Set against a relatively open stage with a shifting backdrop of jagged concrete blocks spray painted with art and graffiti, it also features three long battens that are lit up for several scenes, including the beguiling party scene where the star-crossed lovers first meet and swoon over each other.
These are not small pipes. The two horizontal battens, one downstage and one upstage, are each more than 40 feet long, and flame appears along 33 feet. The vertical one is about 25 feet in height, with flames along 16 feet. When not active, they are flown up above the action as opposed to being flown into the wings. The system is fueled by propane.
A Regulatory Maze
“It was interesting to figure out, because the biggest challenge is that there are a lot of rules and regulations about what you are and are not allowed to do and how you do that using fire on stage in general,” explains the show’s special effects design consultant Jeremy Chernick. “Then there are even more rules that are dictated by the FDNY and the state. When you put all those rules together, you sort of lose logic and sense in a lot of ways, because one organization will say one thing and a different organization will say you can’t do that. In a lot of ways, it takes experience to know what will and won’t be approved, and it takes a lot of coordination with the fire department.” (For anybody who cares to learn more, Chernick says that the rules that all pyrotechnicians and designers use to build flame effects in front of an audience are listed in NFPA 160: Standard for the Use of Flame Effects Before an Audience.)
Whenever he starts working on a new show, Chernick calls the fire department shortly after getting information from the director about what he or she wants. He wants to avoid any surprises down the line. He notes that while he will not get immediate approval for anything from the fire department, he will get an idea of what will get accepted later on, once they have seen what he is proposing. Then he starts the process of developing the effects for the production.
“In this particular case, the artistic team knew what they wanted in a visual way,” Chernick recollects, of Romeo and Juliet. “I did a demonstration for them in a studio; a very pared-down, non-high-tech, scaled version of the effects. We looked at them in different ways so that they had a better idea of what was attainable, and from there we tried to pin down what they would actually want.”
No Big Spare Tanks
The most important thing, notes Chernick, is figuring out how long the battens have to burn onstage. Naturally, the longer things burn, the more fuel is required. “The quantities of fuel are the most difficult and complicated things to get approved by the Fire Department,” he emphasizes. “They really want you to use as little fuel as humanly possible, and they want you to be pretty rigid about that, so officially they want far less than what the show actually wants. We ended up getting approval because of all the safety measures that we put in place, but [director] David Leveaux was not able to be specific about how long and how much fire he wanted because he wanted a huge amount of flexibility in terms of the system. There were a lot of early conversations about what that actually meant, [about] what parameters and flexibility he could actually have and still get the effects that he wanted. That was a long process. Then after that we dealt with the production management and design departments and started building things from there.”
Proceeding with Caution
In terms of fueling the pipes, the system is “not like a barbecue where the propane tank is stored somewhere,” says Chernick. “What’s in that tank is liquid propane, so if you puncture that tank or anything happens, it would spew liquid that is highly flammable, which is a terrible thing.”
One of the ways they work with this system is to utilize empty tanks rated for propane and gas use, specifically one-pounders that people might take on camping trips. They empty the liquid, turn it into gas, then fill the tanks with gaseous propane rather than liquid propane.
“By doing that, we no longer have the hazard of liquid propane on the set,” Chernick points out. “Those tanks are actually on the battens offstage out of view, and then we have a pretty complicated computer valving system and pilot system that sends feedback to the operator, who’s running it on a computer console, and it has a variety of automatic safety shutoffs and sensors. It’s sniffing for gas leaks and sensing whether the gas is being released or if it’s actually on fire, because if it’s not on fire it will automatically turn off. The goal is to actually burn the gas and to not ever release it into the atmosphere without it being on fire.”
Chernick adds that there are many safety valves and safety checks on stage to ensure that everything is operating and that the Local One stagehands with pyrotechnic licenses have a clear line of sight to all of their equipment. The battens are always onstage or overhead, never pulled offstage or stored somewhere they cannot be seen.
More Flame than Smoke
Although there is a fair amount of fire onstage for key scenes in Romeo and Juliet, there is not a lot of smoke being generated, which is a benefit of using the propane. “Propane has a certain duration per pound per system, and to get that propane duration up, we added a little bit of fresh air into the pipe that was delivering the gas,” says Chernick. “That did two things. We were able to adjust the burn time to give us a lot more time of flame on stage, but also adding oxygen to the mix makes a much cleaner burn, so there wasn’t really a massive amount of smoke. It’s a nice aspect of propane.”
Another production that utilized fire was the theatrical adaptation of the John Grisham novel A Time To Kill, which opened on Broadway in October. It featured a giant burning cross on stage during its second act that was roughly 8 feet tall. “I drew and specified the system,” says Chernick. “Greg [Meeh] did all the creative consulting and specification. I just said what equipment goes where as he requested and worked with the builders to confirm that all was as specified. The systems were similar in that they both used propane gas, but the scope of the design was different.”
Chernick has been in the effects business for a decade. He started out as “a jack of all trades” in theater and did props for the Juilliard School. At that time, he started to get hired by the surrounding Lincoln Center venues and was asked by the production manager at the Lincoln Center Festival to figure out how to make 2,000 gallons of blood for a specific dollar amount per gallon. “I went away and worked on that for a little bit, and I came back with a recipe that fit the dollar amount,” he recalls. “So I got that job to make 2,000 gallons of blood. At that time, I did not know that a special effects designer who I didn’t know also wanted that job, and after, he started calling me to work for him.” That designer was the aforementioned Gregory Meeh, whom he has often worked with since.
Early Planning is Key
When it comes to dealing with fire, Chernick says he has “a healthy fear of issues” that makes him an ideal candidate for the job. It’s better to take that approach than have a cavalier attitude about it. And when it comes to planning out fire effects, he says, “the earlier that flame is brought into the design, the more likely that it will work, and in a lot of ways the more savings will be available to the production. If the scenery is already built, then it’s harder to integrate into the set.” He spent three months working on Romeo and Juliet from the time of the initial demonstration to installing it in the theater, but ideally he would have liked more time.
The end result was still spectacular and certainly added a visual edginess to Shakespeare’s tragic romantic tale, which has been retold onstage for hundreds of years.
“It was a really great use of flame in a set,” concurs Chernick. “This was really integrated and was quite beautiful.”
