Meet Andy Alcala - Projection Designer!

Hello Readers! It has been incredible to see audience responses over the past few shows. We had one audience member share what it meant to her to see this show on stage. She said “ This was an amazing performance. As a second generation Indian American and with children who are bi-racial it is so hard to come by Indian art and dance in the inner Portland area. I am so happy that my girls were exposed to this show and excited about seeing their heritage on stage. Bravo NWCT for supporting multicultural art and drama! This may be some children's only exposure to Indian dance.” Such a heart warming response!

In this blog post today, we are thrilled to be talking to Andres Alcala - the Projection Designer for Chitra- The Girl Prince. Here’s what Andy had to say about working on this production:

I am the co director of the Intern Program at the Northwest Children’s Theatre and consider myself to be an artist in resident though that is not an official title. I simply call Northwest Children’s Theatre my creative home. I graduated from Southern Oregon State College with a BFA in Acting- though my minor was in TV studio media production. Here at the children’s theatre I have been on stage as an actor, developed material with the Interns, directed the Second stage productions of Hair, Rock the Presidents, Tempest, and worked on video projections for many different productions including one that I had the privilege of developing 10 years ago and brought it here co-directing, performed in and worked on video- called The Sun Serpent, a story about two brothers during the conquest of mexico performed with three actors, multiple masks, and video projections.

And here I am working on a piece that is just as rich if not richer. Though there are plays out there that have a culture diverse message or may represent a person from a specific culture, it is rare that you get to collaborate with a group of artists that come together to ensure that the story is told with authenticity. Bringing in dancers and performers from different backgrounds to breathe life into Chitra has been such a joy to experience. The challenges that arise in doing shows like this may come from the very simple idea that it is an unknown title. Usually there is a book or a story that causes a buzz as to why an audience might like to see a play- they might want to see how they are going to tell the story in a live theatrical setting. But when it comes to new work it becomes more challenging. Challenging in getting the word out about the show when there is no frame of reference to a book. As the show was approaching the week before tech- I knew I was witnessing something very special. I would stop what I was working on with regards to projections when the dances would happen and just get drawn in by the sheer beauty of movement and story telling that was happening in another form. I was struck with how important it was as a projection designer to support what we as a collective were doing, to help support the story. I would like to think of it as seeing the content and performers as setting the bar for what the world of projections should look like.

I started pulling images from various places to see what might inspire me, or more importantly the directors as to which direction we might go in. I found some of the Bollywood movies to give so much inspiration in the lush and epic feel in the visual aspects of those movies. However this is a theatrical setting, not a film. One of the things that became very apparent was the idea that we wanted to show change in locations. There needed to be a distinct difference from the Palace in Manipur to the camps where the Bandits were hiding out. In our collaborative conversations about projections- we set when we wanted to use projections to set the location and when they might be actually in the scene as a backdrop.

Personally where I found my inspiration for using a smoking effect for transitioning from scene to scene was after a trip I was on recently with my mom to Arizona. Driving through the desert we saw some dirt devils, they are like little mini twisters that pick up dust and swirl around. I was stuck on that beautiful imagery for a while, thinking about how it can be so beautiful and destructive. At times I thought of the circular motion going round and round and how stories come back around- same issues- different times. In our story of Chitra- it was feeling very much the same way when it comes to search of identity- a story that was “5000 years old, or something like that”. as Madan, the god of love says in our play. Then the effect was clinched for me wanting to use it when I went to see Coco. A beautiful animated film about a mexican boy discovering his heritage and love for music. I have seen it twice already. But in the story- I saw these transitions from the world of the living to the world of the dead- past and present--- there were marigolds and wisps of smoke that took us from place to another- different from what I accomplished in Chitra but with the same idea.

The core of Chitra for me is finding what your heart is telling you. Your heart may be to live with the duty and loyalty you have to your job, or family, or it may be to yourself and following your own path. In the end- I think that believe that Chitra- discovers that she doesn't have to give up one to find something else- she just needs to find balance. You can follow your heart- but don’t forget your path as it leads you away from everything you have come to discover in loving along the way.

In implementing the projections for this production it was crucial that Carl Faber our amazing lighting designer and I were on the same page. Projections are basically light- so stage lights could wash out the projection surfaces. In the technical rehearsal- I had a couple places where I put up place holders to show that we needed to have a balance as to the brightness of the projections might need to be seen. We collaborated as to when those were going to be shown. In a couple of instances I worked with some of the design elements that I have learned in the past few years.

We used two projectors for this show. You can gain a wide surface area with two, however you can also double up on the brightness if you over lap them a bit. So I did just that. I overlapped the projectors to make sure that I can have extremely bright projections on the center disc- especially in the scenes when the stage lights were going to be up. This would allow us to be able to see the video and still see the stage lights. Mosts effective in the scene when it appears that three individuals are going behind the big round disc and we project to show as if they are behind the disc. Or in the water fall at the top of Act 2 which has stage light through the whole opening dance sequence.

So very proud of what we created with Chitra, the girl Prince. I hope you were able to see it.

Thank you so much Andy for taking the time to talk to us about your process and thoughts about this project!