Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1979 - 21

Types of Theatres
There are many types of theatre stages the company may
use: opera houses, university theatres, high school stages,
gymnasiums, portable stages (indoor or outdoor), etc. In
each case, information about the theatres must be known by
the company before embarking on a tour as this will greatly
influence the choice of equipment.
It is important to learn if the theatre(s) used have any
permanent equipment of their own (borderlights, footlights,
front of house equipment, specials, house control boards),
the colors of the house equipment, and whether the placement or colors may be changed, if necessary. Whenever
permanent house equipment can be incorporated into the
lighting design for color washes or lighting the cyc or backdrop, it can be a valuable time-saver. If the house equipment
is controlled from a permanently installed house control
board, it is important to learn who works that board and to
coordinate it with the proper cues for the dances. The company should consider the possibility of using only house
equipment in each new theatre, bringing only their own color
media with them. The basic need is then a lighting designer to
direct the re-geling and re-cueing of the lighting for the
dances to fit each new place and situation, thus reproducing
the visual look, concept, color, and timing of cues to fit the
same choreography and music with totally different equipment in each place.
The company may not be able to afford nor have the
facilities to travel with its own equipment, in which case each
theatre must have the equipment or the sponsor rent what is
necessary for the performance. If so, a minimum plot must be
sent out ahead of the tour.
For the purposes of this work, we will assume that we are
suggesting lighting for dance companies that will tour houses
with prosceniums. (A word of warning from the Phoenix Panel
when asked about lighting on a deep thrust stage: "Don't do
dance on a deep thrust stage!" However, you can reproduce
the feeling of the dance with 6" x 16" ellipsoidals or their
equivalent, high diagonals, lots of gobos, and "shinbusters"
on pieces of plywood nailed to the stage floor, whether
masked or not.)
Floors are an important consideration, not only for dancers, but for the mounting of the equipment. Quite frequently
they are of hard wood where no screws are allowed, therefore
the side boom stand bases must be weighted as they cannot
be attached to the floor. The first major purchase (after the
lighting designer) should be a floor which will keep the
dances consistent in look, texture, reflective quality, color,
etc. The look of a production can change maddeningly when
the floor changes from a battleship-gray linoleum, to black, to
polished wood.
The Phoenix Panel recommended the purchase of a translucent backdrop, if affordable, and the marvelous properties
of a black scrim-all based on the importance of getting the
framework you like for the dancers, and starting out with
"something decent."
In each new place, it is necessary to adjust the masking of
the stage space to the dance, not to try to adjust the dance to
the theatre. If the dances are choreographed for a forty-foot
wide opening, mask to that width. Don't try to make the
dancers, choreography, and music adjust to an eighty-foot
proscenium opening, just because it is there.
The lighting and framework must be designed for the company, not to the situation of whatever theatre they are booked
into, and all ideas must be channeled into the repertory plot.
In each new situation study carefully what circuits are there
USITT Summer, 1979

and what you can do with them. You can change the color and
focus of "shin busters" and low side lights (but not the overheads) between ballets.
T he size and type of electric service in each theatre must
be ascertained ahead of time. Almost every house should
have sufficient current to accommodate the amount of equipment recommended here, but it is well to make sure and thus
avoid unpleasant surprises on arrival. The autotransformer
boards recommended here require alternating current which
is the standard in most theatres today, but should the company be booked into a house with direct current, a resistance
type "piano board" must be provided.
It is very helpful to have a questionnaire form which should
be sent ahead to each theatre with questions relating to all the
information needed. Included is an example of such a technical questionnaire to be sent ahead and/or filled out on the
spot and kept on file for anyone touring to use (see p. 32).

Priorities For Purchasing Equipment
Whether the dance company owns its own equipment or
rents it will depend on the length and frequency of its tours,
whether the company has a "home base" (its own theatre
where it performs its repertory between tours, and a storage
location), and, to a great extent, on its budget and fi nancing.
What money a beginning company has to spend for lighting
equipment should be spent on extra cables (adaptors and
connectors), using any "junk" equipment the company has
until it can afford to replace it. With a minimum lighting budget, the company's first equipment purchase should be boom
lights. If it owns its own equipment, it must be prepared to
maintain it.
The amount of lighting equipment planned for any company must not only fulfill the minimum artistic requirements
of the repertoire and the budget but must be scaled to the
amount of time scheduled for setting it up including unloading, hanging, and focusing at each location prior to a cue runthrough to set and balance levels of the lights with the dancers on stage as they adjust their spacing and accustom themselves to each new stage. It is reasonable to plan a four-hour
setup and a two-hour takedown after the performance. It
should not be left to a few poorly-paid, busy students with
bad backs to carry the equipment. This just doesn't work!

Other Considerations
The use of followspots should depend on what you want,
on their availability, good position, and excellent operators as
there will probably be no time for a followspot rehearsal.
Educating dancers as to the position of the lighting requires that the lighting designer work with the choreographer(s) and be there to explain lighting problems.
Dancers sometimes get hurt, but various suggestions for
protecting them from running into side lights are:
1. A special circuit of "guidelights" in little basket guards
on the bottoms of booms, dimmed very low for dark
ballets, brighter for more brightly lighted dances.
2. A head-high small red light on each boom.
3. A strip of fluorescent tape or paint down each boom.
4. During spacing rehearsals on stage, dancers should
learn where the booms are located.
Also, carry enough insurance to protect the dancers, crew,
and any house equipment that may be damaged.
How the company travels will also affect the amount of
lighting equipment it can transport. Can the company afford a
bus for the dancers and crew, and a truck or van for costumes, sets, drapes, tie-on masking, backdrops, special
properties and the lighting equipment? Is it a small enough
Theatre Design & Technology

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