Bugsy Malone Lighting

Bugsy Malone was my 6th and final production as head of OSC's lighting department. I started last year doing lighting for the gala concert. It has taken perseverance and commitment to the craft of lighting to get to the point where I could do a two hour show with the skill and competence that I was able to manage for this production. When I started last year I was a single person at the lighting board doing minimal lighting changes that coincided neatly with scene changes. Bugsy Malone features more than 50 changes both major and minor and I was responsible for 2 spot operators and a special effects operator. Split scenes were something new that I had never tired before. In Bugsy there are scenes where Fat Sam is talking on the phone on one side of the stage and other characters come and go from the other side, this meant that I had to adjust my lighting changes both to match the flow of the scene and to make clear the separation between places. I think I succeeded in several instances but had I been designed the set as well as lighting and if I knew what I know now I think i could have made the changes even smoother. I hope to be able to take the skills I learned during Bugsy and improve the lighting I will do in theater during college.

(Final Bow, my lighting design for the cabaret songs. Photo by OSC)

It was a new challenge for me to have to coordinate both lights and cues with other people. I ended up going through the play multiple times with both of my spot operators to ensure that we all knew ever cue.  We had to work collaboratively in oder to make the changes smooth because while they operated where the spot lights were only I could actually turn them on and off. This required absolute coordination so that i never turned light on when they were not focused and so that they never moved the lights erratically while I had them on. The same goes for Virath who was the operator of the strobe in the show. There were multiple moments where I had to turn the lights off just as he turned the strobe on so we had to coordinate cues. My timing still could have used some work but since this was the first time I had ever undertaken the kind of coordination that this required I am quite pleased with the result.

(The Dandy Dan Gang Scene, with the sunlight color of Light I designed evident. Photo by OSC)

Harder than the coordination between operators was the coordination between the director and me. In the past I have played a role closer to junior lighting designer where I took broad instructions such as "many colors during this scene" and then translated them into actual cues and lighting guides. Whereas during this production my role was closer to that of a technical director. I was given very specific things to do and I had to figure out how to do them without limited lighting equipment. I realized during this production that I like technical direction a lot, I frankly really enjoyed do the sort of more practical work, but that I have two many strong opinions on design decisions to ever do this sort of thing long term. 

Attached is a Sample of the Lighting Cue Documentation from Bugsy Malone 

Page	Cue	Action
0	ALK’s Signal	fHouse Lights Down
1	Bugsy Malone is being played	Night Lights up, with moon and stars, Right spot on Roxy
2	Bugsy: ‘Had been well and truly scrambled’ Undertakers Enter	Moon and stars off RS on Roxy, LS undertakers as they enter when LF reaches Roxy RS on Busy
2	Bugsy: “My names Bugsy, Bugsy Malone.”	LS on Singers + RS on Bugsy, Night Off + Lower Wash on
3	End of Song	RS on Bugsy and Fizzy, Left Spot Off
3	Blousy Enters	LF on following Blousy
4	Bugsy: Liveliest Join in Town	Speak Easy + Effects Lights, Both Spots on Dancers
5	Song Ends	Effect Lights Stop
6	Fat Sam: Knuckle dis means trouble.	Black out on stage, LS on paper boy
6	Paper Boy: Read all about it	RS, On radio announcer
7	Radio Announcer: Nice Spot for a….	Speak Easy Lights come on
8	Gang: Nothing Boss. AAAAAH!	Blackout, Front + Stair Lights come on. LS follows Blousy, RS follows
9	Blousey: No Starving.	Restaurant lighting comes on
10	Bugsy: we can’t go on meeting like this.	Spots on, black out on other lights. RS on first foreign reporter
11	Immediately after previous cue, when reporter starts talking	LS on, on window for second reporter
11	Immediately after previous cue, when reporter starts talking	Right reporter light on
11	Immediately after previous cue, when reporter starts talking	Left reporter light on
11	When all reporters stop talking	Blackout,  Dandy Dan’s Sunlight on
12	Doodle: Boss give me a break! Boss!	DDS down, duller speakeasy up
13	Fizzy: Night Miss Tallulah	RS on Fizzy
14	End of song and curtains close	Front + Stair on, RS on De Veldt in audience, LS on acts
15	ODV: Don’t give up your day job.	RS on Bugsy and Blousey
51	Bugsy: Shhs there’s a truck pulling up	Down and out lights up
52	Bugsy: Listen.	Lower house on
53	Smolsky: we know you’re in there	Center Stair light on
55	O’Dreary: Somewhere else, Captain. Smolsky Bashes O’Dreay with his hat	Black out on Down and Outs, DDS up
56	Dandy Dan: To kind, too kind. Now for fat Sam’s grand Slam.	DDS down, Speakeasy lights up
56	Bugsy: Razamataz, Hit the ivories!	Effects up