From its world premiere off-Broadway at NYC’s Playwrights Horizons to a pre-Broadway run at D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, A Strange Loop, has now arrived on Broadway, and garnered 11 Tony nominations, more than any other show this season. With book, music and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, the musical opened at NYC’s Lyceum Theater in late April to overwhelmingly positive reviews. A Strange Loop follows a young, queer aspiring playwright (Usher) at war with a host of demons—represented as Thoughts in his head—attempting to understand his own strange loop.
This culturally ground-breaking show has along its journey to Broadway already won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (one of only 10 musicals to have ever received the honor), along with the Lortel, Drama Desk, Critic’s Circle, and Drama League Awards for best musical. Among its 11 Tony nominations are three design nominations for scenic designer Arnulfo Maldonado, lighting designer Jen Schriever, and sound designer Drew Levy. Bringing the show to life, the creative team’s greatest challenge was how to manifest the constant flow of Thoughts in Usher’s head on stage.
“The musical is so conceptual—it is in his brain—we really spent time determining how to conjure that in real life. Six ensemble members play ‘Thoughts,’ and each have their moments, but many times they intermix, so the framework for that is really important,” said Maldonado. “It needed to be something specific, but that could also disappear.” Maldonado took cues from the rectangular performative windows of Amsterdam’s Red Light District as well as New York’s scaffolding and fluorescent lighting to conceive a brick wall unit with six doorways in which Usher’s six Thoughts would be positioned.
Movement and Light
PRG worked with all three of the Tony-nominated designers every step of the show’s journey during each production, including now on Broadway, providing support and solutions to realize their designs. For Maldonado’s design PRG built the entire stage deck, which has a reflective black surface, along with two scenic lifts and the 30’-wide by 10’-tall brick wall unit that provides the backdrop for the show. The wall moves up and down stage, depending on where a scene is played. Although it moves as one piece, it also splits open into two sections that rotate 90˚, becoming perpendicular to the audience to reveal action upstage. PRG’s Stage Command System® is used to control all the automation. “Automation makes the wall unit movement fluid and seamless as if it is more like an additional Thought—in conversation with Usher and the Thoughts,” stated Maldonado.
The set also has a significant amount of electrics built in. One complex feature is the crisp, lighted outline around the unit’s doorways that house the six Thoughts. To create this look, PRG used different types of LED lights that sit in a channel with a diffuser on top to create a neon look. “Perfect corners make perfect rectangles; sometimes the simplest thing is the hardest thing to pull off, and they look incredible,” commented Schriever. “We can control the gradient and movement of the doorway lights. It is a major part of the design and so much more elevated and beautiful in this production. I am so happy we were able to fully realize the idea.”
Illuminating Psychology
When a doorway lights up, it represents the activation of the voice, or Thought, in Usher’s head, and the lights are reflected on the super high-gloss black floor, creating a simple and visually beautiful effect. “The lighting has to nimbly transform as Usher confronts his six Thoughts as they emerge from the darkness and retreat—so the lighting is playing along with that head space,” explained Schriever.
As Usher’s journey progresses, the wall opens, creating a very intentional black void. “The void is expansive. In this moment, Usher can choose to stay in the void or to push further into the discomfort, and the lighting represents the discomfort,” continued Schriever. “I am so lucky PRG had the GLP impression X4 Bar for a narrow, bright stream of light that provides endless depth behind actors. It is how I always wanted it.” Schriever also employs 90 Martin MAC Auras as the workhorses on the show positioned on the side, overhead, and out front.
Even though A Strange Loop is a minimalist show, Schriever feels that she was able to fully design each moment to feel full and complete, stating, “There was never a time I felt I couldn’t beautifully reveal the actors, never a time where I felt they were underlit or too dark, and this is a dark show. I am always playing on that edge of living in the subliminal space or popping actors into a bright showstopping number and then popping them back in the dark subliminal space.”
The theater’s tight spaces and a low show portal created challenges for positioning followspots to have a clear shot to the stage, so it was the perfect opportunity to deploy the PRG GroundControl™ Followspot System, which consists of a moving light with a camera attached that allows the operator to control it from a remote location via a monitor and a controller. PRG’s GroundControl Followspot System is used with Best Boys® and, for the first time, with Robe Robin T1 Profiles. For the balcony rail where weight is an issue, PRG converted four Robe T1s to work with GroundControl. For the other positions over the stage, Best Boys are used.
Another first for PRG, and for Schriever, is the use of the new ETC Source Four LED Series 3—one of the first uses of the Series 3 on Broadway. “I have the Series 3s on the farthest away position, and they are bright and beautiful,” said Schriever. “All the gear is amazing. We used everything we asked for, and it is all in the right place. It was a shockingly relaxed process with very minimal adjustments or asks.”
Bigger, More Expressive
When it came to designing the audio system for the Broadway production, Levy knew he wanted to approach it differently than in previous iterations: more impactful with the music, without getting in the way of the words. “It is a Pulitzer Prize winner so the words are obviously supremely important, but I also wanted to feature the music and the orchestrations,” stated Levy.
To do that, he employed the d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system, which allows for spatial audio and object-based mixing. Soundscape helps localize actors’ voices. It uses the natural way hearing works to localize sound and space to know who is speaking, allowing audience members to identify each character more easily. “We can spread voices out in space rather than just a traditional stereo with level panning,” described Levy. “Every instrument occupies a space; we’ve designed our system so the band feels huge at times but there is still room in there for vocals to live in multi layers. Usher on top, another character he is interacting with singing under that, and then the Thoughts as the supporting chorus.”
Additionally, the team used a TiMax Tracking System to position actors in space. An antenna array mounted above the stage receives signals transmitted by small radio tags worn by the actors, so the system is constantly updating their physical position in real time. This is a novel approach and the team had to determine how to bring the disparate technologies together. Crucial in setting it all up was d&b ArrayCalc, the simulation software. Further, an Avid VENUE | S6L console, which is flexible and can use processing technology to enhance multiple aspects of the show, made programming fast. Levy noted, “PRG bent over backwards to support the show when it was at Woolly. When we found out we were moving to Broadway, I was on the phone with PRG quite a bit trying to figure out if we can do this thing that I wanted to do. They were really supportive and helpful in getting us the stuff we needed and in a timely fashion, which is not easy right now, and make it fit within budget. The system does exactly what I hoped it would do.”
PRG’s VP and General Manager for Broadway, Alex Donnelly said, “When we first got involved with A Strange Loop in the spring of 2019 at Playwrights Horizons, we were really rooting for the show to go all the way. Its message is so powerful, and audiences really respond to it. We’re proud to use our technology and production expertise to help a unique project like this one, with such an innovative creative team, on its journey to Broadway.”
PRG, an industry leading solutions provider, shared this insightful content with PLSN. Learn more about PRG’s solutions and services at www.prg.com.
