Live Design's fourth annual 31 Days Of Plots features one production per day during the month of December 2021, highlighting a different lighting design, from across theatre, concert tours, corporate events, live for broadcast, and more, as we wind down 2021 and head toward the new year.
Day 15 of 31 Days Of Plots 2021 revisits the light plot by Cory Pattak for A Wonderful World, which was produced by Miami New Drama, right before the Covid-19 lockdown, closing on its opening night on March 13, 2020. It s the biggest show they had ever produced and only their second musical. "With over 50 scenes, it required a plot that was as flexible as possible as the show spans Louis Armstrong’s life and career as told through the eyes of his four wives," explains Pattak. "The show bounces around from New Orleans to Chicago to Hollywood and New York."
Featured in last year's 31 Days Of Plots: A Wonderful World, we are revisiting A Wonderful World again this year as the show re-opened at Miami New Drama on December 4, 2021 and runs thru January 16, 2022, as the world premiere of this musical about jazz legend and singular American icon Louis Armstrong,
"This was an experience quite unlike anything I’ve ever done before," says Pattak. "We made it to opening night in March of 2020, but no further than that. The set has been sitting on stage since then, but all of the rental lighting equipment had been sent back and the house gear had been re-purposed for other things since then. I’ve never remounted a show in the exact same space with the exact same set. It provided the kind of gift you only dream of, the opportunity to get rid of everything that didn’t work, and add all those things you wish you could’ve added the first go round."
The biggest change for the LD was swapping out the follow spots from ETC Source Four 10 degrees, to Martin Mac Encores running in Follow Spot mode (there is no space for traditional followspots in the Colony Theatre, which features raked stadium seating). "I felt foolish last year thinking that Source Fours would have been bright enough to cut through the amount of lumens on stage. I was thrilled with how the Encores looked and it actually made the entire show better. The director remarked to me that everything felt more “romantic” this year and it took me a couple days to realize that he was subconsciously reacting to the followspots. Because the faces were popping more, you could see the emotions clearer, and it meant the story was coming through better," notes Pattak.
"I really enjoyed the tech process where we weren’t’ starting from scratch, and essentially I was able to spend the whole time refining, which was really lovely," Pattak concludes. "We did create a new finale this year involving over 400 LED stars embedded in the set which allowed for a much grander ender when Louis and the cast sing the title song."
Gear List: (combination of house gear and rentals from Christie Lites; Robe Patts from Zenith Lighting):
1 ETC ION Lighting Console
4 Martin MAC Encore Performance CLD
2 Martin MAC Encore Performance CLD (as Follow Spots)
3 Martin MAC Quantum Wash
12 Martin MAC Quantum Profile
3 High End Systems Solaframe 750
1 ETC Source Four 10 @ 750w
31 ETC Source Four 19 @ 750w
48 ETC Source Four 26 @ 750w
50 ETC Source Four 36 @ 750w
8 ETC Source Four 50 @ 750w
10 ETC Source Four 25°-50° Zoom @ 750w
27 ETC Source Four PARnel @ 750w
1 PAR64 VNSP @ 1000w
3 PAR64 MFL @ 1000w
7 ProLights Eclipse FS LED Leko 19
13 ProLights Eclipse FS LED Leko 26
2 Elation Sixpar 200
13 Chauvet Professional COLORado 2 Quad Zoom
5 Chroma-Q Color Force I 12
10 Chauvet Professional COLORado Batten 72
4 L&E 6’ MR16 Ministrip @ 75w
3 4’-6” 6-cell 3-circuit T3 Striplights @ 2000w
5 Robe Patt 2013
1 Unique 2.1 Hazer
To see more 31 Days Of Plots, click here