almost immediately , aiming for a spring / summer 2021 opening . Collier was particularly excited by the number and variety of spaces available at Presentation House Theatre . “ Some of the other venues we considered were just wide-open warehouses where we would have been starting from scratch to create individual rooms – something that was key to my overall vision for the project ,” remarks Collier . “ Presentation House already has a variety of spaces from wide open white rooms , which could serve as beautiful canvases for projections , to a couple of blacked-out spaces where we carve scenes out of darkness with light . Even the stairwells had tremendous potential for being integral and interesting parts of the journey .”
It was also important to Collier that we were creating something that could be experienced in-person . “ To me , theatre is many things – design , acting , story , music , movement – but the most vital thing is that people see it live ,” she explains , “ The opportunity afforded to us of having access to Innovation Lighting ’ s state-of-art equipment and a fantastic multi-room venue spread over several floors was absolutely too good to pass up .”
I was thrilled to come on board as co-lighting designer working alongside Kenney , while Grinke joined the project as show control and automation designer . Rounding out the creative team was Writer Kendra Fanconi , Scenic Designers Linda Chinfen and Jonathan Wells , and long-time Electric Company collaborators Mark Eugster and Alessandro Juliani as multimedia designer and sound designer / composer , respectively .
LAYOUT & ROOM DESIGN Isn ’ t it odd that less than two years ago hardly anybody had ever heard of Zoom and now most theatre artists would wonder how they could ever survive without it ? Many of the initial Zoom meetings for The Magic Hour were between Kenney , Collier , and myself as we worked through the building , figuring out the best one-way path for the experience from start to finish . Collier had already started working on a script with Fanconi as well as discussing set design / installation ideas with Chinfen so we had a good idea of what Collier wanted each room to represent and the ideal route patrons would take to get there . Collier and Fanconi had also decided very early on that they wanted The Magic Hour to be experienced individually with only one person in each room at a time . With this in mind , we knew that we would need to divide up certain spaces with physical walls – both to keep people on the specified path and to contain sound as much as possible .
As we worked through each area , either Kenney or I would throw together quick floorplans we could share back and forth to check traffic flow . The third floor was especially tricky because we had to creatively turn three large open spaces into four sonically-isolated ones . With over 12-ft . high ceilings to contend with and only 10-ft . tall flats at our disposal , this meant doubling up the flats and adding SONOpan soundproofing panels on top .
The final layout that was settled on consisted of nine main rooms and three transition areas spread throughout the building but mostly occupying the second and third floors . The Stage Door on the ground floor was only used as the entrance , box office , and for washroom access . Audience members would be fed into the building ’ s central stairwell and then make their way up a floor to watch a video featuring members of the production team explaining the ground rules of the experience ( seeing as Zoom had played such a large part in the creation of The Magic Hour , it only made sense to record and present this video as a Zoom call ). A green light at the stairwell entrance would admit one new patron every three and half minutes while subsequent rooms ran almost exactly three minutes .
Working out this framework early on gave each department a pretty tight container when it came to creating content – audio and video content had only a five-second margin above or below the three-minute mark or bottlenecks would occur along the journey .
Conceptually , each space in the experience represented a different room in a typical home . Once patrons arrived at their home on the hilltop ( the top of the stairs ), Maiko Yamamoto ’ s narration would ask them to reflect on both their lives during the pandemic and how they might move forward as the world emerges from an almost twoyear hibernation . While much of the story takes place inside , nature is always present with outbursts of greenery , water , and sand appearing in places you ’ d least expect .
SET DESIGN Since the audience would be experiencing the show much more intimately than a traditional theatre production , Collier knew that small details in the set and prop design would be key to effective storytelling . Collier has known Linda Chinfen for many years and knew that her background in visual arts and multimedia made her the perfect fit for this project . Since the project was being produced outside of the regular budgeted seasons of both Electric Company
PHOTO : KIM COLLIER PHOTO : KIM COLLIER PHOTO : KIM COLLIER
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