BERKELEY, CA — American Idiot, the rock album by Green Day, is now a rock opera performed at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. LD Kevin Adams is using an ETC Eos lighting control system for the production. In American Idiot, the production incorporates both theatrical and concert-style lighting elements in a high-energy format. Adams has used Eos on other shows this year, including the Broadway transfer of Next to Normal. He thought it would be a good fit for American Idiot as well.
“I wanted a user-friendly board that could program both moving lights and conventionals, and could allow for a single programmer instead of two,” Adams said. “I wanted a console that would be easy to work from if this show transferred to another theater.
“I love the ease and familiarity of Eos, and enjoy having an intuitive board that is not overly complicated to use both live and in blind. For me, it’s a low-stress board to work on,” Adams added.
American Idiot’s rig consists of 300 conventional fixtures — including dozens of ETC Source Four and Source Four PAR fixtures — 32 scrollers, 20 moving lights, 40 LEDs and 10 strobe lights.
“Lighting Programmer Victor Seastone and I easily pre-programmed the entire show — even the curtain call — in about four days,” said Adams. “There are about 500 cues.”
“American Idiot director Michael Mayer and I wanted to take the opposite path of our work together in Spring Awakening, which was carefully precise and deliberately minimal,” said Adams. “We wanted to embrace maximalism with American Idiot. We also wanted to make a rock musical that had the impact of a rock show, but used a vocabulary that was unique and theatrical, and not similar to the kind of rock show that one would have expected with a Green Day concert.”
Adams’ approach bombards the audience with dramatic lighting and multimedia effects. “There are many times when the 40-foot-tall set and cast of 25 are brightly illuminated with white light, while several dozen strobe lights and huge moving projections are coming at the audience all at once. The effect is kaleidoscopic, and the big pictures are so busy at times that it’s quite difficult to figure out what to focus on the first time one views it,” explains Adams. The result is a mesmerizing spectacle that instantly draws the audience into the story. And Eos ensures that the lighting stays on cue, show after show.
American Idiot runs through November 15th at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Assistant lighting designers for the show are Stephanie Buchner and Barbara Samuels, Christine Cochrane is a lighting programmer, and Aaron Sporer is a studio assistant lighting designer.
For more information, please visit www.etcconnect.com.
