by Samantha Manas

Created on: May 22, 2008

In a society of racing technological innovation, theater had been struggling to keep up in the video department. In recent years, however, we've seen more and more projection design entering into the theater world and more and more theater professionals recognizing this art.
I recently saw Sunday in the Park with George at Studio 54. The set is comprised mostly of simple white walls. Upon walking into the theater, I thought this was an odd choice. After all, white is a very difficult color to light. However, the play opens with a projection of "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" being sketched by an invisible hand and pencil. For the rest of the first act, the outside scenes are set by projection.

This method of creating a location is also used in A Catered Affair. In this case, projection is used to generate various parts of the Bronx in 1953.We have also seen it used in productions such as Spamalot to create funny little sketches and sequences between scenes. This greatly added to the character of this fun musical.
It is true that Richard Pilbrow used projections for the Broadway musical Golden Boy as early as 1964. Boris Aronson also used this art for Company in 1970. Still, this use did very little to push the industry further in its use of video and projection. Back then projection was done with slides, which made it time consuming and difficult to change.
Today, though, we can animate full sequences on a laptop and easily change what we will see. It no longer takes a few days to swap a photo. Now one can do it almost instantaneously and as a result, it is now an integral part of the theatrical landscape.
Still, projection designers continue to fight to have projection design recognized as a legitimate art form and they have seen some success. This past February, projection designers were taken into the fold of United Scenic Artists, the union that represents costume, set, lighting, and sound designers. This is largely thanks to Zachary Borovay, who had been advocating this induction for two years prior to their recent inclusion. Shortly after, the Drama Desk Awards also created a new award for Outstanding Projection and Video Design.
Clearly, video technology is finding its way into the theater. With projection, we can create funny little sequences between scenes or simply change the scene as often as we like. With the recognition of this art form, we can only expect more fabulous video and projection to come.

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