For those of you who have seen the show, you probably noticed Broadway posters that flew in and out during certain scenes. One of my jobs as lighting designer was not only to make sure that the audience could see the set, but also add a little bit of "lighting magic" to the signs. Working in collaboration with Lex van Blommestien (the scenic designer), we were able to make the Majestic Theatre sign light up, as well as create chasing lights around the 42nd Street sign.
The original concept for how to light the Majestic sign was to drill a series of holes in the middle of the sign to spell out the letters, and then use a lighting instrument directly behind the sign to shine light through the holes. However, this idea had to be scrapped because the look of the sign was being comprimised - it just didn't look as crisp and clean as Lex wanted it to. After a talk about other options, the two of us decided our best bet would be to use rope light to spell out the letters. Not only did using rope light achieve a better look than drilling holes in the sign, but it was also a cheap alternative - we had an abundance of rope light from a production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas a few years ago (if you happened to see that production three years ago, you may remember the rope light-surrounded runway - yes, we recycle!).After deciding on a solution, the Master Electrician (Ben Paciorkowski) set to work installing the rope light. The picture on the left is the final product. It took about two hours of drilling small holes to feed rope light through, and installing clips to help create and shape the letters. Pretty simple, but a good look for the show.
While Ben worked on that sign, I was working across the scene shop on the 42nd Street sign.
Early on in the process, I'd expressed to Director Brian Sage that I'd like to be able to do a chasing light effect on one on the signs. Most people have seen a chasing effect before - think about theatre marquee signs where the lights seem to "chase" each other around in a circle. A chase effect is easy to create, as it's really just a simple trick of the eye; what you really see in a chase effect is one light turning on, then the one next to it, then the one after it, over and over again in a loop of three. While it looks like the lights "chase" around a sign, it's really just every third light being turned on in a sequence.To do this, I needed to wire 3 sets of 8 lamp bases to the sign - a total of 24 lights. This way, I could turn on one set of lights at a time. I also needed to be able to "hide" the wires so that the sign looked clean. To complete this project took me over three hours. Not only did I need to attach and wire bases to the sign, but I also needed to make sure I didn't get "lost" in my wiring. One wrong end of a wire attached to the wrong base could have cost me a lot of extra time to go back and fix everything. In the picture, you can see band-aids on my fingers; wiring the sign caused a lot of blisters that day! However, in the end all of the lights worked, and I was able to program multiple chase sequences for musical numbers in The Goodbye Girl. Check out the finished product below!
If you haven't had the opportunity yet, make sure to check out our production of The Goodbye Girl before it closes on Saturday, August 2nd! I promise you that it will be a great time, and you will be able to tell all of your friends how they made the lights on Broadway. =)
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