|
THE MAGIC HOUR TEAM Creator / Director : Kim Collier Writer : Kendra Fanconi Scenic Designers : Linda Chinfen & Jonathan Wells Multimedia Designer : Mark Eugster Sound Designer & Composer : Alessandro Juliani Show Control & Automation Designer : Joel Grinke Lighting Designers : Bryan Kenney & Brad Trenaman Assistant Sound Designer : Matt Grinke Technical Director : Mark Burge Production Manager ( Presentation House Theatre ): Giselle Clarke- Trenaman Production Assistants : Jessica Han & Charlotte Alexander Carpenter : Rory Gylander Project Manager ( Innovation Lighting ): Enoch Seutter Crew Chief ( Innovation Lighting ): Jon Gyory Running Crew : Kaeden Atkinson , Joseph Cho , Tory Ip , Neal Miskin & Vanka Salim Featuring the voice of Maiko Yamamoto
and Presentation House , the producers were very grateful that Arts Club Theatre , Studio 58 , and Great Northern Way were all willing to loan set pieces and props to bring The Magic Hour to life . With wish lists in hand , Collier , Chinfen , and Wells browsed through the warehouses of these generous donors and were able to procure most of the pieces needed to create the world of the show .
For both Wells and Chinfen , working on the third floor at Presentation House was a bit of a homecoming , since both of them had worked at the Polygon Gallery when it previously occupied that space . They relished the chance to create something new and exciting within those walls – designing
|
rooms that at once felt familiar , yet extraordinary . Unlike some recent walk-throughs that discourage touching , visitors to The Magic Hour were encouraged to peek inside freezers and ovens , never knowing what to expect .
The Library was a particular favourite of the two designers and of many of the patrons as well . Hundreds of books were carefully arranged and hung creating a garden of literature . Vintage maps and yellowed newspapers conveyed the sense that perhaps you had stepped into a moment frozen in time . If you looked close enough , you ’ d also discover messages partially revealed in a sand-covered dictionary .
In the spacious yet sparsely furnished bedroom , a water-filled moat surrounded the bed and cast shimmering reflections on the wall , while the formal dining room featured its own forest with dappled light through the trees . Even one of the most typically mundane rooms in a home , the laundry room , takes on an air of sublime beauty .
LIGHTING DESIGN For Bryan Kenney , the notion of nature creeping into our homes was a theme he enjoyed exploring and heavily influenced our design choices when putting together a plot . Given the quick and organic way this production was coming together , we chose fixtures that allowed for maximum versatility , and given the limited electrical service throughout the building , were predominantly LED .
Even with an almost completely LED rig , power was still going to be a major challenge , especially on the third floor , so Kenney , along with Innovation ’ s Project Manager Enoch Seutter and Crew Chief Jon Gyory , came up with a fairly quick yet effective solution – since we wouldn ’ t be using much of the capacity of our Sensor rack for the theatre , we swapped a couple dozen of the cards to constant current ones and then ran four Soca runs through a newly-created hatch up to the third floor . This provided enough power not only for lighting but also projection ( and even the industrial
|
AC unit we had to bring in when Vancouver experienced its hottest summer ever ).
Innovation Lighting has one of Vancouver ’ s largest inventories of Astera LEDs and they ’ re very well represented in this production with four of their products making up a large portion of the rig – AX3 Lightdrops , NYX Bulbs , AX1 Pixel Tubes , and Titan Tubes . Given their small size , the AX3s were especially useful in smaller rooms and stairwells and the wireless functionality of all of the Astera fixtures helped expedite cabling to the far corners of the building . Gyory even discovered that the AX3s fit nicely in the older track lights in use on the third floor if you removed the PAR 38 lamps . The NYX bulbs were also widely deployed , especially in the many practical floor and table lamps throughout the venue . This was my second time using them and they ’ ve quickly become one of my favourite new lighting tools – essentially a brighter , wireless DMX-controllable version of the “ smart ” bulbs so readily available at any hardware store nowadays . It ’ s no wonder Innovation Lighting has trouble keeping them in stock – they ’ ve already become a staple of the film industry and I suspect , as more theatre LDs discover them , that we ’ ll start seeing them in more live productions , too .
The Pixel Tubes and Titan Tubes are yet more examples of Astera products that the film industry has embraced and which are quickly finding their way onto stages around the world . For The Magic Hour , they were
|
particularly useful in simulating old-fashioned fluorescent tubes in places like the washroom ( the set washroom , that is ) and for casting a fiery red glow as patrons descended the “ Lava Stairwell .”
Several Chauvet products are also found scattered throughout the rig , including COLORdash PAR H7s , COLORband Pix , and Rogue R2 Washes and R2X Spots . While The Magic Hour largely came about due to inactivity within the live entertainment sector , Innovation Lighting suddenly found themselves quite busy as the production was nearing load-in and actually purchased the COLORdash PARs for this production . They ’ re quite punchy and have proven themselves as worthy workhorses on this project , especially with the custom diffusers Innovation made for them .
Having two LDs on a production of this nature proved advantageous in many ways – with a fairly tight schedule , given the scope and scale of the project , it allowed one LD to spend time cuing one room while another was being focused . As TD for the venue , I would also get pulled away occasionally from lighting duties to deal with other issues ( like the aforementioned AC issue , or lack thereof , during the heat wave ).
Since each room essentially had its own separate lighting rig , we channeled by room rather than by fixture type . Patrons would be entering the show while other patrons were already in it so each room was programmed as a separate cue list .
PHOTO : CLAYTON BARANIUK
|
20 | Fall 2021
|