Live Design's fifth annual 31 Days Of Plots features one production per day during the month of December 2022, highlighting a different lighting design, from across theatre, concert tours, corporate events, live for broadcast, and more, as we wind down 2022 and head toward the new year.
It's Throwback Thrusday for 31 Days Of Plots with an innovation adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which premiered last year at The Legacy Theatre in Stony Creek, CT. With lighting and scenic design by Jamie Burnett, this production is back for year two in what is planned to be an annual event. This year it runs through December 11, 2022.
"Besides designing the sets and lights for all of the shows this season I also was the technical consultant and designer and installer of the lighting and rigging systems for the theater through my company Luminous Environments. Sound system designed by ACME Pro. We were able to specify and install state of the art systems in this compact intimate theater," says Burnett. "I embellished a few things this year as I had more time to work on the light cues."
Gear included:
11- 28’ ETC FlyPipe
6- Rope 2-line Line Sets
2-Full-stage Traveler tracks
2-Full-stage Leg Tracks
1-Main
1-Tech Balcony Pin Rail
And a complete new ETC LED lighting system:
1 ON XE console
1 48 Circuit IQ Rack
1 24 Circuit IQ Rack
1 DR6 Rack
4 Stage electrics equipped with loaded ColorSource raceways
1 Pin rail gallery ColorSource raceway
2 16’ The lLght Source Mega Battens for FOH
4 2-circuit stage boxes with ETC single port nodes.
Lighting and effects include:
26 ETC Series 2 Source Four LED
16- ColorSource Spots
34 ColorSource Spot Jrs
15 ColorSource Pars
6-Colorsource Cyc
6 ETC Releve moving lights
1 CITC FX Blizzard Snow Machine
Burnett notes: "A Christmas Carol was able to utilize the entire rep plot with a few additional items. The rep plot is able to handle every production with minor changes from show to show as almost every hanging position is occupied with lights. The set design concept for me was to create an environment that could suggest various locations with few scene changes. These could be accomplished without blackouts and not constrict the flow of the production. Every moment was choreographed. I wanted to give a feeling that the set continued way beyond the bounds of the proscenium and the wings making it look much bigger than it was with only a 16’6” Proscenium. The lighting could isolate or open up depending on the scene. Space was so tight we redesigned a 4 poster bed to be 2’8” wide and on the upper platform. It was positioned parallel to the back wall so the audience could not discern its true depth Side lighting allowed me to isolate layers of the stage to create greater depth throughout . Small Vignette scenes were brought out under the platform on a 6’ x 9’ wagon. Scenes such as Cratchit’s home and Scrooge and Marley’s office rolled DS from there as the store front flew out from in front on a rope lineset. With lighting directing ones attention to the Ghost and Scrooge these scene shifts could be accomplished quickly and fluidly. I wanted to keep the Christmas past and present scenes in a sort of ghostly dreamworld around the edges and the earlier present day scenes in a starker grittier look."
The Legacy Theatre was once the Stony Creek Puppet House built in the 1920s. It had a storied history from being a silent movie theater, a live stage theater a tryout theater for Orsen Wells and a Ladies Corset factory to name a few things. All detailed information about the theater and its history can be found at legacytheatrect.org.