The Lincoln Amphitheatre in Lincoln City, Indiana recently featured a play about US' 16th president. Lincoln, by Ken Jones,

It’s a biographical drama written in honor of the great man’s bicentennial.

Michael Nevitt, who designed the production’s lighting, described the Lincoln Amphitheatre as a 1,500-seat venue originally built to house a musical titled "Young Abe Lincoln". The new piece is not a musical, although music is involved, most notably a slave choir.

The visuals are augmented by images projected on four screens. “I was part of the team that developed the [Martin] Maxedia, so it was easy for me to integrate into the control system,” says Nevitt, who also did the projections in Lincoln. Speaking of the images, he adds, “Ninety percent was found at the Library of Congress.”

Nevitt worked with video producer Tim Vaughn to create several video sequences highlighting Lincoln’s life in Indiana. "The rest consists of shots I took myself—of the park, and of the Lincoln home, which is five miles down the road. I did everything in the play in black and white while the video sequences, which were outside the realm of the play, where in color.” It’s a strategy that linked the historic and contemporary images." Nevitt says, "one big challenge was the amphitheatre’s largely out-of-date  lighting rig. They have a handful of [ETC] Source Fours, but mostly they have Altman PAR cans and 360Qs,” he notes. “I made use of half of the house gear. But they hired me because they wanted a spectacle, so I put together moving lights to supplement the conventional gear.”

 “Ninety percent of the lighting was done with the movers,” says Nevitt. “I used the conventionals for area lighting and color washes.” He adds that, given the drama’s fluid, time-hopping structure, they were essential. “One minute, Lincoln is being shot at Ford’s Theatre; the next minute, he’s a boy in Indiana. This job would have been impossible without the movers; you would have needed three times the conventionals. I didn’t wiggle them; in the battle scenes, I strobed them and created red explosions. But, for the most part, there were no live moves.” Overall, the show contains approximately 300 called cues in 90 minutes.

The show was programmed on a Compulite Vector Red, and played back on a Green. “The Red is the biggest of the series,” Nevitt says. “It was helpful because you have three touch screens, instead of one. For playback, we have an operator running a single cue list, and a rack-mount Vector node as a tracking backup.” Speaking of the Vector, he says, “As moving light controllers go, it’s very theatrical. Compulite has long been a theatre-oriented company. They’ve integrated all the theatrical elements with the needs for moving lights. The board is very stable, and, because it’s graphical, it’s user-friendly— when less experienced operator are running your show, that’s important.” The show was programmed by oel Young. “It gave him an opportunity to learn the desk, and it gave us both the opportunity to work together on a very creative project,” Nevitt says. In addition to the lighting, the Vector triggers two Maxedia media servers, which feed two Sanyo 15,000- lumen projectors, and two Jem laciator X-Stream foggers. The non-house lighting package was supplied by Creative Stage Lighting.

Intended as a bicentennial celebration, Lincoln is likely to return next year.

The lighting rig included 

18	Mac2K Profile
28	JBLED A7
16	Martin Stagebar
1	Vector Green lighting console (playback)
1	Vector Red lighting console (programming)
1	Vector Node -Video/DMX 4-1/SMS (backup)
2	Maxedia Compact Rackmount Media Server
2	Jem Glaciator X-Stream 208v
2	Hazer
68	6x22 Altman
44	6x16 Altman
4	6x9 Altman
193	Par64 - NSP
10	Source4 - 5 deg
14	Source4 - 19 deg
20	Source4 - 10 deg
2	Sanyo 15,000 Lumens Projectors

Photos by Michael Nevitt