The stately well-appointed theatre at 30 North Van Brunt Street is no stranger to sellout crowds. On November 22, 1926, when it opened as the Plaza Theatre with a double feature headlined by Harry Langdon and Douglas Fairbanks, its $1.10 tickets were the hottest in town. Tickets for this year’s grand reopening of the historic venue, in April were a bit pricier, but they were just as hard to come by. With Jay Leno doing the ribbon cutting, the 1,367-seat theater, now called The Bergen Performing Arts Center, opened its doors to the public once again, following a renovation of its main hall.
The celebrity ribbon cutting wasn’t the only thing drawing attention to the festivities during the theatre’s opening weekend. There was also excitement in the air (quite literally) created by four 60,000-lumen output CHAUVET Professional Maverick Storm 4 Profile fixtures, supplied by Squeek Lights, that were positioned atop the theatre’s marquee by its Lighting Director Justin Maria. Projecting bright white light far into the air and casting gobo patterns on the building, the high-output IP65 rated profiles generated a palpable sense of excitement.
On the weekend’s other night, the excitement was indoors, as Maria used the profile fixtures to accent big moments in a two-hour concert by multi-Grammy nominee, and one of Billboard’s top three jazz musicians of the decade, Boney James.
“We had the Storm Profiles in for the weekend to make our re-reopening that much more special,” said Maria, noting that the theatre’s original reopening occurred in 2003. (Hosting 200 shows a year by the likes of Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Ringo Starr, John Legend, Jerry Lewis, and Willie Nelson, took its toll, making another rehab necessary.)
Outdoors, the Maverick Storm 4 Profiles served as a search light, but having these fixtures on site for two days, Maria wanted to bring them inside to support the performance of one of jazz’s most dynamic artists. “I welcomed the chance to beef up our rig for this show with a moving light that is brighter and more capable of creating big looks for our stage,” he said. “They were used as my upstage floor package for Boney James, and the way they kept up with his energy level didn’t disappoint.”
Maria positioned his four profile fixtures in pairs on upstage risers, stage, and stage right. This put them behind the backup musicians. “Given the number of people on stage and the way this artist moves across the downstage deck, this was the logical choice,” Maria observed.
From these positions, the fixtures were used to create sweeping effects, including a variety of rotating gobos across the stage deck. At other times, they focused on the individual artist and engaged the audience with captivating aerial effects. Drawing on the wide zoom range (6.4ﹾ to 58.3ﹾ) of the fixtures, Maria varied the coverage area of his gobo patterns and aerials. He also relied on the CMY color mixing to set different moods by changing his palette.
“Since this was a jazz show, I went mainly with very saturated colors, deep ambers, violets, different shades of blue and pink,” said Maria. “I also added a few lighter colors to enhance the mood and feel of the artist’s performance.”
Impressed by all he could do with the Maverick Storm 4 Profile, Maria described it as “an extremely versatile fixture.” So versatile, that it could be moved from the marquee roof to the upstage deck, generating excitement every step of the way.
Further information from CHAUVET Professional: www.chauvetprofessional.com
