Passionate Don Juan ‘Performance’

The story of legendary lover Don Juan is playing to spectacular success at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal. The musical, sung in French, plays out in Sevilla, Spain with a cast of Spanish flamenco dancers, live musicians and a cast of local singing stars. Following a February to early summer run at St. Denis, Don Juan hits the road travelling to Quebec and Ottawa before opening next year in Paris followed by a tour in France.

Lighting designer is Axel Morgenthaler, recognized as one of Canada’s most innovative visual designers, whose talents encompass lighting design, set design and multimedia art. Axel integrated a number of automated and color-changing lights into the set including 102 MAC 2000 Performance and 10 Atomic strobes, as well as other automated lighting, LED lighting and conventionals. Kloda Production of Montreal supplied the Martin lighting distributed in Canada by Martin Canada.

Visuals help tell the story
Because the musical is broken down into songs, with dancing and little speaking, the story is told visually through the music. Consequently, set and lighting are very important elements. “The musical is based on songs that tell the story so we wanted to bring out the feeling and emotion of the songs through the visuals,” Axel commented. “We had to create different atmospheres, for example an indoor scene, a sunny day outside, a church, or a duel for the final showdown. The shows critically acclaimed director Gilles Maheux is well known for his highly visual style and I had to be flexible with my rig to accommodate the working style of the director.”

As the only moving fixture on the show, the MAC 2000 Performance units showed their versatility in helping to create these various atmospheres. They were located throughout the set and used as effect lighting on cycloramas, side lighting from four on-stage booms, front of house for front lighting and for projection.

MAC 2000 Performance shuttering and effects
Axel used the MAC 2000 Performance animation wheel to great effect. “It was the main reason for choosing the instrument,” he states. “I wanted shuttering and effects different than standard stacked gobo pattern designing. It is a very dynamic show but also a theatrical show and I needed something that was powerful and versatile that gives me animation above the stacked gobo quality. I was looking for realistic textures, something more organic. I needed the shutters because I had very narrow beams I wanted to use and then in other sections I needed more texturing capabilities of the instrument. Having the ability in each of the instruments to do all of those features gave me great flexibility in designing. It’s a good all around fixture.”

Another major argument for choosing the MAC 2000 Performance was the shutter and the versatility of the instrument. Axel comments, “It’s a theatrical show and not a rock ‘n roll show so we were interested in very precise shuttering. And because the Performances were used as additional side lighting for the dance part, which was a big element of the show, I wanted to use it as a way of replacing Lekos in the booms together with the LED strips.”

3-D rain effect
Axel describes one dramatic scene, the final showdown, in which the Performance, Atomic strobes and hazers are used to great effect. Fifty overhead Performance units are used to create a realistic 3-D rain of light made by shuttering down and then strobing the units in random. “It’s a stunning effect and it really looks like it’s raining on stage,” he says. 

Another stunning effect occurs at the end of act one, a war scene in which Don Juan’s archrival goes on a war quest. “We have an 18 foot wide drop of fog,” Axel states. “Onto that smoke curtain I project a custom-made high resolution gobo from a MAC 2000 Performance. It’s a great look.”

Atomic strobe
One of many distinctive set elements is a raised area and 24-foot long motorized ‘teeter-totter’ used to create ramps. Another key element is a huge turntable located in the middle of the stage. As the entire stage is raised by about 15 inches, Axel placed four Atomic strobes into the floor traps underneath. Three Atomics are also located behind the cyclorama to create flash patterns with the rest of the strobes located overhead. LED lighting in the form of Color Kinetics Colorblaze is incorporated for side lighting purposes.

 

Axel Morgenthaler has more than 80 lighting designs and 15 set designs to his credit. He explores new concepts in set design, visual arts and architecture by using light as his raw material for creation with video, multimedia and cinema as his supporting elements. In 2002 he was awarded a Bessie Award in New York for the best set and lighting design for "Luna" by the O Vertigo Dance Company. International film and television productions have also hired him to produce special effects having to do with lighting. In 2001, he co-founded with Martin Gagnon the visual design company Photonic Dreams, with the objective of offering a global visual approach to dance, theater, architecture and art show projects. In 2004 he received recognition for the best Interior Architectural Lighting Design by the IES (International Engineering Society) when receiving the “Prix lumière” for his work for the Hotel Auberge St. Antoine in Quebec City. His company can be reached at www.photonicdreams.com

 

Crew:
Lighting Designer: Axel Morgenthaler
Design Collaborator: Martin Gagnon
Assistant to Designer: Louis Philipe Morency
2nd Assistant: Vish Beardsell
Programmer: Michel Pommerleau
Lighting Crew Chief: Karl Gaudreault
Head Electric: Denis Ayotte
Moving Light Technician: Nicolas Guilbert
Follow Spot leader: Louis Philipe Morency
Technical Director: Charles Ethier
Lighting Supplier: Kloda Production