"High School Musical onstage is more like a rock concert than a Broadway show," notes lighting programmer Patrick Dierson. "There's a lot of choreography, set piece moves, pyro, CO2 jets and big video projection screens."
With so much happening, Dierson hails the grandMA's multi-user programming capability, saying: "It's great. Touring lighting director Calvin 'Mac' Mossier can run the show and call spots as he would normally, and I can take notes from Patrick Woodroffe and make changes in realtime all the while not affecting Mac," he explains. "The grandMA is the only console I've ever worked with that can do that in realtime with complete reliability. The grandMA is also the first and only system - and I've worked with just about all of them - that's able to keep up with the speed at which I hit buttons and make changes."
On the lighting side, 28 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles and 39 2000 Washes and 10 MAC 700 Profiles and 24 700 Washes as well as various conventional fixtures are run from the two grandMA consoles and three NSP units. The lighting rig primarily revolves around a centre circular truss and a downstage 180-degree truss that envelope the entire width of the stage. Some of the Martin units are built into the set. The show runs off a single cue list; the grandMAs' multiple faders give manual control to Martin Atomic Strobe hits and multi intensities.
The second console is also used to set up group master intensities to inhibit certain lights and create a more hospitable environment for live camera and IMAG aspects of the show. "The lighting triggers certain effects like confetti for the show," Dierson points out. "Built-in macros act as safety park and un-park so they don't accidentally get triggered at the wrong time. Using inhibitive group mastering on those channels acts as a double safety. We can go through an entire show knowing that we're completely safe and won't trigger effects inadvertently."
Dierson finds its "wonderful working on the grandMA because it's not hanging up, glitching and crashing the way other consoles do. It's very easy to make updates in real time while Patrick Woodroffe is commenting on changes during a live rehearsal. I can concentrate on technically translating the art of what he's thinking and not have to second guess what the console can or can not do."
"It just is hard to get better than working with Patrick Woodroffe, Patrick Dierson and Mac Mosier. They appreciate how the grandMA system works, and they treat the console as a creative collaborator. The show would have looked different and taken longer to program on any other platform," commented Bob Gordon, CEO of A.C.T Lighting. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of grandMA in North America.
Kenny Ortega, who directed the original movie, is the director of High School Musical: The Concert with Woodroffe serving as lighting designer and Michael Cotton set and video designer.
(Chris Henry)
