Choir Boy

Assistant Technical Director

Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Christopher Betts

Scenic Design by Anna Grigo

Technical Direction by Dominick Pinto

Assistant Technical Direction by Laura Copenhaver, Shaoqian Lu, & Andrew Riedemann

For Choir Boy, I was tasked with the technical design for the show deck, two deck tracks, and all of the moving units that interacted with the deck tracks. The downstage track needed to support multiple units. One of those units, a pair of beds, had to track on stage and rotate into position.

Process and Product

The Beds

The dorm room beds in their onstage position.

The Principal's Office

Two sliding panels back the desk and bench that traveled onstage on the deck tracks.

The Riser Lift

A hydraulic powered cable lift that served as the choral risers.

Another view of the Office

The Trap Room

The winches for the deck tracks were located in the trap room, along with the structure for the pit lift.

Deck Winches

We used stock deck winches to drive the deck tracks. The cables traveled up through custom made trap plugs to the stage floor.

Hole in the Floor!

The open space for the pit lift on the first day of load-in. Everyone looks so well rested!

The Tracks

Me installing the access hole covers for the deck tracks.

Show Deck and Sliders

Carpenters installing the last piece of moulding onto the slider panels.

Psssshhhh psshhhh!

The beds needed brakes to hold them in place during the scenes. I designed a pneumatic system that actuated four pancake cylinders. It was controlled by a wireless system using RC4s.

The Brake Control Box

The brakes were actuated wirelessly through RC4s, which run on DMX. I used an Arduino controller with a DMX shield to give the automation operator a simple up and down buttons for the brakes.

The Dream Team

Team Scenery for this show were a fantastic group! Left to right: Andrew Riedemann, Laura Copenhaver, Anna Grigo, Dominick Pinto, and Shaoqian Lu