Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996 - 36

Martin Beck stage on the 11th. On the next night, September 12th, final dress was scheduled with an invited
house. The ew York previews began on September
13th \vith opening night being October 1st.
When the production transferred to New York,
Billington made a couple of minor changes in the plot
based on items he had either not been satisfied \vith or
that had changed during the run in Boston. He added
two pipes \vith six lamps each to the overheads and
added an additional dozen or so instruments to the
front-of-house. He estimates that they added around 36
lamps to the production when it moved to New York.
/ probably could have done the show without them but we were coming to New York
...it was going to make it look better ...we
just told the caJpenters we had to add two
electl'ics ... we got the fixtures and just
did it. The additional lights didn't cost us
anymore and it didn't slow down the process so we added them in. Each of these
made a difference and the show looks better because of it.
Probably the largest problem encountered by the
lighting department at the Martin Beck load-in was getting the motorized houselight dimmers disconnected
from the motor drives and S\vitched over to manual operation-a relatively minor problem at that. The speed
of the motors didn't work \vith the fanfare and initial sequence that began the production. The actual alteration
had to be provided by a company on Long Island. The
only other alterations resulted from fine-tuning the show
for the changes that were made in the different front-ofhouse positions and additional fixtures that were added
to the Martin Beck plot. Once again, counts were also
revised and modified to accommodate the changes that
were made after the Boston nlfl.
The final clean-up and tweaking of the lighting dUl~
ing the New York previews went exceptionally smoothly.
In the first four nights of previews a number of changes
were made. After that point only a couple minor
changes, mostly counts, were made each night. For instance in a scene where the lead character, played by
Philip Bosco, falls into tlle orchestra pit, tlle moment is
punctuated by a puff of smoke. As Billington desClibes
it, the fine-tuning of this effect involved tenths-of-a-second tinting. "Last njght we tried the smoke for 7110tllS
of a second and everyone tllOught tlJat it was a bit too
long. The night before we had tried it for 511 Oths of a
second and we tllOught tllat it was too short. Tonight
we're going to try it for 6/lOtllS ... "
One technical glitch did occur during tlJe 1 ew York

Billington has an ex1ensive support staff in his design
firm, KB Associates. On 1100n Over Buffalo, he used
both Benjantin Pearcy as Assistant Lighting Designer, and
Jason Kantro\\~tz as Associate Lighting Designer.
Pearcy was involved Witll tlJe project on a day-today basis from the very beginning. He was present at
nearly all the production meetings, he accompanied
Billington to tlJe scenic studios to look at tlJe set, he was
present at every electric call for the production, and he
did all the final drafting and paperwork. Billington likes
to keep his assistants informed so tlley can respond to
any questions or a shop call while he is out of town or
otllenvise unavailable.
Kantrowitz, who has worked with Billington for sLxteen years, was on hand for tech and dress rehearsals
and for preview performances, offering suggestions, and
taking care of problems. Tlus team-work allows
Billington to stay focused during rehearsals.
/ don't have to split my focus fi'Oln the artistic
part of designing the show and dealing with
the other creative forces at the production
table to go worry about a technical problem
such as why a multi-cable is fowling when a
unit travels, or that there is light backstage for
a particular crossovel; or that all the backings
have been focused and are working. Yes, these
are allproblems that / have to deal with but do
/ really want to stop the rehearsal and what I'm
doing to split my focus and go offto deal with
these problems? These are the things that jason
will run offaud take care offor me.
On tlle whole, Moon Over Buffalo was an enjoyable experience for Billington. Afew days before tlJe
New York opening he conunented, "We're all ready for it
to open. Tlus has been a pleasant one .. .it's been smootll
...weU-planned \\~tll no major Clises...we've all had a
good time." .:.

Sept.10

Boston
Load-out

f
new Yor~
Load-in Begins

l
new Yor~
focus Call

new Yor~
Ory Tech

TD&T

Sets:

Heidi Landesman
Costumes:

Bob Mackie
Lighting:

Ken Billington
Sound:

Tony Meola
Production Supervisor:

Steven Beckler
General Manager:

101 Prods. Ltd.
Production Manager:

Peter Fulbright
Associate Lighting
Designer:

Jason Kantrowitz
Assistant Lighting
Designer:

Benjamin Pearcy
Production Electrician:

Rick Baxter
Scenery Supplier:

Center Line Studios
Four Star Lighting

Rich Dunham is aFeelance lighting designer and
consultant and currento' is Vice-Commissioner of
the US/IT Lighting Design & Technology
Commission. He is editor of Practical Projects for
Teaching Lighting Design: ACompendium (2nd ed.).

Sept. 8, 9

Directed by

Tom Moore

Lighting Supplier:

Sept. 5

An Elizabeth Williams,
Heidi Landesman, DLT
Entertainment Ltd., Hal
Luftig and JUjamcyn
Theatres presentation of
a play in two acts by
Ken Ludwig

KB ASSOCIATES

Sept. 2, 3

WI NTER

Moon
Over
Buffalo

final dress \vitlJ an invited audience. The winches driving
tlJe full-stage wagon locked up and the Green Room got
stuck in tlJe upstage position. While tlJe crew made repairs, Carol Burnett came out front and did a 20 minute
question and anS\ver session \vith tlJe audience.

Sept. n
l
new Yor~
Techs with Actors

Sept. 12
t

new Yor~
final Oress
(Invited House)

Opened Ocl. 1 1995 at
the Martin Beck Theatre
New York City

Sept. 13
t

new Yor~
1st Preview

Oct.1
t

new Yor~
Opening

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