onStage Pittsburgh: If your eyes glaze over when you see the title “production supervisor” in your theater program, here’s something that might make you wide-eyed instead:
It is a production supervisor’s attention to detail that may be responsible for every harmonious moment of interaction among lighting, sound, costumes, scenery, technical wizardry – you name it, it’s on their checklist before the curtain goes up.
13 comments:
This article was so great to read. Frozen is definitely one of those technical juggernauts that would be difficult to take on the road. It’s one of the most fascinating things about scenic design to me - the transfer to the tour. One of my favorite examples is in the 2006 Broadway production of Mary Poppins, where the Banks house was HUGE and had physical 3D rooms on both sides of the stage. On tour, they had the house open like a dollhouse, with sketched rooms in their place, still maintaining the tone and feel but in a more ergonomic way. I’m kind of annoyed they didn’t explain in the article how they had the icicles appear - I’ll have to look into that answer. And I actually wonder how they do the dress change too, because if I’m not mistaken, it is pulled through a track in the floor - I doubt they installed that track everywhere they went. Though Frozen is not my favorite Disney on Broadway show by any stretch, I think it is for sure notable for the technical strides it made. The projection design is just gorgeous.
It was so interesting to read about how so much technical intricacy is the responsibility of one person. We always think of theater as this collaborative art form where every designer is bringing something to the table to create a fantastic production. However, when there are complex technical moments that have so many moving pieces that all need to work seamlessly it is important that there be a captain steering the proverbial ship. Then once you get everything working, you through in the massive curveball that is touring. I mean needing 14 18-wheelers to tour a show sounds crazy. Its one thing to have to make a show work in one location, but in every tour stop seems like a dauntless task. The fact that one person makes it all work is incredibly impressive. It is such a commendable job by Cave to pull off such a classic look around the world.
It always makes me happy to see articles highlighting the works of theatrical designers and managers. This article was no exception! I’ve actually never heard the term “production supervisor” so being able to read in detail what one might do was so fascinating. I guess in high school I also played the role of a production supervisor while being a stage manager, but I feel like that just comes with being heavily involved in a high school theatre program. The amount of work that Lisa Dawn Caves does is so impressive and inspiring! She seems to really know what she’s doing, and by the credits to her name, she must do it extremely well. There are so many new challenges and ideas when touring a show and I didn’t know there was a person behind the transition of that. I hope I can see Frozen in the next two weeks because it looks like a very awesome show from a designer’s standpoint.
1. David came into room 209 earlier today and mentioned that this article is surprisingly relevant to us and that we should all give it a read. Having read it, I completely agree with him. Roles like Production Supervisor and Technical Supervisor have become more and more appealing to me over the last few months. I have been gravitating towards pretty much any fast-paced management role that gives the opportunity for more of a big picture. This absolutely checks that box. The only pitfall being that the production companies that get hired for these shows are in New York City where I simply have very little interest in living. Luckily I’ve got plenty of other options. I’ve found experimental marketing that is entertainment based is appealing for the same reasons. I am particularly interested in the idea of bringing an installation to a new venue and altering it to fit that.
Honestly,production management is something I hadn’t thought much about before reading this article. Back home, I never had a stage manager during my high school shows. As both a lighting designer and a sound designer, I was completely responsible for knowing my own cues/when to mute and unmute anyone on stage. Although I enjoyed doing this and getting used to having an actual stage manager might be a difficult task, I’m excited to see what that is actually like. As for traveling shows, it always boggles my mind how they’re able to bring these huge sets and wardrobes and other things necessary to make a huge production possible to a small island in the middle of the pacific ocean. In December, I’ll be seeing Hamilton with my mom on O’ahu, so I’m really interested to see how that will be compared to when I saw the production in Chicago.
I can’t even begin to imagine the logistics it takes to tour a show. Much less every touring production of a hit Broadway musical. Much less a Disney one. The job that Lisa Dawn Cave hold as production supervisor seems like an immense responsibility, but at the same time, the article makes it clear that she has this job down to a science. Being able to figure out how to take a semi-permanent Broadway setup, condense it into parts and pieces that fit into a mere fourteen 53’ trailers, and be able to set it up and tear it down in less than a day with impossibly short turnaround times? The list of things that Cave must have to go through to prepare each show for each venue it will visit must be immense. I doubt that every stage is the same size. I doubt that all the lighting positions are going to be in the same area. And the specific note in the article about automated versus manual control of the flown elements? If Cave was performing this role for just one production, I would be massively impressed. But the fact that she is doing it for every single touring company of Frozen is truly just remarkable.
It's always so interesting to me to hear about the work that goes into shows like these. Production management was never really something I knew about in high school, despite being a stage manager, because we didn’t really ever have the budget for that, and we didn’t have any classes to learn about it in, either. It sounds like a lot of what made high school stage management so fun for me: fast-paced challenges, working with lots of people, trying to figure out the logistics of actually bringing the show to life. Frozen has always seemed like a beast of a show to work with in this sense, and those are always my favorite shows. When there are so many moving parts and they all move together so smoothly, it can be extremely satisfying. I hope that at some point I can see Frozen in theaters because it does look like a masterpiece of technical skill.
Wow this was so interesting because of the links of this role to the role of Production Management, as many before me have said. I cannot fathom the difficult conversations that this person has to have on a daily basis because of the problem of being a tour with so many special effects. However, I hope that these designers and directors are more understanding because they signed onto this project knowing what they were getting into. I can imagine that these might be wishful thinking though. I’m really excited to see this tour when it comes to Pittsburgh very very shortly. I wish that I could go backstage and learn all the magic because it is just super intriguing to me. I don’t think that it would ruin it for me, it would just enhance it while watching the show. Just like the Production Supervisor said in the interview, it still surprises her when the transition that she loves happens because it is still enchanting to watch happen in real time.
For a job that gets almost no recognition outside of the theater world, the job of production supervisor is incredibly important. To be honest, I too had overlooked this job. From reading this article, being a production supervisor seems like its own kind of designing and maybe a little bit of magic making. It seems like a really cool job to have and one that I had not considered before. I can't imagine all of the changes that must happen for taking a show, especially one as technically complicated as Disney's Frozen, from a stationary broadway production to a touring production. There are so many challenges that come with that move and through all of the challenges, the look and feel of the show has to be maintained. The job of production supervisor may seem forgettable to an outsider and complicated to a theater person but to me, it seems very impressive.
While I have never seen the Frozen stage show, I’ve seen a few videos of the effects used in the show and some specific moments in the show - and even on video they are ridiculously cool (and I always wonder how they do them!) Despite being really interested in special effects, production supervisor was not a job title I had seen specifically until now, and it seems like a very cool and very complicated job (dealing with every single instance of the show seems wonderfully complicated and impressive). Touring has so many challenges, and the big touring Broadway shows with all of their effects must present a pretty significant logistical problem. To have one person who can hold all that knowledge - and understand all of the different areas of the production and effectively problem solve is incredible. It’s one of those jobs that you don’t hear about but is vital to the running of the show.
I’ve never seen this show but just from the article it sounds insane. I can’t imagine moving a show like that to a traveling version and it also highlights production manager’s role. I think that role like a lot of roles in theatre is often overlooked in like playbills and role cards. I admire Cave’s work from the challenges she discusses in the article such as the icicles that shoot up form the floor and making that work without a customized broadway floor. While not many people not in the theatre bubble know exactly what production managers do they should get more credit for the amount of time they put in to make the shows tick. In general I also think it would be hard to
to do a Disney show and maintain the magic as the article puts it and satisfy the huge expectations. (Also initial comment doesn’t have my name but hopefully this brings you to it).
I actually never really knew what a production supervisor did on a production but now I know that they basically coordinate everything. I could not imagine being the person that is so intimately involved with every decision that is made moving a show from Broadway to touring. That seems to be a big challenge to take a show from one stage to make it happen and work on hundreds of stages. Not only is concept and design transfer important but so is safety. I’m not sure that I would even want that job but I am amazed at the people who do it. I also didn’t know that there were so many changes in concept from the movie to the stage, such as the trolls. I didn’t really have any interest in seeing this show but now I am intrigued. The designs actually seem beautiful and I would be captivated.
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