Seussical: The Musical

This is an e-mail that I sent to Cindy Limauro, my soon to be professor at Carnegie Mellon, right after M&M's production of Seussical. Enjoy!

Dear Ms. Limauro,

After just recently finishing with my high school’s spring musical Seussical: the Musical I was extremely eager to tell you about it. Since this was my last high school production it was of the highest importance to me. This show had to be the best – it had to be incredible. And it was.

Starting from watching rehearsals for pretty much a month straight, to getting the rental lights, teching, and then production week and the three performances, it has been a show I will always remember.

But as well as being the most memorable, this show has been extremely challenging.

First, I needed to come up with the rental quote as soon as possible. I got my wish list together, which included 5 High End moving lights, 11 Wybron color scrollers, 3 four-color strip lights, and an assortment of other small fixtures and cable. This ended up being a $5000 rental quote from PRG, which my producer would definitely not agree to. So after some bargaining with her I got the rental down to about $3000 from Limelight in Lee, Massachusetts for 3 Studio Spot 575 CMYs, 11 scrollers, an abundance of cable, and $400 from PRG (for three strips), and a purchase of about $2000 for one strip light and 5 ParNels, which were needed anyway to properly equip the theatre.

There were many technical obstacles to overcome during this show. Some were during setup, figuring out how to address the scrollers and moving lights from the board’s second DMX universe, and others right before the performances. On Friday, opening night, I discovered that the DMX cable leading from our console to the dimmers was broken. If I wiggled it a little, random lights would turn on. With some quick thinking I was able to fix the problem. At first I thought the cable would be over 100 feet long, running through the entire ceiling, and that I would need to switch that cable with the 150’ DMX cable that we ran through the ceiling for control of the scrollers and moving lights. But then I remembered that I could use an alternate cable from the DMX splitter right into the dimmer rack since they were both located backstage. I could then use that 150’ cable to run both the dimmers and the fixtures, which would then have to be readdressed. Upon inspection, I noticed that the broken DMX cable from the board only traveled about 20’ before plugging into a box and traveling through some conduit in the wall. So I immediately ran to get a new DMX cable (a rental we weren’t using – thank God) and temporarily replaced that cable. So – the show went on!

But Sunday afternoon, 30 minutes before curtain, there was a much larger obstacle. One of the moving lights was malfunctioning. This particular instrument was the only one giving us problems, first with color temperature due to a fogged bulb and now this. While running through all of my cues, as I had become accustomed to doing every night before curtain, I noticed that after a certain cue using the spiral gobo, the next cue using the moving light (which should have had no gobo at all) still had the spiral. So I started to look at the light using the submasters (into which I had programmed each control channel) and noticed there was a serious problem. We then inspected the light and noticed something was definitely wrong with the litho wheel. After a frantic phone call to the rental technician, I decided to look through my cues again. Upon getting to the cue that should have had the spiral in it I noticed that I couldn’t see it at all. I tried adjusting the focus, but it just wasn’t there – it was gone. So with one last frantic phone call I explained that one of the gobos had fallen out of the litho wheel. I was then talked through replacing the gobo, and with two minutes to curtain, all was well.

This show has been extraordinary to design. The color choice was a key factor – as color was the most important thing in this show. For front light I decided that I needed to test out some new colors that I had never used before – instead of the basic amber and blue. To do this, I created a mini “lighting lab” of my own in my basement. Using Gam, Rosco, and Lee swatchbook samples mounted in cardboard gel frames I made to put in front of some PAR16 lamps I found the perfect colors for front, back and side light, and even the cyc. The color choice ended up being the absolute best I had ever had. The front light was seamless with two colors I never would have though of normally – Chocolate (R99) and Special Lavender (G970) – but they worked beautifully. And I also chose great cyc colors: Sky Blue (L068), Moss Green (R89), and Light Red (G245), with Middle Rose (R44) for when the sky becomes “Pink!” Strangely enough, the back light I chose was discontinued but I managed to purchase their last gel sheet of Apricot (G386).

Cuing this show was also a great challenge. Working with the three moving lights and 11 scrollers, loaded with two completely different gel strings due to monetary constraints, took a lot of thought and precision. Cuing was long and tedious, but well worth every long night along with the 12 hour work days on the weekend. Once we got to tech rehearsal there were still many things to fix and working with a brand new stage manager (who was absolutely amazing) was exciting. The spot light cues were also nonstop and it was a relief if there was one page without a lighting cue on it.

I achieved a lot of great effects with this show. One very simple thing at the beginning was the preset – just a moving light aimed at the striped hat of The Cat in the Hat. Then I illuminated the hat as it levitated and suddenly there was the Cat himself.

In the first number one problem that I immediately solved with moving lights was that of the cyc in the back. This show was all about imagination. And Jojo later on imagines a “Bright Blue” sky. So of course, I could not have a sky appear if it hadn’t been imagined yet. So I used a pattern of red dots on the cyc – so there was color, but not a sky. Also, it was absolutely fantastic for the fearful section of the opening number when I made them rotate along with colored down light and spots on the Cat and Jojo. It looked awesome.

Timing was an incredibly huge part of this show. Unfortunately that cannot be shown in still photographs, but the timing of the cues were a lot of what made the show so visually pleasing. Such as the timing of the sky becoming blue, and then pink later on, or the timing of a special or entire cue coming in exactly with the music. Bumps were also awesome – I just stared at the conductor’s arms and waited for that down beat.

Many other cues were a lot of fun, such as when I hit each of the three main Wickersham Brothers with the moving lights when they first enter the story. They are in the back, yet attention is drawn to them instantly as they are illuminated with their spoken line.

After everything came together it felt amazing getting all of the feedback on the show. Almost everyone involved came up to me and said how amazing, or awesome, or just how cool the lighting was. After one of the performances a parent came to the lighting booth to tell me that he had never come back to say something about lighting or the technical aspects of the show, but he had to say something after seeing this. Comments such as these made me feel really great and that I had “gone out with a bang.” But of all the comments one of the best that some people said, was that “The lighting made it Seuss.”

Now I know you were concerned about whether or not I would have a crew trained for when I go to college in the fall. This show, I had a great turnout of about 6-8 people that were ready to learn. I started off by teaching them the mechanics involved and having them aim lights. As we went along I explained why two lights at opposite 45 degree angles were needed and how we would put a warm and a cool gel in each one to help provide natural shadows on the faces of the actors. They all caught on very quickly and had a few problems which were easily fixed with some explanation. I believe they all learned a lot about how lighting works, the basics of a well lit stage, and even about cabling DMX and a little of the design process. My two follow spot operators for the show are the most promising to take over next year. But in addition to the students I also needed to teach the advisors. As the year finishes out I hope to give both the students and advisors more confidence in lighting. I also hope to leave them with a well done, basic stage layout and a booklet or binder of how to light different events such as our PRISM concert or Cafeteria Concert, as well as basics about design, color, companies, and information about each fixture, the lighting board, and the dimmer rack. I will also give them some troubleshooting ideas and my e-mail if they have an emergency. I am confident that next year will be fairly solid and they will have no serious problems or need to panic about the next year.

I eagerly await a response from the University in the coming weeks!

Sincerely,

Sarah Hupcey



Here are some awesome pictures that were attached to the e-mail!













I hope you enjoyed everything! Remember, "Anything's Possible!"



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