An Outstanding Program Emphasizing Skills & Career in the North East
Three alumni of the class of 2023 were interviewed three months after graduation. They give in-depth discussion about the Theatre Program at Plymouth State University, including the faculty, the programs, and the facilities. They are dear friends of mine, and I am happy to share this content here. ...
This workshop explored the use of projected media. Artists from 6 continents used simple motion tracking, infrared cameras & audio sensors to generate visuals for performance and storytelling.
TRANSCRIPT:
The Prague Quadrennial is a massive two-week event that takes place in Prague in the Czech Republic every four years. It has done this since 1967. It is an international festival that ...
If you, your students, or any other group can get to Seattle next spring and would like to explore the USITT Expo Floor, please let me know! You are welcome to attend that part of the conference free of charge, and I am happy to arrange it.
The video and photos below are from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology ...
August 24, 2021
Most of my videos are for people who do lots of theatre. This one is for people who are less familiar with it. This is a brief video demonstrating how expectations of safety are different on a stage than they are in a public space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLejwE8n-4o
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT WITH LIMITED SCREEN CAPTURES:
The audience-side of the curtain is public space.
Hi. I’m ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUePrmUi0wY
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Planet Silver is dying. The crew of the SilverStar is their last hope. Running against the clock, the crew must search through the unknown in order to recover the Orb of Life that will save their home world.
Solving Problems: Season Planning + Production Design
Throughout the spring and summer of 2020, the ...
Anyone is welcome to use this resource however they like. It is an open-education resource.
This is a beginning lighting design project. It is packaged as a PowerPoint file. Each slide includes instructions to the student on how to complete each step. The PowerPoint file can be downloaded here: https://scenicandlighting.com/downloadable/Light_Plot_Assignment.pptx
Embedded in the PowerPoint file are ...
I am at a point in the semester where ordinarily, I spend two or three classes in one of our theatre spaces experimenting with lights. One of the goals is to bring beginning theatre students to an understanding of how a lighting design is often composed of washes and specials, and what those terms mean. I also try ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovn1EVlo5lg&feature=youtu.be
This video is intended to help individuals who are venturing into the use of scenic projections with modest experience in theatre technology.
Transcript:
Hi. I’m Matt Kizer.
In this brief tutorial, I’m going to provide tips on how to make the most out of projections on stage.
Projections can add a lot of magic to any stage ...
https://youtu.be/8blclBLKc0g
Transcript
This is a design from 2011 for the musical Pippin.
Director Morgan Murphy wanted to keep the medieval setting of the show, but wanted a technological overlay like a rock concert. I showed him pictures of a complex of buildings in Pittsburgh called PPG place. It was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. ...
https://youtu.be/wM90OpeLwBs
Transcript
There are times when you are doing a show when you need to make a fireplace. You just need a good fireplace, not some special effects masterpiece. Maybe something simple that you can burn a letter in.
You can make a good fireplace with ordinary scene-shop materials. You might start with a block of styrofoam. ...
https://youtu.be/VsDTxj4nfIs
Transcript:
Today I want to talk about some low-tech methods for achieving interactive projection media. This is BlackTrax, an amazing system of sensors that tracks very small transmitters in 3D space with lights and projections. You can track performers or scenery so that moving lights and projections respond to movement, even pure improvisation.
A few years back, we wanted to explore ...
https://youtu.be/XZ5NVes86cM
There is a common conversation about casters that I hear in theatres.
TRANSCRIPT
“For that short scene, the one with that thing in it, let’s just put it on a wagon.””But I don’t want it to feel like a wagon, so make it as low as possible.””Use the smallest casters that we have.””Maybe even make the wagon extra thin so we can ...
This article has a follow-up article here. The follow-up includes better instructions on how to include multiple pages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no1haJPCWt0&feature=youtu.be
Transcript
This is a set design from 2006 for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. It was for Kearsarge Arts Theatre (KAT) Company, a summer children’s theatre program in New Hampshire. They produced in a space with no flies and limited wing ...
at the Prague Quadrennial
Attention, attendees at the Prague Quadrennial!
WHERE:
Divadlo X10
Charvátova 39/10, 110 00 Nové Město
WHEN:
Thursday, June 13, 8:30 pm
In the PQ program book, you will find it on Page 186. Brilliant Being, at 20:30, at the X10 Theatre.
https://youtu.be/gUCQPOFlKFM
This is a short, breathtaking piece, about 40 minutes long. Originally produced in the United States, it is ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMY0Hg3wJwM&fbclid=IwAR0GmIUX47TMOccxyVbqQxREpc5QeXcqhMrshCRqskDtasKZQsm1ma087Yw
In this video, I discuss media that I created for a production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid by the Educational Theatre Collaborative ETC in Plymouth New Hampshire at Plymouth State University. The process of creating media for projection on stage is discussed by examining the step-by-step process of creating this media.
© 2019 Matt Kizer LLC All Rights ...
https://youtu.be/B070QFX9Nl0
Transcript
There’s a common trap that captures some people building scenery – especially novices.
Maybe the drama program is run by a solitary English or Music teacher; someone who does everything for the show.
“Okay, students! We don’t have time for anything fancy. Let’s just get these walls up.”
“There’s so much else to get done, we’re going to keep this simple!”
The ...
Making that piano light weight, wireless, playable, and grand.
Theatre is story telling. It is vital that the audience understand the words that are spoken or sung by performers. Words advance the action. When there is also an orchestra, sound gets complicated.
Microphones help, but there is deep magic for mixing a stage full of lavaliere microphones against ...
In 2012, I designed a production of Sylvia at Auburn University. The design included scenery, lighting, and projections. The visuals were all inspired by cover art from The New Yorker. You can read about that here.
The projected media had an illustrative quality to it that mimicked the cover art. We took this a ...
https://youtu.be/w32k-l2-V08
Transcript:
A long time I ago, I worked in a little family-owned furniture store. They sold unfinished wooden furniture. Really nice folks. There was a sort of a large alcove in the store that was filled with all kinds of wooden stools. The stools came in three standard heights:18 inches, 24 inches, and 30 inches.
There ...
https://youtu.be/mcQFnVFTmQE
Transcript:
I am often asked, “What is the Prague Quadrennial?”
This is a not an official video of the Prague Quadrennial. I am just a regular participant.
I believe in their mission.
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design & Space is a performing arts festival that was begun in 1967.
It is the largest performance design event in the world. It happens every ...
Set changes should look easy. The audience should never feel sympathy for the people moving things around on stage. It would be a rare show in which it would be appropriate to see running crew exerting themselves.
There are a lot of factors that will go into choosing the means by which scenery will move. A big one ...
https://youtu.be/NuHW3OAHfEk
Video transcript:
Let’s start out with a projection screen.
Could we dim the lights, please? Thank you.
Let’s look at a projection. This is The Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. Maybe you have heard of it. Excuse me, it’s still a little bright in here. Could we close the blinds? Thank you.
Let’s take ...
In April of 2018, members of several groups collaborated at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire in the United States. They engaged in a workshop production of A Dream Play, by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. Jump to video
Some of the creative team had been brought together originally through The International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects ...
This was a lecture-workshop presented in Studio Theatre at Plymouth State University. I worked with Amanda Whitworth, Director of Dance. Together, we presented a series of dance pieces that incorporated interactive projections that moved with her as the dancer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj11A7pKFnk