Jerome Sirlin was well known for his scenic designs using full stage projected images from banks of slide projectors, all manually controlled. His vision for the sets was to have a dozen 8’ wide x 24’ tall panels of white scrim that would be moved across the stage by the dancers into different configurations for each scene, creating spaces for the dancers and different visual effects of depth and transparency. The choreographer struggled to integrate all the set movement in the dance and we were facing a need to compromise both the artistic vision of both collaborators. In addition, as a regional ballet company, this ambitious project had been allocated only $50,000 for all the scenic elements based upon the original concept.

Drawing upon my motion control and electronics experience as an R&D Technician at Fine Arts Technologies, I engineered and fabricated in-house an automated system for moving all the screens across the stage to various preset positions. In addition, I had worked with computerized projector system while working on events for Anheiser-Busch’s corporate presentation division in college and was able to procure a gently used system from a local audio/ visual company. 

Outcome: 

Premiering at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, CT in 1991 the ballet incorporated over 500 slides using 21 projectors.  It was an artistic and critical success.