PRG Virtuoso brings light to Sunday in the Park With George
May 8, 2008
New Windsor, NY — The Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway production of Sunday in the Park with George, the award winning transfer from London, by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is a musical celebration of life, love, art, and the spirit of creation. The Pulitzer Prize-winning love story takes inspiration from painter Georges Seurat’s masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” bringing the painting’s colorful setting and characters to vibrant life. This production doesn’t just explore creativity in the story but takes a visibly unique design approach to the scenery and lighting.
This technically innovative production makes extensive use of projections and LED screens, so precise control of the lighting was of paramount importance to lighting designer Ken Billington when he joined the creative team for the Broadway production. “The show is all projection; it is a beige box with a brown wood floor and all the scenery is projected. My design approach was to compliment the projection while avoiding having to go too dark. Luckily, the projectors were strong so I didn’t have to keep dropping the lighting levels for the imagery to be seen. I found it was great fun to light and I am very happy with how the show turned out.”
The lighting was supplied by Production Resource Group (PRG) and Billington chose to use the PRG Virtuoso® console, “The choice of the Virtuoso was very simple, really a no-brainer,” says Billington. “The whole show is being done with shutters; there are no irises; it is all VL3500Q and VL1000Arc fixtures. The Virtuoso deals with shutters better than anything I have seen. There was a lot of precise focusing for this show.” David Arch, the Virtuoso programmer for the production, felt it was a great choice. “We never wanted it to seem like there was a distinction between the lighting and the projection; rather that they really blended together. The moving light rig was 99% shuttered units and the Virtuoso handled things very well. I have not worked on a show that went to that much effort to seamlessly blend the lighting and projection.”
Arch programmed Sunday in the Park using the new v6.0 Virtuoso software. “I got to really play with it and I like it a lot.” Arch feels the Virtuoso works well for Broadway. “The Virtuoso is one of the best consoles on the market for clearly displaying data. The new Cue Data window quickly shows me what I need to know; being able to work quickly in Blind; to look at information and edit it. I think that the Virtuoso is very good at that.”
“The Virtuoso worked perfectly. It is a really good console and with a programmer like David Arch it can be terrific. It was effortless,” says Billington.
Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Sunday in the Park with George runs through June 29th at the Studio 54 theatre in New York City.
For more information on PRG, please visit www.prg.com.
About Production Resource Group—Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) is the world’s leading supplier of entertainment technology solutions, including lighting, audio, projection, scenery, and automation systems. PRG serves a wide range of markets, including theatre, concert tours, tradeshows, corporate and special events, television and film, and themed environments. PRG provides its services worldwide through more than 17 offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.
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