The magic spectacle of The Illusionists — Live On Broadway recently offered that rare break from plays and musicals for something more offbeat and interactive. Featuring seven magicians with different skills — from the comedy hijinks of The Trickster to the death-defying stunts of The Daredevil to the fast-paced moves of The Deceptionist — the two-hour plus show is packed with all manner of dazzling illusions and is one of those rare shows that flies by. It begins its national tour in February.
Lighting designer Jared A. Sayeg faced the daunting challenge of tackling a show heavy with video elements, both in terms of LED screens onstage and a live video camera used to offer close-of ups of some aspects of the routines for a large screen. And not only was he lighting the show, but his work became a part of the illusions themselves. “Magic kind of has a production language of its own,” observes Sayeg. “The Illusionists definitely creates an escape.”
Beyond the different routines being presented on stage, there are many video screens placed at various vantage points — near the front, in back, and one large screen above the stage to show people what they cannot see close up in certain moments. “The imagery and backgrounds frequently change throughout the production,” explains Sayeg. “In each moment, I had to ensure we had the right balance of contrast between the performer, the focus and the projected imagery.”
One Show, Seven Acts
Sayeg has collaborated with Illusionists director Neil Dorward before on shows by veteran magicians Kalin & Jinger, so they had already developed a shorthand that was useful for this production, which is the second time The Illusionists have been on Broadway (the first being late 2014). “We already shared a similar aesthetic which was really helpful,” explains Sayeg of working with Dorward. “We ended up working with the individual magicians, tailoring to their needs and figuring out how each magician has their own tone and their own character. We tried to evoke that with their act, and that became our theme in terms of how we approached the project — seven different magicians with a different flair from one another.”
The LD got in a few months of planning working with the director and the rest of the creative team. He did plenty of advance work with his associate and the show’s automated lighting programmer, Chris Osborne, who has “been my right-hand man for years and a longtime collaborator.” Sayeg offers great praise to his crew, which included Osborne, New York production electrician Jimmy Fedigan and head electrician Jonathan Edwards. “I had a phenomenal team working with me and couldn’t have asked for a better one than this.”
The team started production in Charleston, SC on Nov. 1. They began implementing the new production while the previous one was on the road, “modifying the lighting rig and implementing the new magicians,” recalls Sayeg. “It was a gradual process, so the first thing we did in Charleston was installed, designed and teched the new opening and closing illusions. The opening features all seven illusionists appearing in an empty, huge glass box that flies in from the grid. The closing illusion is where all the illusionists reappear from their own projected shadow on an empty platform. It’s another lighting precision moment.”
After a week in Charleston, the production moved to a much larger venue in Durham, NC. “In Durham, we gained the rest of the new magicians, dancers, musicians and props for the new production,” says Sayeg. “When we moved to Broadway, we gained our final illusionist, James More, and designed all of his pieces in New York.” (Emcee Jeff Hobson, Yu Ho-Jin, Adam Trent and Dan Sperry have been involved with The Illusionists before, while Jonathan Goodwin, Raymond Crowe and James More were new.) After finishing tech in Durham, the show went directly to the Neil Simon Theatre in New York for its run from Nov. 19, 2015 to Jan. 3, 2016.
The Need for Flexibility
Despite the months of preparation for the show, the tech process went by “incredibly fast.” Sayeg decided, early on, that “the programming layout of each act would be on its own cue list, as there’s a number of things that could happen if a prop isn’t functional that night, or if there’s an issue with an animal or what have you. The lighting structure and the programming needs to be just as flexible, so each act was independent from another and programmed on its own cue list. We set it up so that the order could easily be changed just on a moment’s notice. That really set up a lot of how we programmed the show and expedited the process a little bit.”
What makes The Illusionists so enthralling for audiences are the unique personalities and acts that they get to experience at the show. Each performer offers his own challenges for Sayeg and his team.
“They really are so different from each other,” stresses Sayeg. “Where there’s a black art situation, the lighting becomes about precision and nothing else. Of course, [we’re] making it aesthetically pleasing, but it comes down, ultimately, to precision. That’s really when it’s most complex — looking at things from every possible vantage point, from the first row of the orchestra to the last seat in the balcony and making sure that the illusions are working the way that they should be and are at their most effective. You have an illusionist like Jonathan Goodwin [a.k.a., The Daredevil], where most of his acts are highly dangerous and are real life-and-death situations. That’s just a whole other layer of lighting because there are also contingency plans that are built into the routine as well as the lighting. There’s a danger factor as well as a precision factor, and the two go hand-in-hand.”
Real Dangers
One of The Daredevil’s stunts is to escape from a straitjacket while he’s hung upside down and lit on fire. There is a lot of dramatic underlighting utilized during those intense moments. “Before we lit him on fire in the first tech, we went through the cues and had him raised in the air,” says Sayeg. “All the lights followed up with him in a very dramatic sweep, and I just wanted to make sure that he was comfortable on stage while he was being lit on fire and that he wasn’t being blinded. He was perfectly fine and such a sport. That was never really an issue for the fire escape, but we had many contingencies built in for safety should something go wrong. Luckily nothing has ever happened.”
Goodwin — who considers himself a daredevil and stunt performer, not a magician — also has another routine where his wife/assistant Katy fires a crossbow at a mechanism that sets off a series of five crossbows that fire one into the next, with him catching the final flying arrow aimed at his chest. “I worked very closely with Jonathan, particularly with his crossbow act,” says Sayeg. “The crossbow stunt is one of the more complex pieces to light because there are a lot of things we’re disproving to the audience. You see the complete flight path of the actual arrows flying across the stage as well as featuring the crossbows in a very dramatic light. It took a lot of work and collaborating together in addition to ensuring they are not blinded while firing. I think I enjoyed that the most, working that out together.”
The lights used in the crossbow stunt come from all directions and comprise a combination of Martin MAC 700s for backlight and Vari*Lite VL3500s for all the shafts and flight paths. The Sharpys do all the aerial striations and offer the atmosphere in the background. Sayeg also has to make sure that Goodwin is not blinded. Additionally, lasers are mounted on each crossbow to allow the audience to see the beams of the crossbows terminating on the opposing targets.
Real Animals
In contrast to the complex lighting for Goodwin, the ominous looking Dan Sperry requires the opposite approach. “The Anti-Conjuror is perhaps the most visually distinct from the other illusionists,” says Sayeg. “Each time Dan takes the stage, our color palette fades into an extremely stark, cold and sharp atmosphere that matches his character and performance. In Dan’s acts, he uses live animals [birds] that are sensitive to light, and that was one thing I always needed to be mindful of when cueing his sections.”
In the performances of Raymond Crowe (a.k.a., The Unusualist) , “the overall tone becomes poetic and operatic in a way, especially during his act, ‘Shadows,’ set against ‘What A Wonderful World.’” The hand shadowplay he performs to the Louis Armstrong song is “a really beautiful moment that has a very simple but elegant look to it. The same with Yu Ho-Jin [a.k.a., The Manipulator] during his card illusions. He is lit with just a singular source of light, a VL3500. It’s a simple, bold and classic look — but exactly what the tone of his performance calls for. Yu Ho-Jin is mesmerizing. He’s such a talent. What he does with those cards is miraculous, and his stage presence sets a powerful tone.”
According to Sayeg, the rig for The Illusionists is largely automated. “Vari*Lite is a long and trusted fixture that I am very reliant on,” he says. “The VL3500 is the workhorse of the show, and we have VL3500 FX units as well. There are MAC 700s [on stage], GLP impression X4 wash units and Sharpys as well as ETC Source Fours for the conventional rig. There are floor-mounted Sharpys upstage that help create a lot of atmosphere, especially when we are against a black void.” While there are sidelights used in the show, most of it comes from higher angles due to the large number of props that the company has stored offstage. Sayeg states that the prop for the opening illusion is huge and takes two wings to enter and exit through before it is hoisted by motors for its offstage storage position.
A great example of a dramatic automated lighting move occurs when Adam Trent (a.k.a., The Futurist) brings an audience member onstage and utilizes their iPhone in a trick involving a blender. “He brings up a volunteer, and the lights in the house sweep to the stage, as in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It’s a funny moment, with a sound during the routine, which is what ignited the idea for the light cue. That’s an example of lighting having a more playful role in magic and having a more up-tempo tone to it.”
Sayeg worked closely with the video designers at NICE Studios, especially when it came down to the color palettes. But once they got to the theater, the LD was the one who decided on the intensity of the LED video screens and “how much we want to see and when we want to see it and how we cue it in. The video is ultimately another light onstage and, depending upon the illusion, environment and cue that we’re in, we need to control how much of that we’re seeing and the bounce it creates. Finding that balance is a big part of what we’re trying to control.”
The most impressive use of video in the show occurs when Adam Trent interacts with two large video screens downstage on the floor in a segment called “Video To Life.” He appears to be taking things out and putting things into dynamic video collages onscreen, and at one point he even “jumps” into one and his video self takes part in the action on screen. At another point, he jumps behind one screen and then re-appears across the stage from behind the other, despite not being seen crossing the open space between.
“This was a challenging and exciting visual to tackle, because it’s about making him part of the video imagery — stepping out of it and stepping back into it without seams,” says Sayeg. “It’s finding that right balance and the mixture of his costuming and the video content and keeping within the tone of the piece. There’s a lot going on there and a lot of fun surprises to the audience. It’s a great piece. Adam is really charismatic and a wonderful performer.”
Playing Along
The LD set out to give The Illusionists a “really classy look” and not be overbearing. “I didn’t want the lighting to take you out of the show, but to play along with the theme of whatever illusionists we’re watching and be in the tone of the performer,” he says. “If it’s a spectacle-based number, we’re working in that fashion and the lighting has energy and movement to it, but if it’s dramatic and we’re pulling down, I was really drawn to using bold, singular gestures of light, and the same really with color. That really excited me to have a really clean but strong look. Neil and I both felt the same way, that that was the right approach, and hopefully it came through.”
Given all of the performers, stunts and complexities, Sayeg could easily write a book about working on The Illusionists. He certainly enjoyed working on it. “It was a fantastic experience, and exhilarating, because, at least from my perspective, you’re applying everything you know from theater [to this production], and each magician really is their own show,” he says. “Each act has a beginning, middle, end and their own arc, storytelling and spectacle. So you’re applying that, and then working within the parameters of the illusion and their stage presence. The approach and the language is constantly changing.”
The Illusionists
Gear
- 2 grandMA consoles
- 22 Martin MAC 700
- 67 ETC S4 Ellipsoidals
- 2 ETC S4 PAR
- 6 Altman Q-Lite
- 8 VL-3500 Wash FX
- 12 VL-3500 Spot
- 14 GLP Impression X4
- 16 Sharpy Beam 200
- 8 ColorForce 72 280w
- 12 ColorBlast
- 2 Lycian 1293 Followspot 3k
- 1 Lycian M2 Followspot
- 1 MDG Atmosphere APS Hazer
- 1 Bowens Fan
- 2 DF-50 Hazers
- 1 Le Maitre LSG Low Fog Machine
- 2 ETC Sensor 48×2.4kw Racks
