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Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s School of Drama utilised several MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles for lighting control and DisplayStations for designer stations on its latest production, Stephen Sondheim\u2019s iconic musical Company<\/em>, staged in the Philip Chosky Theater.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The CMU School of Drama produces a dozen or more shows annually, at least one of them a musical, which plays in the school\u2019s theatre and studio venues. Students comprise the vast majority of the production teams for School of Drama shows, with the lighting department entirely student staffed. This year\u2019s musical was Sondheim\u2019s groundbreaking 1970 show exploring modern relationships, marriage, and loneliness, Company<\/em>, staged in the Philip Chosky Theater, a traditional proscenium space which accommodates up to 450 patrons.<\/span><\/p>\n The CMU School of Drama owns a grandMA3 light and a grandMA3 onPC command wing for programming tasks as part of students\u2019 coursework. ACT Entertainment loaned the school a grandMA3 compact, which replaced the grandMA3 light for coursework so the latter console could move to the Chosky Theater, marking the first time the grandMA3 light was used on a production by the School of Drama.<\/span><\/p>\n Also on loan were a pair of ACT Entertainment\u2019s DisplayStations, hardware designed to make deploying grandMA3 front of house stations rapid and repeatable. Pre-configured and booting directly into grandMA3 onPC, DisplayStation enables users to define views on up to four screen outputs for stage technicians, designers, producers, video trucks and any collaborator who needs to be in lock step with the grandMA3 session.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lighting Manager Samuel Greco, who handled troubleshooting and backup for Lighting Designer Hailey Garza, found DisplayStation to be an efficient and effective tool. \u201cSince it was a single box with grandMA3 loaded on it, I wasn\u2019t spending time managing it to make everything work,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe literally pulled DisplayStation out of the box, pressed power and were on the network.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was very gracious of ACT to loan us the new DisplayStations, which put the lighting design team more in the centre of things and helped us get into the network faster,\u201d said Garza. \u201cWith this setup on the design table, one of my three assistants used her own DisplayStation and monitor to work independently at the end of the table, focused on setting spotlight cues and communicating adjustments to the programmer while accessing the network separately from my DisplayStation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When Garza was named the show\u2019s lighting designer last year, she began talking with Lighting Programmer Gemma Tait about what she envisioned Company<\/em> would look like. \u201cIn the professional world, the programmer and lighting designer are working more closely than before, almost like the programmer is part of the design team, and I wanted that here,\u201d said Garza. \u201cThe show was a final opportunity for those of us graduating to develop our skills on the grandMA3 and try something new. All of us are familiar with other consoles; I had used the grandMA3 before but not in a theatre context.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tait had used the platform in the concert world but \u201cusing it on a linear project was a useful and educational experience for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI appreciated the opportunity to utilise the grandMA3 light for \u2018Company,\u2019 and the DisplayStations really streamlined communication between the entire design team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tait recalls being introduced to the concept of the DisplayStation last year at LDI, and Garza notes that the school\u2019s faculty and \u201cvery strong alumni network\u201d facilitated acquiring the new devices from ACT. \u201cACT set up an email mail chain for us to use if we encountered any issues and was very responsive as we began the process of incorporating the DisplayStations into our lighting network and maintaining them throughout the process,\u201d Tait added.<\/span><\/p>\n Garza built her lighting rig from the school\u2019s extensive inventory supplemented by the loan of two fixtures. \u201cThere were about 300 fixtures, 35 of them moving lights,\u201d Greco reports. \u201cCompany<\/em> was comparable in scale to \u2018Titanic,\u2019 the musical we did last year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The show used four automated deck tracks driven by TAIT Navigator, two of them with wireless power and data. \u201cThey were moving platforms that allowed us to drive scenic elements back and forth on stage,\u201d explained Greco. \u201cWe also had two three-story towers that the actors could run up and down as staircases with windows and roller shades covered with lights; two of the towers were mapped by projectors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He was grateful to learn about the workflow of grandMA3 and DisplayStation for a production as ambitious as Company<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s such a good experience for us to have the opportunity to utilise systems different from what we\u2019re used to and learn their pros and cons as we go out into industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith the industry growing and changing so much, it\u2019s exciting to know the school supports us and gives us the resources to make us more marketable to the professional world and able to make a living doing what we love,\u201d Garza concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.<\/p>\n