To Touch The Moon
Theatre UNI, 2029
Director: Gretta Berghammer
Scenic Design: Mark A. Parrott
Projection Design: Kristen Geisler
Costume Design: Jennifer Sheshko Wood
Projections Engineer: Shawn Poellet
Projections Assistant: Nate Brock
To touch the moon was an interactive and immersive performance experience geared toward children to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing. The production was split into three parts and presented multiple times over consecutive days. The first night children would experience stories and fables about the moon. The second night they would participate in astronaut training and learn skills that would be used on a moon mission. The final night they would have the chance to visit and explore the moon.
Projections and video played a large role in this production. Projectors were used to project images of the earth and the moon on the wall of the dome created for the environment. Twelve video monitors were installed in the lunar module to simulate flying through space and landing on the moon. Wireless cameras were used so the astronauts could transmit images from the moon to displays in mission control.
The prop cameras were designed and built by scenic designer Mark A. Parrott. I then placed Raspberry Pi micro computers with camera modules powered by battery packs inside the props. I wrote a script so that on powerup the cameras would automatically connect to WIFI and start sending a NDI video feed to the media server.
