Ready… GO

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

The Broadway spectacular based on the beloved children’s book, “Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The Musical” moved into Los Angeles’ historic Pantages Theatre carrying both a grandMA full-size and a grandMA light.

During pre-production, the two consoles were used in session for multiple focusing and programming access. The rig (connected to 4 MA Lighting NSP’s) consisted of over eighty automated fixtures, LED strips, myriad smoke machines, a Dataton Watchout system, and the Grinch’s wirelessly-controlled LED heart.

First produced in 1994, “Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The Musical” has seen multiple homes, including San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and Broadway in 2007, along with a North American tour in 2008.

Production Electrician Brendan Quigley

Production Electrician Brendan Quigley offered us some insight on the Pantages installation. “Taking the programming from the 2008 tour and adapting it to the installation at the Pantages meant doing a lot of updating. Changing fixture types has been virtually seamless. I was also extremely impressed with the ease with which we could interface our Dataton Watchout system with the grandMA via Art-Net.” Brendan also uses the grandMA on various installations and tours of “Wicked”, so he is more than at home when it comes to the console. “It’s a piece of cake for me to jump on a console when I need to.”

Programmer Shannon January at the MA

Shannon M.M. January is the grandMA programmer for “Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The Musical.” He also previously programmed the 2008 tour of the same show. “One of my favorite things about the MA is the ability to put Macros on Executor Buttons. This gives me quick access to the actions that I need for the show.” Shannon has also configured Worlds to help keep this large-scale rig manageable. “I can break up what both I, and the designers, are looking at on the consoles, so that we can more easily focus on whatever we’re working on. The grandMA is powerfully different than other consoles in the huge amounts of customization that you can do. Every programmer’s show file and User Profile can be completely different.” Shannon keeps a MacBook Pro running grandMA onPC (under Parallels) in session with his console.

Directed by Matt August, Lighting Co-Designers for “Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The Musical” are Pat Collins and D.M. Wood. Production Electrician was Brendan Quigley and grandMA programmer was Shannon M. M. January. Lighting equipment was provided by PRG.

“Dr. Suess’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” runs at the Panatages Theatre through December 27, 2009. For more information or to purchase tickets for the Los Angeles engagement of
Dr. Seuss’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The Musical,
please visit www.BroadwayLA.org

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

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