LD Greg Russell walked into the newly-named Oak Ridge Boys Theatre in Branson, Mo. last year with the words of the owners ringing in his ears. “They wanted to have the biggest, baddest lighting system that we could get,” he recalls. “They weren’t going to spare any expense to get it done.”
While that was good news for Russell, he also had good news for them after a quick look around the venue formerly known as the Glen Campbell Theatre. He discovered that much of the lighting and rigging gear that was installed in 1994 was useable, including almost 500 channels of ETC Sensor dimming.
There were also a handful of antiquated fixtures that had to go, including conventional PAR 64 and 36 fixtures along with a number of Altman 1KL6s and “more Intellibeams than I knew what to do with,” he reports with a laugh. “There was a time when I thought I was going to try to melt them down and make money off the aluminum, but a good friend of mine, another designer, told me his church was interested in them. So, I made them a package deal and they bought all of them.”
In With the New
Russell designed a new lighting system with the mandate to build the best theatre in town and he had a very specific vision of the theatre’s aesthetic. “I went for that contemporary country-pop look with a lot of lights,” he explains. “We went over the top with this thing to make it bigger than life.”
That meant, he adds, “that I wanted to be able to completely saturate every square inch of that stage with color. I wanted every opportunity and possibility for beam angles and gobo selections. I wanted to design something that if anybody came in there to do a show that everything was right there at their fingertips and they weren’t going to have to want for anything.”
To make sure that was possible, Russell called for a collection of Martin moving lights, including 12 MAC 2000 Performances, 12 MAC 2000 Washes, 32 MAC 700 Profiles, 44 MAC 700 Washes, 12 MAC 250 Washes, 12 MAC 250 Entours and 20 StageBar 54Ls. On the conventional side of things, Russell specified around 300 ETC Source Four PAR fixtures, two Lycian StarkLite II followspots as well as 50 Chroma-Q Cascade color changers and 40 Ocean Optics SeaChanger dichroic color changers. Four Martin JEM 24/7 Hazers were spec’d to provide the interference medium.
Video and Control
Russell also took the opportunity to upgrade the video system at the venue, calling for 36 Martin LC 2140 LED panels. “It’s in one solid piece, so it’s about 40-feet wide by 20-feet tall,” he reports. “That’s the biggest I’ve ever installed. In fact, when we put all 36 panels in we had to clock it back because the intensity was so incredible. It was just awesome.”
On the control side of things, Russell ordered a Martin Maxxyz console with a Maxxyz PC for back up. Three 15” ELO touch screen monitors were also put in. He picked the Maxxyz for a couple of reasons. “I had my experience with the Wholehog 3 and I enjoyed it, but I was drawn to try to keep the system as manufacturer-centered as possible,” he says. “Also, I thought the versatility of the Maxxyz was unbelievable. I jumped on it without taking a formal class and I was able to start patching and programming in under an hour.”
The Maxxyz also provided Russell with flexibility and functionality. As an example he points to the fact that he can load a feature set in to the console, network to a PC and then use an outboard Martin Ethernet-to-DMX converter to output new DMX512 universes. “We installed four Ether/DMX boxes so we had 12 outboard universes that we had access to, not to mention the eight on board if we ever got in a pinch and had to have that as a backup,” he explains. “I was all about trying to have as much functionality as possible in this entire system because at one point or another, things are going to break and you have to be able to work around it as quickly as possible. I wanted to have every option I could right at my fingertips.”
The fact that the Oak Ridge Boys Theatre was going to be a popular tour stop for touring acts was another driving factor in the choice of the Maxxyz. “I felt the Maxxyz was pretty intuitive and anybody with Hog experience could come in and jump on it fairly quickly and get going,” he says. “In addition, if somebody chose to bring in their own console and just patch into the rig or a portion of the rig, I had all my data set right there at the booth so they could break into it and patch into the data right there. Again, I’m all about the options and having everything so you can work around on the fly as quick as possible.”
Mother of a Load
When it came to the installation process, Russell worked with George Fields of Geo Rigging to make sure the existing infrastructure could handle the added load. The building, which was designed with a mother beam setup, required some bolstering and the rigging needed an additional seven line sets on the fly rail. Fields installed new arbors to accommodate the additional weight of all the moving lights.
There were also a handful of necessary upgrades, including the installation of eight one-ton LodeStar hoists along with approximately 80 feet of ballroom truss at the front of house position to support the new MAC 2000s. To control that, a Skjonberg Motor Control was installed.
All in all, Russell admits that the building, rigging and electrical systems were in fairly good shape. “Fortunately because of the good backbone of ETC dimming there was very little we had to do on that side of it,” Russell says. “The rest of it was just having the electricians set 800 amps of additional power for all the moving lights that we were installing.”
To be sure, this wasn’t a simple installation, but it’s telling that Russell says that one of the top challenges the team faced was storage. “We didn’t have any off-site storage, so once we bought all the product it was delivered and we had it sitting on stage for months,” he says. “We couldn’t get around to installing it, because we weren’t at a point in the process to use it.”
While Russell and Fields were important parts of the venue’s renovation, audio designer Danny Stone upgraded the audio system and Dwight Swanson at Stage Krafters did the scenery. Russell’s company is Steinas Systems (www.steinas.com).
Topping the Mansion
Months after the Oak Ridge Boys Theatre was opened, Russell believes he answered the challenge of building the best theatre in Branson. He was inspired by The Mansion, a venue owned by the same owners, and a design that uses over 80 Vari*Lite fixtures. “There was a point in time that The Mansion was the top theatre as far as the lighting and sound package,” he says. “The LD set the bar back in 2003. I wanted to go one step further.”
One quick look at the equipment list and the photos of the Oak Ridge Boys Theatre proves that he accomplished his goal.
