Gypsy
Production Electrician - Southeastern Summer Theatrical Institute
Director: Jacob Brent
Scenic Designer: Matt Imhoff
Lighting Designer: Christian Specht
Production Electrician: Emma Perch
Lighting Apprentice: Chey Fortier
The Southeastern Summer Theatre Insitute (SSTI) is a summer intensive for high schoolers. I worked as the production electrician which meant planning and orchestrating the plot as well as teaching high schoolers along the way.
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I worked on hanging and circuiting the plot mainly by myself with students arriving soon after. I then led students to build set electrics and work on notes.
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I encountered many fun challenges during the production of Gypsy. The two lighting designers of the season created a plot that required minimal changeover due to the tight turnaround. The largest challenge was that entire set was built on a turntable. This hindered access to the electrics and some advanced planning for set electrics.
As this was the second show of the season, I had a larger grasp on the space and how the system worked. My focus turned to set electrics which included a twinkling Rose sign, a flying border, and a wireless proscenium that had to turn with the table.
The proscenium was run on 120 Volts as it was the bulbs the company had in stock. This limitation required intense research into batteries and wireless DMX systems. We ran a three-circuit chase on two different dimmer packs due to the amperage drawn. This was installed into a column with a removable panel to charge the batteries.
