John west International Festival of Scenic Arts – V & A
23 September 2009
The Lecture Theatre above the restaurant at the V & A was buzzing as people arrived as soon as the museum’s doors were opened at 10.
The First session trailed the SIB 2010 International Exhibition of Show Business, Installation and Broadcast Technology in Rimini, Italy, which will take place on the 18 to 20 April 2010.
Paul Constable spoke about lighting for the musical theatre and featured his work on the musical Billy Elliot. Walls were lit but the floor was kept dark to give the atmosphere of an empty room. The bedroom tower was out of sight-line for extreme seats so strong diagonal lighting was used so at least a silhouette of Billy dancing could be seen by everyone. The final dance sequence featured numerous familiar dance routine lighting elements from flown-in booms for side-lighting, to dry-ice top-lit with gobos.
We were given a technical demonstration of progress with LEDs for stage lighting. The gaps in the colour profile (which cause some colours not the read well in this light) are being filled by additional lamps of different colour temperatures. There still needs to be more power out-put before these lamps will start to displace tungsten filament lamps which have a more even colour out-put though they waste much more heat and energy.
The next section featured the work of eminent past and present Italian opera designers, Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino. As it was given in Italian with an English translation this section took the longest. We were shown examples of simple sets consisting of a platform and a painted cloth with slit entrances to the most elaborate Ring Cycle sets which consisted of numerous 18 meter Gothic pillars which moved to create the different locations demanded by the plot. We were told that there was no knowing where future designers will take the art of scenography.
Sergio Metalli spoke about the use of pre-recorded videos to supplement the sets and cast of opera productions with numerous illustrations to demonstrate how this can be achieved real actors on real stairs can be blended with pre-recorded images. Larger casts can be simulated by having the background figures projected. There was some debate in the audience about the desirability of this, particularly as some techniques required gauze between the audience and the cast in order to front-project images. Now that cinema can (seemingly) bring 3D images out of the screen and over the first few rows of seats, confining the cast behind a screen may be considered undesirable.
John Pascoe was the next speaker; he is known as an international opera designer and director. He claimed that he was not striving to be a megalomaniac as he did so many things in international opera. His web site at http://www.johnpascoe.com gives an inkling of what he has achieved. He gave a slide lecture on his designs for Plácido Domingo’s Lucrezia Borgia for the Washington State Opera. The sets consist of a wide flight of steps with two diagonal side-walls. These close towards the centre to create a sense of claustrophobia as the plot develops. The texture of the walls is based on careful research of authentic brickwork of the location and period. (He has come a long way since he started as my Assistant Designer at Derby Playhouse. I hope that I can claim some credit for teaching him stage-craft.) Sadly, due to the day running behind schedule we were not permitted to see excerpts from a video of his production of Madam Butterfly, which we had been led to expect.
Maria Bjørnson the late, unhappy, workaholic designer of Phantom of the Opera was featured with warm memories from those who have worked with her and with illustrations of her work. She started at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre where the visuals were taken, at least. as seriously as the drama. During 1971-72 she designed no less than nine plays and a musical for the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre, as well as The Rake's Progress and Katya Kabanova for David Pountney at the Scottish Opera and the Wexford Festival. In 1974 she designed two Wagner operas, a Mozart, a Holst, a Puccini, a Berg, a Prokofiev, and two Shakespeare plays in a single year. In 1975 she slowed down and only designed four operas, but they were in four different countries. A happy-looking Andrew Lloyd-Webber joined the audience for this section of the afternoon.
The final speaker was William Dudley who spoke about the use of digital projection in drama, which saved much painting and construction as only the practical stage props need to be built and painted. Digital imagery has eliminated many of the former problems of projection in the theatre including: distortion, overheating of photographic images and low light-output causing the images to vanish when the cast was lit.
He showed how a semi-circular wall with seven entrances at the back of the National Theatre’s Oliver stage could be used for projecting a huge number of static and moving images, including travelling over water and under bridges. Careful lighting of the floor blended the lower part of the projected image to increase the illusion.
Peter Pan in the big top in Kensington Gardenswas the main feature of the talk. The upper part of the big top over the seats provided a conical projection surface. The use of digital projectors enabled there to be a complete circular image like the 1960s “Circlerama” process but without the distracting joins.
The most spectacular images were those used when Peter and the children fly across London and then go up through the clouds to Neverland; these images were entirely digitally produced by eight artists using period maps for reference. The delightful visuals are those that might be associated with a good picture book or an excellent pantomime. Only parts of the pirate ship, elements of the island and the bedroom had to be built and painted, which gave much flexibility without the need for heavy scene-changes. The picture area required for this presentation was the size of three IMAX screens. Many “rendering engines” over several days were needed to produce the final images of the required quality. The production will be reproduced over Christmas at the O2 Arena in London’s docklands where the picture area will be larger. Digital images can be “cut” as required so the same original images can be re-used but with more projectors to fill the surrounding screen. More information can be found on http://www.visitlondon.com/peterpan/show.
William, kindly, took questions at the end of the session and says that the software costs only a few hundred pounds. We were told that Cinema 4D the programme that was used to produce the images was easy to use and those who can use Photoshop and Vectorworks will be able to use it with few problems.
The event closed at five o’clock, earlier than advertised. Breaks had to be cut short in order to attempt to get everything scheduled done. We had a stimulating day with much to consider.