Look Solutions Provides Solution for Broadway's Real Women Have Curves

	The props department provided the electrics team with the body of a real iron that had nearly all of the internal components removed.

Real Women Have Curves ran in the James Earl Jones Theater from March to June, after enjoying an "out-of-town" run in Massachusetts. When faced with a musical where much of the action takes place in the family's textile factory, production electricians Jimmy Fedigan and Michael Brown along with head electrician Alan L. Schuster knew they were going to have to find a way to make the steam irons safe for performers to work with. Luckily, thanks to a well-stocked storeroom, the electrics department had just the tool they needed: a Look Solutions Tiny S.

Based on the play and film of the same name, the story follows Ana Garcia as she navigates post high-school life, determined to discover who she is under the weight of family expectations and scrutiny of her difficult mother.

During the factory scenes, the performers used a steam iron to press dresses and they needed the iron to look and feel realistic. Unfortunately, the concept was discussed late in the planning stage, therefore, Schuster and his team did not have the ideal amount of time to prepare. Having a supply of Tiny machines in storage meant they could start work quickly.

"We had a Tiny S in stock and it had just come off another show, so we knew it worked," he recalls. "There was discussion initially that the effect would need to be DMX controlled from the lighting desk, which isn't natively supported. However, I had the experience of doing this on another show, so I knew that with a little bit of work it was possible. We used a DMXit from another tiny fogger model to help make it work."

The props department provided the electrics team with the body of a real iron that had nearly all of the internal components removed. The iron was then attached to a professional ironing-board table, on wheels, which had a large shelf on the underside. This meant that Schuster and his team could hide the wireless receiver, DMX-IT, and battery for the DMX-IT effectively within the table. The control line ran along the iron's power cord, this ensured a solid connection and kept the technical-tricky hidden from the audience.

As rehearsals progressed, the decision was made to have the iron under the control of the performers, as well as the lighting engineers. This meant the prop iron would need to be re-wired to include a working button. After a few calls to Nathan Kahn at Look Solutions USA HQ, Schuster was content that he would be able to make this new scenario work.

"I called Nathan several times to make sure we had the pin-outs correct, Schuster says, "A few of the switches, buttons and dials were still on the exterior of the Iron. So, I did some digging online and found a red button which looked similar to the originals and could be wired into the wireless control unit."

Once the team had come up with a late addition solution to the show, they worked on refining it so that it was robust enough to last the run. They then moved on to a back-up iron. They updated the wiring with the knowledge they had gained from creating the first.

"Because the Iron was used for much of the show, finding time to work on it was challenging. I initially got it working with Wago wire connectors holding the wiring together, to prove the concept," Schuster continues. "Once we were confident that it would work, I improved the design a little and tidied up the wiring, so everything was easy to access and replace if there was a problem. We initially had used fine gauge audio cables to keep everything low profile. But we had experienced issues with shorts or breaks in the wire. I bought thicker gauge wire and soldered it on a 2.5mm connector to plug into the Tiny S machine. I also had a 2.5mm 90-degree adaptor that had developed a short from repeated use, but it was easy enough to swap out."

Once the technical execution was working seamlessly, the lighting design team lead by Natasha Katz and electricians moved on to perfecting the storytelling of the effect. To make it believable, the fog had to behave like steam, so they experimented with different timings and fluids to get it looking just right.

"The Creative team was very happy with the final product," Schuster continues. "We started off using regular Tiny Fluid, but the finishing touch was experimenting with Quick Tiny Fluid. The Quick fluid gave us the correct amount of fog, without lingering long enough to distract the audience once the scene had moved on."

In technical rehearsals, everything is checked repeatedly throughout the day and fluid tanks are filled regularly. Once the shows are open, machines are checked prior to each show, both for wear and tear, but also for preshow tests, to ensure control and output is functioning correctly. With battery powered products like the Tiny S, the batteries will also be changed daily. A vial of fluid would usually last two to three shows.

Having reliable machines with full-capacity reservoirs and long-lasting fluid can make all the difference to the amount of maintenance time required by the show-team. As Schuster concludes, the Look Solutions Tiny Fogger series is a range of equipment that technicians can trust to work for any project.

"We chose the Tiny S primarily because we had it in our inventory and it was available quickly!" he finishes. "Shows I've been on for years have used Tiny Foggers of varying models over and over again. They work, they're simple to maintain and fix, and they can fit nearly anywhere you might need. I'm not aware of anything else that could do the job day in and day out."