Apollo Design | Lyrics 14

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Lyrics 14: The Best Of...

Director and Executive Producer: Mark Spencer
Ass't. Director and Stage Manager: Rashaad Cherry
Lighting and Set Design: Guy Rhodes
Sound Designer and Arranger: George Johnson
Vocal Coach and Choral Director: Keith Nelson
Ass't. Choral Director: Lehman Gray
Music Director: Marcus Heffner
Choreographer: Asia Dickens
"Lyrics 14: The Best Of..."
West Side Theatre Guild - Gary, Indiana

About the Show:
"Lyrics 14: The Best Of..." takes a look back through the years of the West Side Theatre Guild's annual "Lyrics" musical revue show, and re- mounts some of the favorite performances from the series dating back to 1995. From soul to R&B, to rock and roll and jazz and everything in between, "Lyrics 14: The Best Of..." incorporates singing, dancing, and live music from a multitude of genres.

The Approach:
This year's "Lyrics" production was my seventh in the series (my first show with West Side as designer was Lyrics 8 back in 2003), all of which have had a similar concert theme to the productions. Since this was a best-of show, I'd already lit most of the pieces in this year's show previously. While I wanted to keep this year's versions feeling fresh and new, I did draw inspiration from whatever looks I programmed in years past, referencing video and photos of those productions.

Some pieces required us to reproduce certain gags we'd done before, such as the drum riser ascending 20 feet into the air during one of the high-energy finale pieces. As with past performances, our drummer this year was more than a little apprehensive when we took him for his first ride up on the riser (built atop an industrial scissor lift). By the last performance, however, our drummer was all smiles as he soared above the stage bathed in strobing LED fixtures. Having successfully pulled off the drum riser gag back in 2004, designing this year's version was comparatively easier on both the lighting and carpentry fronts.

The "Lyrics" series is especially fun to design for because the bulk of my responsibility is simply to paint a pretty picture above and around the performers on stage, one that enhances the mood and feel of the given song. And, as much as I was made to feel guilty for this thought process throughout college, many of the things I do design- wise for "Lyrics" are done simply for the sake of looking cool. Mark Spencer, the director and executive producer of "Lyrics", embraces the "for cool's sake" school, and gives me almost total creative freedom to create whatever looks I feel are appropriate for each number, which makes this show a blast to program and operate.

Colors:
I'm a color saturation junkie (as my photos of "Lyrics 14: The Best Of..." will prove), so I chose a 3-color toplight wash of AP4250, AP8840, and AP3700. AP8840 is a great color because, at full, it is magenta, but at around 30% on a dimmer, it shifts towards red. Using the color in this way, I'm able to squeeze two colors out of the same wash.

For my high side washes (which, at West Side Theatre, cover all five lighting areas across the stage), I chose AP7100 for my warm and AP4650 for my cool. AP7100 is a wonderful color on African-American skin tones (West Side Theatre Guild consists almost entirely of African-American performers, so I have to keep this in mind when choosing appropriate colors). AP4650 is a great, mildly saturated cool color which contrasts well with the highly saturated dichroic colors in the many moving lights often used in "Lyrics". In a situation without so many movers, I'd choose a less-saturated cool high side color.

For our sidelight ladder positions, I chose AP7330 for a warm (to be slightly more saturated than my AP7100 up top), and AP4970 as a cool color that contrasted nicely with all the other cools in the rig. I also had a no-color wash in the ladders with an Apollo breakup pattern, MS1027.

On the floor, I have a no color footlight system that covers the entire stage, gelled with heavy diffusion, AP1100. This system is in place to help fill in the shadows in performer's eyes and below their chins, and comes into play mainly during our five camera video shoot for television on the last day of the show. I also used the AP1100 diffusion to back a pattern of 2" holes we cut in the facing of our band risers, which were then backlit with clear C9-size Christmas lights. The lights are wired in two circuits (skipping every other hole) to allow them to be chased. This very low-tech gag actually gives a very polished, high-tech look to the band risers.

Most of the ellipsoidals in the rig received AP1650 Light Textured Diffusion. I focus my ellipsoidals "sharp-to-shutter" (keeping the optics in the fixture the most efficient), and allow the diffusion to take the edge off and blend my washes together.

Gobos:
Other than the MS1027 breakup in my sidelight ladder positions, I used 4 MS3333 "Frilly Hearts" gobos racked way out-of-focus with a saturated, split-color gel as our main act curtain warmer. Our curtain warmer system also features a custom Apollo steel gobo of the West Side Theatre Guild's logo, aptly named, "Lyric". Rounding out my templates were 6 MS2190 "Breakup Shatter Medium" patterns used in 6 50 degree Source 4's, which were rolled onto the stage on carts to be used as low specials very close to a performer. I chose the MS2190 pattern because I wanted to create shafts of light through the haze in the air which would catch the performer as she sang, and I've found this to be the best template to use when trying to accomplish similar looks in the past.

Gear: