Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996 - 33

CUSTOM-BUILT YOKE

DESIGn CHflLLfnGES
One element of set designer Heidi Landesman's set for
Moon Over Buffalo-a large wagon covered by a fullstage ceiling piece-presented a major design challenge
for Billington. The ceiling, which doubles as the deck of
the stage for the mock theatre above, completely eliminates any possibility of using the overhead lighting positions for the principle acting areas. The ceiling also flys
in order to accommodate two other scenery configurations-the Cyrano de Bergerac dress rehearsal and the
staged pelformance of Private Lives-in which the
wagon is moved out of the way to its upstage position.
In a fast-paced farce like Moon Over Buffalo, acting areas must be well-lit Facial expressions, gestures,
and other impol1ant comic elements could easily be
missed without sufficient illumination. During tryouts in
Boston, the first scene of the play, the Cyrano rehearsal
scene, was initially lit in a relatively dark, moody quality
using several of shafts of backlight. But the comedy just
didn't work well. Some extensive rewrites and a complete re-light with a brighter, bolder look fixed the problems.
Getting light under the ceiling piece required some
give and take between designers. Landesman had to
make some changes to the ceiling beams to accomodate
lighting fLxtures, and Billington had to find-and eventually custom-modify-some instruments that were
small enough to hide in the scenery, yet which pro\~ded
enough light to illuminate a full-stage, primary acting
area. Over half-a-dozen fL\1ures-littie fresnels, birdies,
MR16 track units and various studio lights-were
shipped to KB Associates' studio where each was compared for the needs of the show. The fLxture that was finally chosen for the Green Room ceiling was the 500
watt, three inch Mizar fresnel from Strand Lighting.
These fixtures created more heat than anticipated and
tended to burn out conventional filters, so high temperature mylar filters (Super Gel from Special FX Lighting)
were used.
Billington made frequent trips to the scenery supplier, Centerline Studios in Cornwall, NY, to check on the
locations of the conduit and mountings for the Mizar fLxtures, and to make sure potential problems were dealt
\\~th before the scenelY left the shop.
SceneJ:J' doesn't just show up at the theatre
where we have the electricians attack it with
screwdrivers to mount all the fixtures and
practicals-it all has to be carefulf)' planned.
How many multi-cables need to be built into
the sceneJJ'? The fact that the sound designer

dune 14

dune 15

iScenery Colors are

f
Begin new York
Plot

finalize~

dune 19

SIGHTUNE FROM FRONT ROW SEAT

StGHTUNE FROM FRONT ROW SEAT

Ceiling section detail showing position of Strand Mizar MK2 fresnels.

needed two circuits on one ofmy multi-cables
had to be considered. Everything needs to be
thought out well before the load-in. When you
get to the theatre there is absolutely no time to
invent; the solutions need to befound ahead of
time.

MOON OVER BUFFALO
ELECTRICAL
EQUIPMENT
LIST
65 Source 4-19 575w

DRflfTlnG THE PLOT

57 Source 4-26 575w

The lighting rig for Moon Over Buffalo incorporates two
main design elements. First, the production had to be lit
for ~sibility, and second, to achieve the backstage look
of the show, many lighting positions were designed to be
seen by the audience. The limited availability of ovel"
head hanging positions beacuse of the full-stage ceiling
piece placed a heavy emphasis on front of house positions. Billington added another box boom position (Box
Boom I) to each side of the Martin Beck Theatre because the house box booms were so high they didn't do
a good job of lighting the far"downstage Green Room
scenes. These third boom positions functioned as side
light for the extreme downstage acting areas. Even with
the additional positions, Billington noticed during the
first tech that it was still too shadowy downstage, and he
added four more instruments to the rear box booms.
To acheive the 1950s period look of the ~sible instruments, Billington wanted the silhouette of incandescent 6 x 9 "Lekos." These turned out to be difficult to
find since most i\'Y rental shops only have the more recent axial ERS units. Two old-fashioned plano-convex
spots, which are used as set dressing in the Green
Room, even had to be borrowed from the Goodspeed
Opera House.
On June 9th Billington and his assistant, Benjamin
Pearcy, met at the Mariin Beck Theatre to take critical

3 Source 4-50 575w

dune 20

44 Source 4-36 575w

dune 21

.f
new York Plot is Trip to Boston to meet master Electrician Boston fOH Plot Set;
Shop Or~er Sent Out
an~ to Pick fOH Hanging Positions
finishe~
for Bi~s

TD&T

10 6x12 Incandescent Lekos
750w
3 6x12 Incandescent Lekos
750w wlTemplate
21 6x9 Incandescent Lekos
750w
4 6x9 Incandescent Lekos
750w wlTemplate
2 6' 1kw laniro Fresnels wi
Barndoors
13 6' Fresnels 750w
10 3' Fresnels 150w
32 Strand Mizar 3' Fresnels
500w wI custom yoke and
18' lead wI Edison plug
3 10' Wizzards 400w
2 Par 56 500w MFL
2 10' 151t 500w PAR 56 MFL
4 8' 1211 500w PAR 56 MFL
3 9' 1211 500w T-3
3 l' 91t 500w T-3
2 1'-6' 151t 150R40FL
1 Worklight PS40 500w
Frosted

dune 22

dulg5

final Light Plot

master Electrician
Begins Work in the
Shop

finishe~

WINTER

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996