Feb 3, 2010 7:15 am US/Mountain
Denver Actors In Space Play 'Go Weightless'
Written by Greg Moody
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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An actor prepares for weightlessness
CBS
When Rogelio Martinez wrote his new play, "When Tang Met Laika," he wanted to make it a play set in outer space with a difference -- the difference being the theme of how such a journey changes a person's perspective, and, characters who are weightless a good part of the show.
When the script came to the production team at The Denver Center Theatre Company, there were a few moments of "How the ..." followed by serious discussions of how to make it happen -- realistically.
Lisa Orzolek, a stage designer at The Denver Center, told me that the idea had already been kicked around by the writer and director by the time it got to her and the Denver Center staff.
"There were already some ideas on the table, but we started working on it, in discussion with the construction crews, to make it something simple that the audience would accept. In the end, it's not all that simple, the mechanics of it, but it certainly feels that way to the audience."
The idea, which really doesn't seem simple at all, gives the audience a sense of actors in smooth movement, on multiple planes, moving in different directions at different speeds. The action all controlled from a single laptop backstage.
"We have steel ringed platforms that move in opposite directions. They're connected to heavy chains -- like big bicycle or motorcycle chains -- that are attached to gears which are, in turn, attached to motors under the stage," said Josh Prues, Assistant Technical Director. "We can move the rings in different directions and at different speeds. The section in the center can actually rise before it turns in either direction."
And it all happens -- silently.
The final idea, as effective as it is on stage, wasn't the first idea at which they looked.
"We looked at magnets and bungees and all sorts of things before we landed on this idea, but it was the simplicity of this idea, at least the look of it, that sold us. The mechanics aren't simple at all. We've been working on this since August of last year."
In the end, the movement of actors, floating along various planes, does, in fact, look simple on stage, but that only proves that the simplest idea is usually the one that took the longest discussions, the most engineering creativity, and the most gallons of sweat to put together effectively.
Thanks to this effect and the entire production design, including some effective sound and video effects by Charlie Miller, you may be sitting in the audience of the Space Theater, but there will be times that you will feel like you're eavesdropping on a conversion on the International Space Station, orbiting somewhere high above the earth.
Once again appreciating the magic of the theater.
When Tang Met Laika is now open in the Space Theatre of the Denver Performing Arts Complex downtown. For tickets call 303-893-4100 or
click here.
(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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