TCI articles from March 1996

TCI archives from March 1996

A Canadian Nutcracker. (revamp of production by the Natl Ballet of Canada)
March 1, 1996... The concept of a new Nutcracker seemed like sacrilege when first suggested by the National Ballet of Canada's artistic director Reid Anderson. The Toronto-based company had worn its 1964 production like an old slipper for over 30 years, and was...

Hail Caesar. (new addition to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV)
March 1, 1996... Just when you thought you'd seen it all, ITT is ready to take you into the realm of Caesars Magical Empire, a new addition to Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. Already a major tourist attraction with Roman fountains and torches leading the...

Lighting denial. (set design for Peter Sagal's play 'Denial')
March 1, 1996... Does a person who denies the Holocaust ever happened and who claims that Jews are using the story of the Holocaust manipulate society, have the right under the First Amendment to promulgate his views? Peter Sagal's new play Denial asks this...

Snowed in at ShowBiz Expo NY. (ShowBiz Production Expo New York Jan 5-7, 1996)
March 1, 1996... Show business surrendered centerstage to snow business at ShowBiz Production Expo New York, as the Blizzard of 1996 blew into Manhattan the weekend of January 5-7. Inclement weather disrupted the final day especially; still, the ShowBiz must go...

Performance Summit 1996. (January 11-14)
March 1, 1996... Escaping the Blizzard of 96 and other inclement situations, concert touring professionals flocked to the lovely Hyatt Regency La Jolla, just north of San Diego, for the 16th annual Performance Summit 96, January 11-14. This year Performance...

Jordan Hall revived. (Boston, MA)
March 1, 1996... Since its debut in 1903, Jordan Hall has been at the center of musical performance in Boston, offering 450 free concerts annually and serving as the teaching home of the New England Conservatory of Music. Registered as a National Historic...

Livent to renovate 42nd St. theatres. (Livent Realty's plans for theaters in Manhattan, NY)
March 1, 1996... With the paint barely dry in the recently renovated New Victory Theatre on 42nd Street in Manhattan, plans to transform two venues next door are barreling along. In January, Garth Drabinsky, chairman and CEO of Toronto-based Livent Inc.,...

BAM's next wave. (1995 Next Wave Festival of the Brooklyn Academy of Music)
March 1, 1996... Stylized design created a leitmotif for the 1995 Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where a recent crop of productions packed great visual impact. From Robert Wilson's visual puns in Alice to Cheek by Jowl's icy environments...

BRC's expanding vision. (BRC Imagination Arts)
March 1, 1996... From deep space to the deep sea, BRC Imagination Arts has taken audiences worldwide to places they have never experienced. Paging through their company brochure, the first quotation highlighted is Jung's "Proceed from the dream outward"--an apt...

Opera Company of Philadelphia.
March 1, 1996... The Opera Company of Philadelphia was nearly $750,000 in debt in 1990, and labor costs were a large and growing part of the operating expenses of the company. Robert B. Driver was brought in as the new general director, with the charge to bring...

Showscan in motion. (Showscan Entertainment Inc.)
March 1, 1996... Showscan's movies are a profoundly moving experience -- "moving" as in up and down, side to side and back and forth. Showscan Entertainment Inc.'s eye-catching film format, coupled with the motion-based simulation equipment it installs and...

TCI light products of the year. (eight lighting products for theater and other entertainment applications)
March 1, 1996... See anything exciting on the show floor?"is probably the question I am most often asked at LDI. The following products are ones that have caught my eye. This year, we've also invited two members of the industry to help us make our product...

'12 Monkeys': Jeffrey Beecroft builds a maze through time for Terry Gilliam's bizarre new film. (production design)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1996... Director Terry Gilliam has made a series of films that have been acclaimed for their singular vision and inventively convoluted design. Following his major splash in 1985 with the dystopian vision of Brazil, Gilliam produced The Adventures of...

Linda Buchanan: a Chicago-based designer achieves national recognition.
March 1, 1996... Perhaps you remember the perfect spareness of Linda Buchanan's set design for Scott McPherson's dark comedy Marvin's Room, which traveled the world after a run at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Or maybe you saw her breathtaking work on the musical...

'Cosi': Kennedy and Schofield create opera in a madhouse. (production designer Chris Kennedy and costume designer Tess Schofield)
March 1, 1996... If the inmates of a mental institution staged a production of Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte, and designed it themselves, what on earth would it look like? Quite likely, a sorry mess--but not in the new Australian film Cosi. Here, the opera...

'Restoration.' (art direction for the movie)
March 1, 1996... One of the most highly touted aspects of the Miramax film Restoration is its cost -- specifically, that its lavish settings amidst the 17th-century English court of restored King Charles II, not to mention evocations of the Plague and Great...

Behind the Curtain.
March 1, 1996... Before Disney's dancing dinnerware, before the reign of King CAD, perspective painting on canvas was the source of scenic magic. Pulleys and ropes powered transformations. And cut-drops and scrims, not projections, created illusions of space....

The Strand 430/530/630/650 consoles. (lighting consoles)(Evaluation)
March 1, 1996... I wasn't impressed when Strand introduced its hardware/software marketing concept with the GSX and LBX lighting consoles. I didn't see much advantage to buying two items -- hardware plus software -- when the cost was about the same as buying a...

Associate design. (associate designers Campell Baird, Dawn Chiang, Dana Kenn, Michael Lincoln, Ted Mather, and Mark Nayden)(Panel Discussion)
March 1, 1996... In recent years, the explosive growth of the international theatre circuit combined with the increasing technical complexity of contemporary productions created a whole new category of designers. The demand for experienced designers, who can...

The rise of Ethernet. (use in modern lighting systems)
March 1, 1996... It's deja vu all over again. Back in the 1980s, lighting companies moved away from wire-per-channel analog control and embraced various forms of multiplexed communications protocols to carry the large amounts of data needed by dimmerper-circuit...

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.
March 1, 1996... The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, new edition of The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre, first published in 1988, and of the paperback edition published in 1492, by Martin Banham. Cambridge: University Press, 1995. 1,233 pp., illustrated. Hardback,...

Handbook of Scenery, Properties, and Lighting, Second Edition.
March 1, 1996... Handbook of Scenery, Properties, and Lighting, second edition, by Harvey Sweet. Needham Heights, MA: Longwood Division, Allyn and Bacon, 1995. Volume One: Scenery end Props, 269 pp., ISBN 0-205-14878-6. Volume Two: Lighting, 227 pp., ISBN...

Variety International Film Guide 1996.
March 1, 1996... Variety International Film Guide 1996. Edited by Peter Cowie. Published in the United States by Focal Press, Boston, 1995.-448pp. Paperback. ISBN 0-24080253-5. $18.95. The International Film Guide the show biz bible puts out annually is, as...

Projection for the Performing Arts.
March 1, 1996... Projection for the Performing Arts, by Graham Walne. Oxford: Focal Press (an imprint of Butterworth Heinemann, Ltd.), 1995. ISBN 0-240-51390-8. $43.00. There are many books on stage lighting, but few on projections. Graham Walne's new...

New Theatre Words, First Edition.(Brief Article)
March 1, 1996... New Theatre Words, first edition. Copyright 1995. Distributed in the US by USITT. $21 for USITT members, $27 for nonmembers. 186+ pages. New Theatre Words is an illustrated vocabulary with 11,207 English, French, German, Swedish, Spanish,...