HONK cast in front of digital projection backdrops

Honk! Shines with Theatre Projections

Digital projections used in local production of HONK

I spoke with Pat Lawrence recently, who was a producer on HONK! at ArtsNashoba in Groton, MA. She was thrilled to give some insight into how they achieved a rear-projection setup for their production of HONK!, bringing vibrant light, color and animation to the stage.

Projector

Pat sang the praises of Rentex.com, where they rented a projector and a short-throw lens for the week. The short throw lens allowed them to project from behind (rear-projection) their background screen, since with the special lens the projector didn’t have to be far back. At Rentex, she worked with a contact named Bob Moisan who helped with all the logistics and said he was fantastic. Pat said that it was also worth the charge for them to have the projector delivered, so that she wouldn’t have to assume the risk of driving it around in her car. Here are the two pieces of projection equipment that ArtsNashoba rented for their production:

Eiki LC-HDT700 (7,000 Lumens 3LCD+One Projector)
Fixed Lens (.84:1 Powered)

Screen

For a projection screen, Pat was able to acquire one through her lighting designer on the show. There are of course ways to build one yourself or have a ‘construction-minded’ volunteer or parent help. Pat also mentioned that a comparable screen to the one she used was this one, also at Rentex:

9’x12′ Projection Screen

She did say that larger would be better, and here at Theatre Ave we encourage theatre directors and teachers to project at about 20ft wide and 12ft tall if you can.

It was great talking to Pat—she has so much enthusiasm for youth theatre and what projection was able to do for their production of HONK! If you’d like to see our available theatre projections, both animated and still for HONK!, check them out here! Also, if you’d like to see what ArtsNashoba is doing next, you can see that here.