Almost, Maine Lighting...

[carsonld]

Our one act this year is Almost, Maine. Due to one act rules we are not allowed to mess with any lighting (besides the lights the school has already). I have created the northern lights effect that shows up two times in the show, very briefly. I did this by having three ellipsoidal on each boom on SL and SR pointing at the cyc. I was thinking about putting the two booms one a 3x2 wagon and wheeling those into there place when the show starts. My biggest problem is that I cannot plug any of the lights into the floor pockets to control them at the light board, so one, I am going to have to get a edison converter for all these lights, then plug them in when its time for them to come on, but I was wondering if there is a way that I could make them fade on, maybe by getting like a household dimmer? How would yall do this? I am very restricted on what I can do.

 

[Vega]

What about getting some Leviton/NSI type dimmers for your boom wagons, and either setting them up on the light board, or buying a DMX controller to control them with.

 

[JChenault]

Maybe.

You can a baxter pocket console for about $300. A cheap four pack dimmer pack for about $100. But I am concerned about power available. If you want to have six fixtures, you will not be able to run them on a single 20 amp circuit. Will you have available two 20 amp circuits on stage?

I would also review the competition rules carefully, and talk to the adjudicators . The rules for this kind of stuff is usually badly written. Ask ahead of time, and be ready for the rules to change when you get there.

If you can reduce the number of fixtures to four, and keep the power under 20 amps, your chances of pulling this off might be better.

 

[Dionysus]

Used "shoebox" dimmers many times in my highschool career to expand lighting capabilities for drama festivals/competition. Have a secondary control board, nice and cheap like a laptop or NSI console.
Your normal household or even commercial grade "wall switch dimmers" are simply not up to the task very well. Most are rated to at most 600w (and that is not generally recommended). 1kw dimmers are available of course, even in larger sizes. So you'd be still limited to more or less one manual dimmer per one fixture (assuming 500w+). A general wall switch can only handle 15A, commercial grade 20A wall switches are easy enough to get however.
This is all to say more or less, if you want them to come one together, Id say shoebox dimmers are the way to go...

BTW I recall at least one thread about lighting effects for this show you may want to check out.

 

[carsonld]

I like the shoebox idea.. I would have to look into it. It sounds expensive though... And we have some portable dimmers with a elation show control I think but we have 45 minutes to move our set on stage and perform and move it off stage. So I am afraid that might take too long to set up

 

[Dionysus]

I like the shoebox idea.. I would have to look into it. It sounds expensive though... And we have some portable dimmers with a elation show control I think but we have 45 minutes to move our set on stage and perform and move it off stage. So I am afraid that might take too long to set up

For the SEARS DRAMA festival in Ontario you get 10 minutes to set up before show and 5 minutes to tear down, with a short afternoon tech time beforehand to get things tweaked/programmed. Pulled it off several times with shoebox dimmers and separate console for them. Its all about being prepared and thinking it through.

For Sears you are allowed to use the house lighting plot plus 3 specials, and I often wanted extra lighting. Which I achieved with shoebox dimmers. Perfectly allowable for that festival as long as they go up and down with your set in the allotted time and are not connected into the house lighting system at all.

My first time was for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, I needed specials in the centre of the stage, and one on the archway (eating my 3) then added specials on a tall weighted pole on a shoebox dimmer for the stained glass window (shining though with different focuses which i won't detail now). Had an ASM running the shoebox dimmer off stage left, along with a fog machine. Since I had spiked everything and the lights were pre set and focused when we fitted up the set (with focus noted and spiked on the instrument) the focus was checked as the crew member erected the tree. A quick flash up verified the focus once in place. Total time to set up the special was about 1 minute.

 

[MikeJ]

45 MINUTES! That's an eternity. You can surely make this happen.
I'm kind of surprised that someone has not come on here an stomped all over the shoebox dimmer idea for not being up to code and UL listed. That, and that it will open up a vortex into a parallel dimension where everybody eats mayonnaise on hamburgers, thus bringing about the end of existence as we know it.

But...you can get 20A dimmers, they are the ones with the aluminum heat-sink behind the cover plate. Quick and dirty: get a double gang box (a 20A dimmer is usually is this size), a couple of romex connectors, and a couple feet of SJ or SO 12/3, and some Edison connectors to make a male and female tail.

If you don't know how to wire this up, get help from someone who does.

Personally, I would prefer the elation dimmers, but would rather have a simple Dmx controller than a computer, its just less things to connect and less potential for something to go wrong. If you can have the laptop ready to go somewhere and just plug in DMX, that might be your best bet.


You may now flame me for being a Dangerous scary Idiot, who does not know anything about electricity, and is trying to kill everyone.

 

[TheaterEd]

All the ideas work but if I had no budget I would have my stage hands using a black piece of plywood to manually dim the fixtures. Down and dirty but it would work for what you need provided you have the power.