TCI articles from April 1993

TCI archives from April 1993

Troubleshooting and Repairing Electronic Music Synthesizers.
April 1, 1993... While the title of this manual may bring back memories that send some sound designers and maintenance technicians into screaming fits, Troubleshooting and Repairing Electronic Music Synthesizers is an excellent reference for any person who...

The Stage Management Handbook.
April 1, 1993... "Handbook" is an apt description for this work. Ionazzi presents a spare description of the stage manager's responsibilities and ways these responsibilities may be met. The fortunate result of his austerity is that the book is a quick...

Roofed Theaters of Classical Antiquity.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Here is something you rarely read about: ancient Greek and Roman theatres that had roofs! Izenour argues that the Ancients must have had roofs for several reasons. The Greeks and Romans were much too sensible to let the orchestras of their...

They'll never be hungry again. (costuming 'Sommersby')
April 1, 1993... According to costume designer Marilyn Vance-Straker, a decision was made early on in production that the Reconstruction-era romantic drama Sommersby was not going to be Gone With the Wind. Loosely adapted from the French film The Return of...

Close quarters. (lighting design for 'Simpatico')
April 1, 1993... When Pat Dignan was hired to design the lighting for Otrabanda Company's Simpatico, which ran in late January at Downtown Art Co. in New York, she had more information on the set than on the text. Designed by Michael Fajans, the set was a...

Arbor days. (scenic design for 'The Redwood Curtain')
April 1, 1993... John Lee Beatty, the award-winning scenic designer of Lanford Wilson's new play The Redwood Curtain, knows how to separate the forest from the tress. It's a good thing, too, because designing Wilson's latest play, which spends much of its...

Deshima. (theatrical lighting design)
April 1, 1993... Ping Chong's Deshima, which recently made its American premiere at La MaMa's Annex Theatre, spanned 400 years of history, following Southeast Asian/European contact from a 16th-century meeting of a Dutch businessman and Japanese Shogun to the...

A movable beast. (design of Sydney Dance Company's 'Beauty and the Beast')
April 1, 1993... Ever since designer Kristian Fredrikson and choreographer Graeme Murphy collaborated in the 1970s on Poppy, a full-length work based on Jean Cocteau, a production of Beauty and the Beast has hovered in the wings. Both are devoted to Cocteau...

Phantom travels by bus and truck. ('Phantom of the Opera' road show)
April 1, 1993... The Phantom of the Opera closed on March 6 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle and played a preview performance March 16 at the Portland Civic Auditorium. That's a lot of show to move in ten days; however the bus and truck tour has been...

Scientific/technical Oscars announced.
April 1, 1993... Even though the winners of this year's Academy Awards remain shrouded in mystery, the 1992 scientific and technical awards have already been announced. These are given for devices, methods, formulas, discoveries, or inventions of special and...

The Altstar Starbeam. (stage lighting equipment) (Evaluation)
April 1, 1993... Quality and price have been the two pillars supporting the reputation of Altman Stage Lighting. The new Starbeam spot and wash automated luminaires add another pillar: innovation. Built by Altman's subsidiary the Altstar Company,...

Western Costume. (services detailed)
April 1, 1993... Whether you're a high school drama teacher planning a production of The King and I, a designer at one of many regional theatre companies performing Our Country's Good, or a costume partygoer itching to don a white ermine cape copied from one...

Saltimbanco: Dominque Lemieux costumes Cirque du Soleil. (Cover Story)
April 1, 1993... Like almost everyone else involved in the production of Cirque du Soleil's current tour, Saltimbanco, costume designer Dominque Lemieux began her designs with little more than a vague notion of what the final result would actually look like....

The Cerritos Center. (performing arts center design)
April 1, 1993... One might wonder why a city located only 30 minutes drive from the cultural megalopolis of Los Angeles would feel the need for a performing arts center. For the city of Cerritos, population 60,000, the new Cerritos Center for the Performing...

John Gleason: a brilliant career in theatre, opera, and education. (lighting designer) (includes designology)
April 1, 1993... A look at John Gleason's resume is enough to induce vertigo in the average individual. Since the mid-1960s, he has racked up a staggering amount of experience designing lighting for Broadway, Off Broadway, regional theatres, dance, and...

Two by Crowley: Bob Crowley redefines two classics in London. (production designs for 'Carousel' and 'Hamlet')
April 1, 1993... The man of the moment in British theatre design is Bob Crowley, who is responsible for two current hits: Carousel at the Royal National Theatre and Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Barbican Theatre. Rodgers and Hammerstein fans...

Anthony Ward: a young British designer scores a smash with Assassins.
April 1, 1993... In a bit of irony, the British prodution of the Stephen Sodheim musical Assassins, a revue about John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, and several of their lethal colleagues, opened in London the week of the 1992 Presidential elections....

Updating your sound system. (theater sound systems) (part 2)
April 1, 1993... Last month in Part I of this article, TCI began the arduous task of discussing the elements in the audio chain that should be considered when updating an older sound system. Since spring budget meetings have a way of creeping up on people,...

The travel syndrome. (travel between local theaters)
April 1, 1993... Here's the dream: You want to be a theatre designer. You go to school and get your degree. You work in summer stock. You come to New York and do the usual things--get a job, work as an assistant, design your own Off Off Broadway shows....

Fundido. (theatrical technical services company)
April 1, 1993... "Fundido" is the Spanish term for "crossfade; it also describes a lamp that has blown. With this double entendre in mind, it was chosen as the name for an elite group of Valencia-based theatre technicians which, in seven years of existence,...

Ain't Broadway Grand. (musical based on the life of Michael Todd)
April 1, 1993... The above is a not a question but the title of a new Broadway musical set to open in April, based on the life of Michael Todd. Perhaps best known as the producer of the movie Around the World in 80 Days and one of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands,...