# bye bye birdie



## ccfan213 (May 5, 2005)

a few alumni of my hs decided to do a 10 year annaversary of the show from 1995, Bye Bye Birdie. they plan to use as much of the old cast as possible and fill in the rest with students. because everyone does not live in town anymore and they cant rehearse regularly they are doing a concert reading style thing with the actors using scrpits and an orchestra and choir on stage. there will be minimal set if any, so the show will rely on lighting design for alot. we are trying to get more fixtures and a cyc. if anyone has any advice on anything, anythign at all please help me out. while i know many of the songs im not very familiar with the show and can reallly use all the help i can get.


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## ccfan213 (May 6, 2005)

i hate posting to get my topic back on the recent posts list.... but i have to cause i really need any advice you can give me.


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## cutlunch (May 6, 2005)

Hi Matt. If you take a look at something like the Les Miserable Concert video that might give you some ideas. Basically all you can do is area lighting plus general colour washes. You also mention the possibly of a Cyc so that will give colour options. You just have to match the colours to the mood of the songs, scenes etc. I don't know how big your theatre is or how many lights, dimmers you have. If you have enough lights and dimmers your area lighting could be done as separate cold and warm washes to give more flexibilty. Don't make the areas to small as it is a read through actors won't have learned exact blocking.

A big thing, which you may already know the answer to, is, does the orchestra have their own lighted music stands. If so not a problem you will only have to light them for effect. If not you will need to provide downlight on the music. Also this applies to the choir and their music. You will have to decide how bright the musicans should appear.

Hope this gives you some ideas.


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## wolf825 (May 6, 2005)

ccfan213 said:


> a few alumni of my hs decided to do a 10 year annaversary of the show from 1995, Bye Bye Birdie. they plan to use as much of the old cast as possible and fill in the rest with students. because everyone does not live in town anymore and they cant rehearse regularly they are doing a concert reading style thing with the actors using scrpits and an orchestra and choir on stage. there will be minimal set if any, so the show will rely on lighting design for alot. we are trying to get more fixtures and a cyc. if anyone has any advice on anything, anythign at all please help me out. while i know many of the songs im not very familiar with the show and can reallly use all the help i can get.



Ugh I hate that show...but only cause I have done it so often... If you know the story of Elvis getting drafted--its a parady off that... If anyone says "who is Elvis"--I will shoot them.  

The synopsis is like this.. Sweet Apple USA is the town... Dumb singer guy finally becomes a huge rock star (for the 50's he's a rock star) with the brains of a peach pit, but at the height of his fame he gets drafted. His agent has spent his life savings to promote "Conrad Birdie" and now he is a superstar--who just got drafted..and the agent will be in ruins. Agent (Alfred) is desparate to get himself out of debt so he can quit being an agent and hook up with his girlfriend who is tired of him putting his business in front a life together. Agent decides to stage the Ed Sullivan Show to broadcast Conrads "farewell" performance before being inducted into the Army from the little town of Sweet Apple... Lots of "screaming fans" treat him like Elvis or the Beatles..Lots of little sub plots that cry for attention. Conrad is looked upon as "dreamy" by all the teenage gals..and the parents think he is a hood and that he is no good coming from "rock and roll"...and he gets arrested after his show for being "debauchery" life of a rock star.

To light this--there are a few basic looks for a very basic premise.. First--the town of Sweet Apple--where the Sweet Apple Conrad Birdie fan club will have their issues..make a night and day scene--blue for nite and amber for daylight. Next--you need the home set of the the MacAfee's--where Conrad will get set up to stay and do some scenes... Again--simple wash with center special around the dining table. Also, You will need the Train Station scene of Sweet Apple--for the enter and exit scenes at the beginning and end of the show.. Simple--use the daylight scene from Sweet Apple... FINALLY--you need some "dark and flashy" sound-stage type look with flashy "concert" lights, and a small stage for his big song "one last kiss", for the Birdie farewell show performance on Ed SUllivan..which is right before intermission.. Sound cues--only big sound cue needed is an actual copy from the Ed SUllivan show where Ed Sullivan announces Conrad Birdie to the viewing audience...rare but not too hard to find. 

Hope that helps ya.... 
-w


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## BNBSound (May 6, 2005)

For your "concert" look, try for some foot lights. That'll really dial in that 50's era stage feel.


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## Les (May 7, 2005)

you can't just use your own artistic sense?


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## ccfan213 (May 7, 2005)

Lester said:


> you can't just use your own artistic sense?



because we are only having rehearsals the 2 days before we open, and there are other small concerts both of those nights i will not have enough time to figure everything out based on what the scenes look like during rehearsals. i need to have everything ready in a more general way so that i can just figure it out as i go


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