Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew has a background in unconventional design. While she is experienced in traditional theatrical design, Yew particularly enjoys doing what she calls “weird work,” often with site specific or immersive productions. This affinity for the unorthodox made her the ideal production and lighting designer for The Industry’s recent opera, Sweet Land, where audience members were separated into different story tracks across L.A. State Historic Park.
From the beginning of the development of Sweet Land, directed by Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon, the objective was to explore the different voices of America. Yew worked with the creative team, including scenic designers Tanya Orellana and Carlo Maghirang, projection designer Hana S. Kim, and sound designer Jody Elff, to narrow the theme, ultimately focusing on colonialism and how the history of the land as well as the history of the peoples tied to the land were rewritten. Read about the scenic designs and projection designs.
“In the production designer role, I am involved in discussing how we can best use the site to meet our ideas,” explains Yew. “Carlo and Tanya each took a certain section of the script and came up with a vision. As the lighting designer, I take those visions and then think about how the lighting will function to create the storytelling behind the piece.”
The production featured layers of storytelling hidden within two tracks, and not one audience member should witness both, unless they were to return another night to experience the remaining story. The 200 audience members were first assembled in a black box theatre to experience the prologue. “The idea behind it is meant to sort of re-familiarize the audience with the form of opera and its spectatorship where you watch this story unfold. In that aspect, we’re really interested in using projections, as a layering onto the bodies and storytelling so the lighting becomes an idea of illuminating bodies in conversation with projection,” notes the lighting designer.
Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910s acted as the workhorse lighting fixtures in the Black Box Theatre, where actors performed behind the projection scrim. “I can shutter it off the scrim and still be able to light the people from the side really effectively,” notes the LD. Since there was no roof over the structure, SGM Q7 RGBW Flood fixtures were positioned under the audience risers—built specifically for the show—to act as house lights, illuminating the architecture and providing safety for guests.
After the prologue, the audience then split into two paths: one that led to the Feast, a reimagining of Thanksgiving, and another that led to the Train, representing the building of the railroad and the notion of progress.
The first Feast embodied a very organic feel. Eight hundred battery-operated flickering candles lit the space with a natural glow. Since the structure had no roof, the lighting needs had to be minimal. “We take advantage of the architecture, which uses a lot of bare wood and has a warmth to it,” describes Yew. “The lighting added to it, creating a warm and comfortable environment.” Chauvet Professional COLORado Panel Q40s and COLORado 2 SOLO Quad Zooms illuminated the architecture and bounced off the wood to create more environment.
In contrast, the Train scene was much darker. To match the rhythm of the music, Maghirang’s moving panels representing the train windows allowed for limited illumination. “We get illuminated in a different section depending on when and where the panel opens,” says Yew. “The quality of the lighting is much harsher, much colder, and much more aggressive, much like the the work of building a railroad.”
While the audience reunited at the Crossroads for a watery projection performance, Feast and Train were set for their final scenes in which the history of the previous scene was erased. “The Feast becomes a wedding,” says Yew, of the now completely white room. “I’m still using the architecture, but now using the architecture in a much more rigid and geometrical way,” she explains. Over 400' of RGB 12V Flex Neon lights lined the straight-edged architecture, creating an orderly, institutional, and sterile feel in contrast to the warm, organic candlelight.
Meanwhile, the Train became “a blind celebration of the success of the railroad and progress. There's a spotlight that constantly moves around, and there is a sense of farce to it,” remarks Yew. Chauvet Professional COLORado 3 SOLO fixtures illuminated each of the 12 openings in the train, while Elation Professional Proteus Hybrid fixtures acted as the moving lights. “The spotlight kept running to its own rhythm and created this really Vaudevillian vibe and worked really well with the music.”
Yew programmed the lighting on an ETC Ion console. Since the production could not have a lighting console for each of the three performance spaces across the park, the Ion console was located in a separate building, unrelated to any performance space. “For the programming, we dropped a DMX line so that each building could run its own system as if it were a localized lightboard,” explains Yew. “Then I used the ETCnomad software and ETCnomad Dongle to run that system while programming one space at a time. So the programming was done mainly on the laptop level, and then I combined them all and assigned different CueStacks to the main Ion board, which ultimately ran the show, allowing us to have one operator run three spaces simultaneously.”
Chauvet Professional offered the production various lighting fixtures, while 4Wall LA provided additional rental lighting equipment. “I really want to acknowledge Chauvet Professional as they have given us huge support by offering fixtures for demo,” praises Yew. “4Wall has also been very generous and was very patient in helping us meet our budget and cut costs. A sincere special thanks to DeAnna Padgett, national sales manager at Chauvet Professional, and David Ewing, account executive with 4Wall Entertainment in LA.”
Sweet Land was a huge risk, and therefore, a huge success, concludes Yew: “I think what was really amazing about this whole production is that everyone was willing to take really big risks. I think in the age that we are in now, there are many elements that make artists less and less willing to take risk. This opera is an example that is very excitingly the opposite of that. I think every single one of us were willing to take the risk that we felt like it needed to tell the story, and it is not an easy story to tell. It is a really difficult story. It asks all of us to look inwards, look at ourselves and our role in this country and our role to the people, to the land, and to our society. The subject matter is already risk-taking, and then on top of it, we decided to do it in a park with no infrastructure and limited resources. I just really admire the risk-taking aspect that we all embraced for Sweet Land.”
Lighting Equipment Supplied by Chauvet Professional:
- Chauvet Professional OVATION E-910 with 19° Lens (workhorse for Black Box with projection)
- Chauvet Professional COLORado Panel Q40 (workhorse in Feast for performance and architecture)
- Chauvet Professional COLORado 3 SOLO (workhorse in Train)
Lighting Equipment Rented from 4Wall:
- Elation Professional Proteus Hybrid (workhorse for Train)
- Chauvet Professional COLORado 2 SOLO Quad Zoom (Black Box and Feast)
- SGM Q7 RGBW Flood (bone yard - final scene and architecture for Black Box)
Other Gear:
- 800 battery operated flickering candles (Feast)
- 416 feet of RGB 12V Flex Neon (Feast)
- Small fiber optic sources
- Small Outdoor RGB led panels
The Industry’s Sweet Land is available online. Order the video streaming version of Sweet Land at stream.sweetlandopera.com.