We think visual storytelling involves every element, including all of the available technologies from projection, to video to digital images; it's a critical part of our work as seen in The Academy Awards, The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, and lots of event design. We have worked with some great artists: Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, and Robin Silvestri. Lucky Guy takes place in New York City during the 1980s and 90s, so we wanted to recreate a grittier version of the city. We installed LED panels on the entire rear wall of the set and projected video and graphics that suggest the feel of an earlier New York. The projected images also create distinct visual rhythms in the transitions from scene to scene.
(Read more about Robin Silvestri's projection design here.)
The play opens in an Irish bar. As a group of reporters begin to tell Mike McAlary’s story, the walls of the space drift away, leaving only the bar itself adrift in a sea of newsroom desks, all floating in a black void. The desks and bar are always present onstage as every scene is played out within the smoke-filled world of the tabloid journalist.
The primary defining element of the space is the hovering grid of the newsroom ceiling. Designed in stark perspective, the ceiling compresses the space and serves as well as a projection surface for images that become a touchstone for many of the scenes. Pivoting down and forward, the ceiling piece is able to dynamically compress the space in yet another dimension, while also serving as an unexpected projected backdrop for some crucial scenes.
See more of Rockwell's set models here.