any system using Fiber-Link
as a signal system is inherently protected.
EDI has designed a retrofit product to
permit the addition of Fiber-Link to existing
installations.

4. Saf-T-Qube

A new invention from EDI engineering,
the Saf-T-Qube by power cube design,
limits the destruction of the power cube to
the cube itself. This product is available
exclusively on EDI products, and as a
retrofit. (patent pending).

At EDI we have been creating solutions for over 23 years!
Call or write Electronics Diversified, Inc., for further engineering
data on these and the other fine products we manufacture.

ED.
Electronics Diversified, Inc.
Control Specialists

1675 NW. 216th Ave. Hillsboro, Oregon, 97124
Ph: (503) 645-5533 Toll Free: 1-800-547-2690
FAX: (503) 629-9877
22

1991

WINTER

TD&T

and spacious SOrt of beaury." The producrion closed afrer 12
performances.
As rhe 1933-34 season began, even his imaginarion seemed
ro forsake him. He submirred a ser of skerches ro an
organizarion of advenrurous young rhearre workers who had
splir off from rhe Thearre Guild ro form an experimenral
alrernarive.
0 doubr Sharpe was arrracred as much ro rhe
spirir of The Group Thearre as he was by rhe prospecr of a
commission. They were unired in purpose, fc,venrly idealisric
and clearly on rhe forefronr of success. He made rhree small
drawings for rheir new play, Men in White by Sidney Kingsley,
bur rhey were some of his weakesr work: sraric, cramped,
amareurishly execured. He nored on rhe drawings rhar rhey
were "nor accepred" and may have pondered his bad luck when
Men in White wenr on ro become one of rhe biggesr hirs of rhe
season.
Meanwhile, he seemed doomed ro designing dreary serrings
for dreary failures. His nexr commission was for Strange
Orchestra, an aimless English Lower Depths, porrraying
seducrion, murder, rhefr, alcoholism and illness among rhe
inhabiranrs of a drab Chelsea boarding house. Ir opened and
closed on O\'ember 28.
Sharpe rhen moved from rhe lower deprhs of London ro rhe
even lower deprhs of rhe American Sourh. While Strtll/ge
Orchestra was srill in rehearsal, he was engaged ro design rhe
serring and cosrumes for Tobacco Road. His flair for mericulous
derail was now rurned ro reproducing rhe look and even rhe
smell of rhe squalid yard and shack of a Georgia sharecropper.
In an inspirarion of aurhenriciry, Sharpe piled rons of dirt on
rhe srage and combed junk yards and vacanr lors for rusry cans,
corn cobs and inner rubes. Insread of designing rhe cosrumes,
he called on Maude Odell, a member of rhe casr who had a
farm in Sourh Carolina, ro relephone her careraker ro offer fifry
cenrs or a dollar for panrs, shirts and dresses belonging ro rhe
farm workers. She was ro insuucr him ro phorograph rhe
people in rhe clorhes, rhen ro boil rhe garmenrs for ar leasr rwo
days before sending rhem on.
Tobacco Road opened on 4 December 1933, ar rhe Masque
Thearre. The crirics agreed rhar rhe Kirkland scripr was
rambling and undramaric bur rhar Henry Hull, hirherto casr as
rhe handsome hero in lighr comedies, was giving rhe
performance of his career as Jeerer Lesrer, rhe shifrles~ farher of
a family of srarving poor-whires.
10 marrer rheir opinions of rhe drama irselI, r i .: crirics
admired Sharpe's serring for irs accuracy and appropriareness.
Time magazine nored rhar "rhe smell of hor dusr, of unwashed
bedding and dried food leavings seems ro drifr our over
Manharran audiences." Gilberr Gabriel in rhe New York
American nored, as did several orher crirics, rhe novelry of real
dirr: "Every rime any of rhe characrers sirs down on rhe ground
rhe air grows soupy wirh dirr. All rhe crevices of rhe old shack
drip wirh din. So do all rhe panrs-borroms and rhe hairbraids." Srark Young in rhe New Republic called Sharpe's serring
of shanry, naked rree, shed, well and deep ground dirt "berrer
drama rhan mosr decor or mosr plays."
For a rime ir seemed as if Georgia squalor would nor hold
sufficienr appeal for ew York audiences. Tobacco Road srayed
open only rhrough rhe renaciry of rhe producer and rhe
willingness of rhe acrors ro accepr a percenrage of rhe
pracrically non-exisrenr receiprs. Bur rhen, afrer Chrisrmas,
arrendance srarted ro climb and by mid-January 1934, Tobacco
Road had become a solid hir. Perhaps audiences were arrracred
ro rhe exoric Sourhern depraviry or rhe pleasure of seeing a

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991