Lighting designer Jamie Roderick first became involved in Emojiland over five years ago. Recent collaborators Keith Harrison and Laura Schein, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, reached out to Roderick after finishing the first draft of the musical. "They were going to do a small concert in LA debuting some of the songs and were hoping I could potentially contribute lighting-wise," says Roderick. "It didn’t make sense for me to join that concert. But we stayed in touch about the piece as it developed, with them sending me recordings of new songs and readings for me to offer some feedback about what lighting could add. As the show grew, so did my involvement in joining them for public readings, and eventually, the workshop at the 2018 New York Musical Festival (NYMF)."
A Grand Jury Selection of NYMF, the production's creative team expanded to include scenic designer David Goldstein, projection designer Lisa Renkel and Possible Productions, sound designer Kenneth Goodwin, costume designer Vanessa Leuck, choreographer Kenny Ingram, and wig designer Bobbie Zlotnik. Emojiland took up residence Off-Broadway at The Duke On 42nd Street February 1 through March 19, only to close on March 11 under the direction of the Broadway League and Governor Andrew Cuomo, in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Read about Emojiland's scenic design and sound design here.
"The over-theme for the design of the show is our existence in a world of pixels," explains Roderick. "These 'pixels' come alive or change via light, video, or even a performer’s manipulation of a single pixel. We see these 'pixels' morph to create the different environments in Emojiland or take on additional characteristics as the world itself changes over the course of the show and becomes infected with a virus."
While crafting the pixelated world of Emojiland, the creative team found inspiration in abstract and digital representations of landscapes. "This research sent David down the path of creating the perfect structure that could be the canvas for lighting and video while also being a jungle gym for our characters to come to life on and within," says Roderick. "It culminated into a series of boxes as our low-res framework of 'pixels' that can explode into our high-res world of lights, videos, and larger-than-life characters."
The lighting design brought the 2D digital world of Emojiland to life in 3D, reflecting and refracting with different colors representative of various characters. "The lighting provides vivid, kaleidoscopic colorations to create the different spaces of Emojiland. Most of my color choices were based on the individual characters, often using Vanessa Leuck’s costumes as a foundation. I used yellow around the face emojis like Smize, Sunny, Nerdface, and others. But then I would often transition to help support the narrative. For example, turning to blue to help support Smize’s internal monologue. For Princess, I used a stereotypical pink; and for Prince, blue was used, but always in tones just off from a very royal purple that would also emanate in the castle, reinforcing the narrative involving a royal ruling class in Emojiland," says the lighting designer. The color choices also needed to be deeply connected to the video content. "To create the different locations and atmospheres in which our characters find themselves, I would often parrot the colors in Lisa and Possible Productions’ video content with the lights built into the set creating a unified world and design."
At the core of the show was the music and its pop rock orchestrations. "Much of the lighting aesthetic is to support the music and its own aesthetic," explains Roderick. "I use light as a way of highlighting the musical arrangements, helping to bring the songs to life, and connecting what you see to what you feel, further electrifying all of our audience’s senses." The designer utilized this tactic in the opening number where the Skull emoji is introduced. "He appears in a single, lime green down light. He begins to cross down stage, and as the music begins to grow, the lime green follows him, and our light boxes in the set flash to lime green to the rhythm of four specific drum hits, culminating in a final symbol crash on the next down beat that brings that same lime green lighting to all of the boxes on the stage deck. Next, as the ensemble joins both he on stage physically, and musically with their backing vocals, they are consumed by the same color. Finally, in a flash, Skull has disappeared, and the toxic color is nowhere on stage, with the rest of our cast as the focus. I love this moment for how it behaves with the musical arrangement, but even more so because as we introduce the character of Skull, we are also introducing a color specifically foreshadowing Skull’s release of the toxic green virus through Emojiland during our Act One finale."
The lighting system, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment, included High End SolaFrame 1000 units as the workhorses over the stage to create strong backlight effects or act as traditional side light and backlight to build the world. "Clustered overhead were Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Washes that created fan effects reminiscent of ACLs in 1980s concerts but able to move and change color in an instant, helping ignite our digital world," comments the LD. ETC ColorSource Spots were scattered across the set. "They were used often to make it feel like light was pouring out a pathway that was in 2D in the video content. By matching to the video content color, we are able to pull it into 3D and emphasize these pathways and the vastness of the world of Emojiland. We have two ColorSource Spots as our traditional followspots and three with Rosco iCues as roving specials."
An important element of both the lighting and scenic design were the LED-illuminated cubes, each with a 12'' Chroma-Q ColorForce II inside. "We also use the control of each cell to create effects, either in support of the musicality of the show or as a major storytelling element, helping show that our world has been infected with a virus for much of Act Two," explains Roderick. "The light boxes that are manipulated by actors are filled with 16' of LED tape powered by batteries and controlled via DMX wirelessly." Roderick programmed the pre-production lighting, setting up the show file to work off of a completed cue stack, with the mass majority of cues in the desk as placeholders. Once in the theatre, Trevor Dewey programmed the show on an ETC GIO @5 console, responding to Roderick's creative direction, while also communicating with assistant lighting designer Lizzie Mahoney, who took the lead on followspot tracking, which were cued into the console.
Provided by DNR Laboratories, two Goldenstar Standard 15w RGB laser scanners created aerial effects over the actors and audience, while two Goldenstar Standard 15w and one Kvant Clubmax 5w RGB lasers scanners created effects on the stage deck. "Through most the show, we use the lasers sparingly and woven into the fabric of the rest of the lighting, but in 'Firewall Ball,' the opening number to Act Two, we are able to just let go and use them like club lasers, since the number itself takes place at a rave-like party in Emojiland, and even incorporates a dubstep dance break," notes the LD. Xavier Boyer programmed the custom laser effects via Pangolin BEYOND and created the cueing structure controlled by the lighting console. "The lighting console also did some additional manipulation of the laser cues, which is supported via Art-Net from the Gio @5 to BEYOND."
"After over five years of this musical being close to my heart, it’s a dream come true to have it come to life and in such a fantastic way," concludes Roderick. "I’m so incredibly thankful to my team and the support we received from everyone on the production. I also would also like to thank Patrick Murphy at ILDA (International Laser Display Association) and Mike Kondrat for their commitment to laser safety and for their support in helping to us succeed with using lasers as an additional layer of lighting within a musical."
Lighting Crew
- Lighting Design: Jamie Roderick
- Assistant Lighting Design: Lizzie Mahoney
- Lighting Programmer: Trevor Dewey
- Laser Programmer and Assistant: Xavier Boyer
- Light Board Op: Drew Mercadante
- Production Electricians: John Anselmo & Dan Mullins
- Assistant Production Electricians: Patrick Tennant & Melissa Shippers
- Spot Ops: Sam Eisner & Olivier Matheny-Plamondon
- Lighting equipment provided by: Al Ridella at 4Wall Entertainment
- Lasers provided by: Don Gamsjager at DNR Laboratories