Scenic designer Ken Foy talks about the new revival of A Little Night Music, which opens at the Houston Grand Opera on January 29:
"We're using the Multimedia Modular Stage [designed by Foy for outdoor productions; see TCI November 98]; I've always thought of it as an opera house concept. We've extended the center platform. The Plexiglas and steel are covered with shiny black linoleum. We've taken the upstage towers out and added some proscenium work. In the MMS, there are three major projection screens, but here we've done a circular cyc, for six Pani projectors.
"The visual concept for the slide images is taken from Monet's paintings. We're doing it because he was so involved with time of day and color of light--you'll see different locations in morning, afternoon, and evening light, through changing projections. We'll also do a lot of abstract, interior effects. Any moment featuring Anne, the ingenue, will feature abstracts of lace; anything featuring the Countess Armfeldt will feature flowers standing at attention. Since the lead, Desiree, is an actress, we'll show posters of her vehicles. Right now, we're talking about 120 or so images; we'll edit as required. It's not going to be a slide show. We're going to try a couple of effects with a Barco projector, also--such as a car traveling across the screen."