SCRANTON, PA. -For the Ballet Theatre of Scranton’s production of Dracula, production designer Dennis Size used six High End Systems SolaFrame 1500 fixtures, adding a heightened level of drama to the lighting and atmosphere of the dance troupe’s interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Delivered through Craig Friedman Productions, the 1500s augmented the house rig of the Theatre At North, in Scranton. Friedman’s company (CFP) provided over forty additional automated fixtures, including venerable Studio Colors and x.Spots. To assist with the project, Size brought in Lesli Tilly as his gaffer/head electrician. Clay Harding joined the fun as his programmer.
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The LD grew up in Scranton, PA, dancing with the Ballet Theatre of Scranton in his youth, and has worked with Artistic Director, Joanne Arduino, for the last 25 years. Calling Dracula a ‘labor of love’, Size says the production gave him the opportunity to really put the SolaFrame 1500s through their paces. “In television, where I normally ply my trade, the requirements are rigid and there’s limited time and money for experimentation. We added a dozen SolaFrame 1500s on ABC’s Good Morning America, and the instruments are being used for a very specific purpose – key lighting for the talent. The 1500s are great, but they can do far, far more than that. I used the 1500’s on Dracula not only to flex my artistic muscles but to really put them through their paces.”
A recently restored 800 seater, the Theatre At North, a local ‘road house’ in Scranton, PA, now serves as the Ballet Theatre’s home. Size explains, “As a former middle school auditorium, it’s a presentational ‘horseshoe’ type stage, with a proscenium stage that had a short thrust/apron added. A small modern rep plot was installed as part of the renovation, but it didn’t allow for the dramatic lighting I wanted to do with Dracula. I needed more intensive side light, back light and stark dramatic angles, We also only had one day each for load in, focus, rehearsal and then two performances. CFP supplied a mix of fixtures including seven Studio Colors and 10 HES x.spots, which I used for my side light – they’re still bright and are still workhorses. I also needed a front light position that was steeper, and provided more options as the theatre front light was from the balcony rail.
“We installed pick points 20 feet from the edge of the apron, and flew a 40’ truss to the ceiling of the theatre so I could light more dramatically from the front. I evenly spaced the 1500’s on the truss so I could occasionally wash the entire stage for ‘normal’ scenes but also use the fixtures as specials. At times dancers were out in the audience aisles, and I was able to follow them. The goal was to get a steep, versatile, dramatic FOH position that was bright, and it worked very well.”
Size says the basic design had tapped out all the power on stage, so the 1500’s low power requirements were also a real benefit to his production; being as quiet as they are really sealed the deal. “Additionally, having six new SolaFrames in the rig versus the older fixtures gave a whole different quality of light that was really quite special.
“The supernatural setting of Dracula required us to do a lot of eerily fun things. There wasn’t really much scenery, so the lighting design set the mood and atmosphere. I almost always had the 1500s in textural gobos with color morphing between greens and blues – plus we had more fog than you could shake a stick at, or through!”
The theatre’s house rig contains 40 conventional fixtures – ETC Source Four’s (10 degrees and 14 degrees) from the balcony rear. On stage are a combination of 36 and 26 degree Source Four Ellipsoidals and PARs. The theater installed an ETC Element, but Size needed 12 DMX universes, so CFP purchased a fully loaded Ion for this production. Clay Harding pre-programmed cues, but had to leave for another project, so Gaffer Lesli Tilly ‘tweaked’ programming and ran the show.
Tilly says Ballet Theatre’s Dracula emphasized the romance, the love stories, and heartbreak of lost love. “We didn’t want to fall into the trap of the red light cliché to indicate danger, blood, and evil, but at the same time, we wanted to keep the dangerous aspects. This led us to use a full color palette that contrasted with extremely intense, bold, bright whites and shadows. The 1500s gave us a very bright light with a clean color temperature. It was easy to match the color temperature and quality of light of the Source Fours in the rig, and allowed us to utilize them in the same systems, to extend an existing wash, or as refocusable specials.”
“The EOS family is a favorite, and the Ion is perfectly suited to the needs of their productions. There are people with many different skill sets that can find themselves operating the console. I can easily set it up so that both the rookie volunteer asked to call up channels for focus as well as an experienced programmer building complex sequences can easily do what’s needed.”
In the end, Size definitely got to flex his artistic muscles with the SolaFrame 1500s. “I found myself relying on the 1500s more and more to solve the problems and do special effects. I wouldn’t have been that bold without those fixtures. The framing shutters and zoom were critical and used extensively – actually I used every attribute of the fixtures. If we could do a trick with them we did it, and they exceeded my expectations. They ‘drove’ the entire show with a consistent kinetic energy.”
