Christmas Carol & Ming Cho Lee

I am master electrician for a production of Christmas Carol this season. It falls just between a few of my other shows, so I have had to take it on in an extremely organized manner – the days I have allotted to it are all I can give them, with very little room for extra time. Luckily the LD is also the Production Manager, so he’s got a handle on what else is happening in the space and knows what he needs. Spreadsheets and Vectorworks files are the order of the day, as is the coffee machine that sits outside the hall.

This show had it’s original 12+ year run at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ, and the set was designed by Yale’s legendary Ming Cho Lee – his last, as it turns out, before he retired. It is now being put on by New Arts, an organization that came about in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, here in CT.

The bedroom wagon, in particular, is loaded with all kinds of practicals and clever bits to make the ghostly apparitions more believable. Lighting is a thing I do, but normally doesn’t excite me as much as other departments. But I LOVE practicals and making all of the little bits work in this show! Lot of work to crawl around in small spaces with a headlamp and wire things together. The result is beautiful.

I work on a LOT of shows, and often don’t get to see them. This is one show I am going to be sad about missing. At least Mary and a friend of ours can take my tickets, and tell me about it afterwards.

-brian