Stage Directions: The Broadway musical Be More Chill ended its run this month after playing 30 previews and 177 regular shows at The Pershing Square Signature Center's Irene Diamond Stage and the Lyceum Theatre. The musical called for the projection team to illustrate the experiences of the main character after he swallows a pill-sized supercomputer and instructs him how to be more chill. 4Wall Entertainment provided Designer Alex Basco Koch and company with a complete projection package to map the entire set with video.
3 comments:
I have mixed feelings about these projections and Be More Chill in general. While I like to respect all theatre-makers' vision and opinions, I feel like everything about be more chill is somewhat surface level. They seems thought they are simply telling a story for theyr fandom audience that got them on Broadway. The mapping looks incredible, but I don't see how they are helping the show, or making the show impossible. My teachers in my media Stagecraft class said something really smart, that their job is making a show impossible without their videos and projections. I feel that Be More Chill did not achieve this. While the technology is fascinating and whoever designed the projections did an incredible job with the physical projections, there could've been much more done to truly advance the message of the musical, if there is one (again I haven't listened to or seen it). I think this article does make me respect the show more seeing how much thought and work was put into the projections.
It's always amazing to see how artists are being innovating and are using new technologies to tell the story. When I first saw the image I thought, whoa, that is a lot of one thing and not enough of another. But upon reading the article, it made sense. I think it's a rather clever idea and an interesting way of scenically conceptualizing swallowing a supercomputer. And whilst the intent is to overwhelm the audience, I was a bit hesitant because that is a lot, and I thought all of the bright moving lights may have taken away from the action onstage. So I looked at a quick clip from the show and I was happy to see that it doesn't. I can bet that there are many people who are not very fond of the use of projections here. But I think it is important and showcase new ways of doing things.
-Apriah
The beautiful immersion that one can experience whilst going to a live performance of a show in modern times is simply mind-blowing. Sure, one can go to an action packed, CGI-packed film and watch Dwayne Johnson become a scorpion king or something. However, in a live production, the amount of work that’s used to manipulate a set to turn it into another world is insane, and I admire the intensity of it.
The way I see it, each immersive experience as such is a mass-clash of collaboration between set designers, video designers, light designers, and sound designers (I only realized now that I mention nearly every type of designer). Productions with this quality of immersion, in short, is the Avengers or Justice League team up of theatre.
For a projection (that a video designer creates) to appear correctly on a set (that a set designer creates), the coloration must be correct so that light is not improperly absorbed/visible from the projectors. Then, the lights (light designers) on stage must match perfectly whatever projections may take place on stage at a given time, otherwise it could overrun the projector’s visuals. Then, finally, in order to efficiently make the scene immersive enough, the sound design must make the room sound as though the audience is existing in the realm which the show takes place, providing even the smallest digital effects or sounds to establish a mental sense of existence in this imaginary setting.
Overall, immersive productions such as Be More Chill, are the epitome of collaboration and teamwork, and though such an experience may look insane to an audience member, the amount of work behind that experience is often even more impressive.
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