Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983 - 16

log signal into an on/off mode. The
receiver, thus amended, controlled the
action of a solenoid which, in turn, controlled the flow of blood. A battery pack
powered the receiver and the solenoid.
A pressure cylinder containing liquid
Freon was rebuilt, with new fittings,
from a small propane torch set-up. Using this liquid, which gases off, maintains a relatively constant vapor pressure. The Freon gas was used to propel
the Alcone blood from its reservoir
through plastic tubing to a "T" fitting
and then down the arms to the hands,
where it seeped out through perforated,
flesh-tone surgical tape.
By using a three-way solenoid, when
it was de-energized it not only closed
off the propellent but relieved the line
pressure so that the blood stopped,
rather than slowly trickling down to
nothing. Once the amount of blood was
finally agreed upon, everyone was satisfied with the effect and there have been
no onstage failures of the system. Huggins used a very similar system to make
an actor bleed from the chest in Belly of
the Beast, designed by Eugene Lee at
Trinity Square.
Some effects never make it into the
show and some shows never make it out
of their premiere. For example, Huggins
was asked to consider olutions to the
problem of overheated actor in K-2.
This production places two actors on a
small ledge of ice 27,000 feet up the
world's second highe t mountain in
state-of-the-art cold weather gear. This
is fine at sub-zero temperatures, but less
than pleasant under stage lights. Huggins pursued the ideas of either gelpacks, similar to those used in athletics,
or of lUbing in the costumes themselves
that would circulate refrigerant around
the actors and then pass through an offstage heat exchanger (similar to a NASA
suit), the connecting hose being disguised in the myriad ropes and climbing
lines. However, before this got past the
early planning stage, the "real" cold
weather clothing was reconstructed to
allow the actors to only appear to be
kept warm. Huggins notes thal lhis approach of treating the disea e, rather
than the symptom, i far more sensible.
Huggins designed some effects for an
early \'ersion of The Tap Dance Kid and
some of these ideas made their way into
the Broad\\'ay musical Cats. Huggins
had found a useful bit of lechnology in
aircraft instrument panels in the form
1-1

Theatre Design & Technolog)

of electro-luminescent (EL) lamps.
These unusual glowing shapes look like
flat, thin, pliable pieces of yellow-green
plastic when not energized. When provided with a small electric current at
l20Y, they glow with a surprisingly
bright, eerie, nearly monochromatic
light. The EL lamps can be made in a
variety of colors, shapes, and sizes (but
can not be "cut to fit") and utilize a
phosphorescent principle similar to a
fluorescent lUbe. Huggins made a pair
of glowing tap hoes from the EL lamps
for The Tap Dance Kid. They were
powered by 9V balleries and a converter

Electro-Iuminesce/ll lamps, in the shape
of "cat's eyes" were a{[ached to the
Siamese Cats' cost limes in Cat .
to provide the appropriate voltage.

Later, in Cats, Ihese same lamps, in
blue, provided glowing "cal's eyes" all
o\'er the Siamese Cats' costumes.
The Tap Dance Kid also required
gIO\\'ing canes lhat could be danced with,
lhrown around, and bounced off the
floor. Huggins' first approach was to
bore out the center of 32" x 3 ~ " Plexiglas rods and fill them with liquid light
chemicals similar to those used in portable emergency "light sticks" and carni\'altoy light strings. There were problems, however. These chemicals require
cold refrigeration (of the liquid nitro-

SITT Willler 1983

gen variety) and were, therefore, cumbersome to handle. The chemicals also
had a significant drawback in that they
reacted with the Plexiglas and stopped
glowing. Given these difficulties, Huggins went back to square one and redesigned the canes using crystal styrene inside polybuterate and the principle of
fiber optics. The handles of the canes
each concealed a small, incredibly bright
lamp with a parabolic reflector that is
normally u ed for model aircraft landing lights. These 6V lamps were focused
down the clear plastic canes and \\'ere
over-driven by a 9V battery, also concealed in the handle. The canes glowed
evenly along their length because the
light, thus "channeled," does not spread
out and lose intensity according to the
inverse square law. And they could be
handled just like a regular cane. The e
miniature "beam projector" lamps al 0
found their way into Cats.
The "light co lUme" in the Broadway production of Cats consists of
dozens of the small landing light lamp
all ached to the COSlUme in four circuits.
The actor selects the circuit(s) to acti\'ate by means of four contacts, one
on each finger, and a common contact
on the thumb. These contact trigger
relays that control the actual lamp circuits. The pO\\'er supply consist of
forty-eight 9V Duracell balleries wired
in parallel. A little figuring \\'ill re\'eal a
total current capacity in this COSlUme
on the order of 90 amps. ("He can
jump-start a truck," jokes Huggins.)
;\luch less juice is necessary to po\\'er
the "eyes" in the Siamese Cats' costumes. These are the EL lamps manufactured in their appropriate hapes, attached to the cost umes and pO\\'ered bv
9\1 batteries run through a voltage
COJl\·ener.
Perhap the most intriguing engineering feat Huggins achieved in Cats is
Gus' onstage transformation from a
"small, wimpy" cat into the muscular
marvel Growltiger in a matter of
seconds. The "muscles" are fixeddimension air bladders in the shoulders
of the COSlUme made of diaphragm rubber (fabric bonded bel\\'een layers of
neoprene). The effect is actuated by a
radio ignal from a transmitter similar
to that used in Agnes. Two recei\'ers,
one for each ide, COnt rol olenoids that
open \'alves bet ween the air bladders
and the propellent resen'oir. The reser\'oir container is 80°"0 full of liquid R-12

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983