Bright Star
The Playmill Theatre (2022)
Projection, Sound, & Lighting Designer
Piano Player
Bright Star has been a favorite of the Playmill’s owners since they saw it on Broadway when it premiered. Naturally, everyone they introduced it to also became obsessed with it. For years we dreamed what it would be like on the small and intimate stage at The Playmill Theatre, and it finally happened for the 2022 season. The design for Bright Star led to the implementation of multiple new types of technology and the first live band the theater had seen in years. Preparing this show to open third in the lineup was a mammoth task.
Lighting / Previsualization
I used Bright Star as an opportunity to explore ways to simplify our technical storytelling process by being more intentional and simplistic with my sound, lighting, and projection designs. I knew that all of these things (along with a few set-piece ideas I had) would need to be communicated visually before they could be approved by the director and producers. I have been using a lot of Unreal Engine 5 in my course studies at SCAD and thought this would be a great opportunity to remake the Playmill stage in 3D to illustrate my concepts.
We knew early on that we would use wooden slat panel flats placed in front of our massive LED video wall. I proposed to treat the wooden slats as a cyclorama, and we could use that as a colored backdrop. The projections (used at certain times that I’ll touch on below) could then be used during certain moments to provide a complementary or contrasting color to that displayed on the wooden slats. Creating these lights in UE 5 really helped show the director my idea, and completely sold him on it.
Because of these previsualization images, I was able to have a $10,000 technology package approved to reimagine the theater’s lighting package. It also provided us with visual guidance on re-flooring our theater, where to place lighting instruments, and where the band would eventually be situated.
This was a great exercise in being able to communicate my ideas visually and more effectively.
A previs image of the stage I built in the Unreal Engine 5.
The same stage with additional set dressing for Bright Star.
Adding lights and projections to the stage to experiment with lighting looks.
Experiments with additional color washes.
Projection Design
I knew early on that I didn’t want to use any animation in this show, and wanted the wood slats to be out the entire show. I wanted to use the LED video wall as a traditional cyclorama, and To complement the simplicity and specificity of the lighting design, I came up with a design concept to ensure we were using them with intention, and not for pure eye candy.
The main character, Alice Murphy, had so much light in her life when she was young. It was full of color. After… the incident… her love for all things started to fade, and it was harder for her to find that color. By “At Long Last”, her colorful past finally reaches her present and feels complete again.
To support this design concept, I decided that any time we were in the past, the proscenium LED screen would feature color, the wooden slats would be lit (sometimes with color), and the LED backdrop wall would also feature color. Anytime we were in the present, the video wall would lose all color and become black. This helped remove a lot of depth on the stage and really showed a difference subconsciously to anyone watching. Only when her character arc is completed would the video wall light back up during the present.
Live Music with Fern's Blackberry Jamboree!
I had the honor of playing piano in the live bluegrass band we had for the show. This was a bucket list experience, and I had a beautiful time playing music with some of my favorite people each night. We had five members of our band named “Fern’s Blackberry Jamboree”.
Since we were a reduced combo, we played to backing tracks which had each of our instruments removed. The companies that create and license these tracks take copyright very seriously, so receiving actual audio files is usually not possible. Through a long process and collaboration between myself and Right On Cue Services, we were able to create new versions of the tracks that contained only the musical instruments not present within our reduced combo on stage.
The Playmill’s production of Bright Star will easily be remembered by many patrons as their favorite show they’ve seen on this stage. And, after always finding new moments to cry myself during each night's performances, I wouldn’t blame them.
Promotional Video
We filmed a promotional video for the production early on in the season when we only had a handful of the show created. Abram Rice was the wonderful man behind the camera, and I edited the footage. It isn’t too often we had the opportunity to film a trailer for a Playmill production, so I’m very grateful this short little teaser exists!