8 - The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, October 13, 1994
DESIGN
Continued from page 7
red), and then black and white." "We
cheated a little bit," she admitted.
The actual painting is a four-step
process. "We start out with a local
color - this (referring to the soldier)
was mostly green - and then we do a
pattered breakup with the rollers, and
then we refine it with the bottle
brushes, and at the very end we come
back with the paint brushes and get
more specific," Crabtree outlined.
Fortunately, she had a little help.
She runs the Power scene shop along
with Tony Auletti, and they are as-
sisted by their graduate students,
work-study students, and students in
undergraduate design courses.
Roughly 12 painters worked on "Sun-
day," each giving no less than 10
hours a week, with Crabtree and
Auletti working full-time. Crabtree
herself paints 10 shows a year for
University Productions, four of which
are currently in progress.
"Sunday" also involves the skill
and ability of another important art-
ist, Master Electrician Henry
Renyolds. Renyolds and his students
were faced with the task of building
and operating the chromolume, truly
a technological wonder in its con-
struction.
"It's my job and the students who
work with me to take (Renschler's)
idea and implement it the same way
Susan takes drawings and implements
those," Renyolds explained.
Now for the question you've all
been waiting for. What, exactly, is a
that chromolume? "For us, it's just
this pyramidal-shaped thing with lots
of toys inside of it," Renyolds said
with a smile. But more specifically ...
"Mirrored lamps, that are quite
bright and quite directional, a strobe,
two telebeams - lighting fixtures
which throw a beam of light onto a
mirror, a whole mess of wires, acouple
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fans and a smoke machine which
operates with lanolin." And that's
just the chromolume. The show calls
for what is known as "the chromolume
effect," which involves all of that
plus several high-powered slide
projectors which shoot digitized
(computer manipulated) projections
of Seurat's work onto the stage.
Perhaps the most fascinating as-
pect of the chromolume is its opera-
tion, which is all done by computer.
All'of the cues are filtered in to a
recorded piece of synthesizer music.
As the music plays, the cues are given
by metronome-like pulses which trig-
ger the operations of the telebeams,
the slide projectors, the smoke ma-
chine and the conventional light
board. Acentral computer essentially
"talks" to all the other computerized
effects. All thanks to a Canadian-
originated piece of computer soft-
ware called, appropriately, Stage
Manager. The act of automating the
cues is called MIDI show control,
which stands for Musical Instrument
Digital Interface.
This revolutionary technique has
never been employed by the Univer-
sity or any company in the Ann Arbor
area; usually it is reserved for large
Broadway-scale shows, casinos and
places like Disneyworld. The MT
program's decision to use MIDI was
mainly based on need. "There are
approximately 400 to 500 cues -
between slides coming up, slides fad-
ing out, things strobing, smoke turn-
ing on and off," Renyolds explained.j
"So 500 cues within a span of less
than three minutes-no human could
call that. It's meant for a machine."
Just as human beings are prone to
mistakes, computers are prone to
breaking down. So what happens ...
"if the computer burps?" Renyolds
suggested. "If (the central computer)
breaks, we have a spare computer.
But if it happens during the show, it's
going to bea little tricky. Thetelebeam
operator can press a few buttons and
make lights flash ... and the light-
board operator upstairs is going to
have to make something happen..
It's not going to look at all like what
it's supposed to, but something will
happen.
"That's really all we can do ... we
have cues happening every second
and sometimes every half-second so
we could never really get the real
show, but we've got a few safeties
built in," Renyolds finished confi-
dently.
U Productions is pioneering anew
field of technology in theater; MIDI
has never been employed on a Uni-
versity level, and, moreover, could
be influential in the shaping of tech-
nical theater for future years. "I don't
think it's a trend necessarily where
theater is going to be (completely)
automated," Renyolds speculated,
"but there are certain parts of theater
that are automatable and should be."
All of the designers referred to time,
budget and space as their main chal-
lenges. Renschler had problems do-
ing everything he wanted to do be-
cause of a lack of fly and wing space
in the Mendelssohn; Crabtree had to
paint the whole show in four weeks
(truly a Herculean task); Renyolds
has never had a more concentrated
single technological project.
But the design of "Sunday" repre-
sents such a milestone in theatrical
presentation, that it could have been
done no other way. "There's a meld-
ing of two worlds here," Renschler
proposed. "This very traditional old
style and method of moving, painting
and constructing flat scenery, and then
manipulating things by computer and
moving the lights. It's a pretty inter-
esting juxtaposition."
And for all the problems they en-
countered, and the challenges they
faced, these artists go on behind the
scenes, confident in their abilities and
proud of their work. Crabtree said:
"You know that given enough time
and resources, you can create just
about anything."
The challenge
of 'Sunday '
SUNDAY
Continued from page I.
topher French), the great-grandson
of Seurat. In a search for inspiration,
George returns to la Grande Jatte and
the two acts are tied together in what
director Brent Wagner called "(one
of) the most brilliant written set of
scenes in the American theater ever."
"Sunday" is far from a traditional
musical. While the show has a loyal
following of critics, actors and
Sondheim aficionados, the show
maintains its illustrious reputation
through its lack of visibility; it is
performed so rarely because it is so
challenging, and therefore it is re-
vered. When it played Broadway 10
years ago, "Sunday" received an as-
tounding 10 Tony nominations, and
(because of "La Cage Aux Folles,"
no doubt) did not receive a single
one. As a consolation, it did manage
to snag a Pulitzer Prize.
Wagner credits Sondheim's clever
and provoking score. "It really is a
theater score - written in the great
tradition of scores that develop char-
acter, have something to say sym-
bolically that they're very layered."
Because they are so heavily de-
pendent on characters and layered
Whitney Allen and Adam Hunter receive direction from Brent Wagner.
with thematic, Sondheim's scores
("Company," "Into the Woods" and,
most recently, "Passion" to name a
few) put heavy demands on an audi-
ence. However, Wagner feels that the
audience will have no problems ac-
cepting "Sunday"'s score and themes.
"It's a lot to absorb," he admitted,
"But if you're willing to participate in
this, the rewards are tremendous."
Ever since he saw the original
Broadway production (with Mandy
Patinkin and Bernadette Peters),
Wagner has possessed a great affinity
for the show and its themes. "I've
always been attracted to it because of
the topic, what an artist goes through,
that's going to appeal to most people
in the arts.
"It appeals to me because as a
director there were things that it said
to me that I wanted to communicate to
other people; it appeals to me as an
educator because it is a different kind
of show; it is challenging intellectu-
ally and emotionally. I thought it
would be good for (the Mendelssohn),
with the proscenium stage ... since
you need to see the picture and how it
evolves," he explained.
Another factor in Wagner's at-
traction to "Sunday" lies in the Act
Two theme of the artist as fundraiser
and the artist as innovator. "Whether
you're in the non-profit world, the
commercial world or the educational
world, it takes money to produce art
of any kind. Where does the money
come from, what impact does that
have on the artist, and on what an
audience sees?" he questioned.
In order to create even more roles
for his student actors, Wagner ha
departed from the traditional casting.
Usually, the actor who plays Georges
Seurat in Act One is the same actor
who plays his great-grandson George
in Act Two; similarly, the female ac=
tor who plays Dot in Act One alsQ
plays Marie, Dot's daughter and
George's grandmother, in Act Two.
Wagner has split those roles to en*
compass four actors, a choice which
to the best of anyone's knowledge has
never been done.
"Why not give more opportuni-
ties? If I'm not violating the plaq
artistically - which has to be a con;
cern - then why make it a two-
character show when I can spread i
out," Wagner offered. "I think I can
highlight what the authors are saying
with four people instead of two."
"What I think you get," Wagner
said, "is an exploration of a situatio*
from different angles that you really
can give a lot of thought to, and you
can sit back and enjoy as it's going..}
"There's just an incredible amount
to be learned from this," Wagnet
added. But don't be put off by th4
learning aspect of "Sunday." The red
wards are great enough to compen
sate for any challenge on your part.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH
GEORGE plays tonight through
Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at
p.m. at the Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre. Tickets are $16 and $12
($6 students with ID), and are
available at the League Ticket
Office. Call 764-0450.
ki
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