{"id":2,"date":"2021-07-13T17:36:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T17:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/layers\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2022-01-04T18:54:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T23:54:16","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Backstage at “Into the Woods” – photographer unknown<\/p><\/div>\n

Prologue<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

My path to becoming a stagehand<\/strong> started in high school.\u00a0 I was part of a group of students who commandeered an unused, old gym to do theatre.\u00a0 We had to outfit it with platforms, seating, and lighting.\u00a0 We mostly worked in 3\/4 round but we did\u00a0 \u201cSouth Pacific\u201d with small stages around the space and the audience in the center.<\/em>
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\nWe also created light shows for the mixers (dances) at our school and nearby schools.\u00a0 These consisted of multi-image slide and wet shows, and a few special, home-made lighting effects.\u00a0 The failure of some of these effects taught me how to deal with emergencies (usually fires) and learn from autopsies on the ruined equipment.<\/em>
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\nDuring the summer between high school and college, I volunteered as an electrician for \u201cThe Threepenny Opera\u201d at Wildwood Summer Theater.\u00a0 This was my first experience with \u201cprofessional\u201d theater.\u00a0 Many of the staff and actors were college students, studying theater.\u00a0 We worked in a new, fully-equipped, proscenium theater with a multi-scene preset controlled electronic dimmer system.\u00a0 I remember watching the lighting designer create a beautiful slow sunset on the cyc.\u00a0 Later, I went backstage to look at the fixtures he used and found only 3-circuit strip-lights.\u00a0 I was impressed!<\/em>
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\nAt college I started working with the Mimes and Mummers, a student-run drama group that was founded in 1855.\u00a0 We worked in a proscenium theater built in 1905.\u00a0 I worked on every production in my four years there and served as president for the last two years.\u00a0 It was here where I met Tony Giovanetti and Myles Ambrose.\u00a0 From them I learned much about theater, at Fordham and beyond, and also about finding fulfillment in this business.\u00a0 We all, at different times, became Local One members through\u00a0<\/em>the apprenticeship program.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Checking. lights for a Sara Bareilles concert at City Center – photographer Justin Malone<\/p><\/div>\n

Bio<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Eric Schultz<\/strong> (Stagehand<\/em>) graduated from Fordham University with the Rev. Alfred Barrett, SJ, Memorial Award (for high ideals in theatre) and began a Local One IATSE apprenticeship at Theatresound\/Four Star Stage Lighting, a provider of lighting equipment to almost all of the Broadway and National touring shows.<\/span>\u00a0 This coincided with the beginning of the transition to computer-controlled lighting on Broadway.<\/span>\u00a0 In addition to the great hands-on education, he had the opportunity to meet and work with every production electrician and most of the lighting designers in the business.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was Master Electrician on several shows for the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Public Theater and the Delacorte Theater, including \u201cGoose and Tomtom\u201d, (lighting by Victor En Yu Tan), \u201cThe Death of Von Richtofen As Witnessed From Earth\u201d (lighting by Richard Nelson), and \u201cKing Richard III\u201d (lighting by Pat Collins).<\/p>\n

He was the Laser and Iron Dress Operator for \u201cSunday in the Park With George\u201d (effects by Bran Ferren), Pyro-technician for \u201cRaggedy Ann\u201d (pyro by Douglas Lange), Technical Consultant for \u201cBig Deal\u201d (lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer), and Laser Safety Officer for the movie \u201cManhattan Project\u201d (effects by Bran Ferren).<\/p>\n

He was Master Electrician at the Joyce Theater for two years, doing over 40 productions, mostly modern dance.<\/p>\n

Eric returned to Broadway as Head Electrician for \u201cInto the Woods\u201d (lighting by Richard Nelson), \u201cTru\u201d (lighting by Ken Billington), \u201cMichael Feinstein in Concert\u201d (lighting by David Agress), \u201cThe Secret Garden\u201d (lighting by Tharon Musser), and \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d (lighting by Paul Gallo).<\/p>\n

With Richard Nelson, Tina Charney, and Eric Cornwell, he formed Lucida Corporation to create and market Express Track\u00ae, a lighting-cue tracking and analysis software and to design architectural lighting.\u00a0 <\/span>Their largest architectural project was the exhibition spaces at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.<\/p>\n

He finished his career as Head Electrician at New York City Center, doing over 600 productions in 25 years, including, in dance \u2013 Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, ABT, Eifman Ballet, and the first 14 seasons of Fall for Dance Festival; musicals \u2013 the first 23 years of the Encores! series; straight plays \u2013 National Theatre of Greece, Cherry Orchard Festival, Lincoln Center Festival.<\/p>\n

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Prologue My path to becoming a stagehand started in high school.\u00a0 I was part of a group of students who commandeered an unused, old gym to do theatre.\u00a0 We had to outfit it with platforms, seating, and lighting.\u00a0 We mostly worked in 3\/4 round but we did\u00a0 \u201cSouth Pacific\u201d with small stages around the space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"page-about.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"metadata":{"_wp_page_template":["page-about.php"],"_edit_last":["270"],"_wpac_members_redirect_to":[""],"_wpac_show_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_show_excerpt_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_nonmembers_redirect_to":[""],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"_oembed_aab47b30c39a45e364c213bc68bbb73e":["{{unknown}}"],"_edit_lock":["1641340457:270"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"ase_mapbox_style":["openstreet"]},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/schultzeric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}