State of the Season – Oct 15

By Tyler York

LIGHT UP THE SKY opens in less than a week! Can you believe it? The Paramount is clearly one very busy place during this final push to opening night. This past weekend was spent by the production team loading in the scenic, lighting, sound, and projection elements. Work continues and will continue until it becomes the show the audience (you!) will see starting next Thursday. From all accounts that reach my ears, all is going well with the production and those involved are feeling good about the progress being made.

Tomorrow and Sunday is Tech, two l-o-o-o-o-n-g days during which much is accomplished – lighting cues are built and tested, scenery gets its first real test as performers and crew become acquainted with what is suddenly on stage, and sound and projections are tested and adjusted. It will be a magical experience. Exhausting. But magical.

We were treated to design presentations during the NINE production meeting today. Hooray! I was awed by the cohesive vision that director Bill Fennelly and the remarkably talented student designers have created for the look and feel of the show. It is an impressive design that seeks to represent the character Guido’s struggle to break through his past and come up with a new story to tell through film. I cannot wait to see what this show will become by the end of the process. And the first rehearsal is this Monday! I have so long to wait, until December, yet the time will fly by before you know it.

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Tyler York is the Assistant to the General Manager of Emerson Stage and an alum of Emerson’s BFA Stage/Production Management program.