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Magically Green: grandMA controls Wicked’s German Performance
Green is the commanding colour on the set of ‘Wicked – The Witches of Oz’ in the Palladium theatre, Stuttgart, Germany. Elphaba, leading actress, and good “bad” witch of the Broadway Musical was born with this colour of skin. A fact which makes her dubious to most of her fellow men but by now fills two highly successful books. What ended in the 1900 published ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ begins in ‘Wicked – The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West’ of 1995 – the story of the green witch. Similar to its forerunner, which inspired one of the most famous Hollywood films, the second book gave the idea for one of the most successful musicals of all times (amongst others three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, one Eddy Award). And because of this the stage of the Palladium transforms every evening into a mythic world that is populated by witches, flying monkeys, a giant dragon and a billy goat as teacher.
In addition to the shows in New York, London and Los Angeles the musical in Stuttgart is also controlled via grandMA consoles. One grandMA full-size and one grandMA light are used. They control the show in conjunction with three MA NSPs, one dimMA rack and 13 MA DMX booster/splitter. During the pre-programming overall three grandMA full-size, two grandMA light as well as one grandMA replay-unit, all in a multi-user session, were used. The installed cables altogether have a length of nearly seven kilometres and spread from the drawing floor down to the stage, from the gallery to the stage direction.
110 Rainbow PRO 6” scrollers, 15 Rainbow PRO 8” scrollers, four Rainbow PRO 12” scrollers and two Rainbow PRO 15” scrollers dye the stage in the typical ‘Wicked-Green’ and other colours. Twelve Rainbow Maxi 4 PSUs provide the necessary current for them. Amongst other luminaires are 34 Vari*Lite VL3000 Q spots, 34 Vari*Lite VL2500 spots, 30 Vari*Lite VL2500 washes, three Robert Juliat Cyranos, 329 ETC Source Fours, two DeSisti Piccolo 10kWs and 28 Major PAR Birdies.
To solve the problem that some of the parts of the stage design have to be moveable and illuminated two Wireless Solution BlackBox S1 transmitters and seven Wireless Solution BlackBox R-512 receivers with batteries are installed. 46 Major power distributions deliver the current for all of the lighting.
Each new show of ‘Wicked’ is based on the original lighting design by Kenneth Posner. Associate lighting designers for Stuttgart was Michael Odam and Karen Spahn. Andy Peistrup is head of lighting, Philipp Herbst programmer.
photo: Stage Entertainment
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