Angel de Quinta Stage Door

I have been very fortunate to have lived most of my life an hour away from New York City. This has given me the opportunity to travel to the city and experience Broadway. The very first show that I ever saw was Beauty and the Beast for my 7th birthday and it has remained one of my favorites. I remember the use of the scenery to convey the story. For example during "Be Our Guest" the use of bright lights and costumes made the musical number very bombastic. There were firework type effects going on stage that emphasized the number as a show-stopper. Another cool part of the set was how the Beast's castle rotated to convey whether the characters were outside and inside.

Another show I was obsessed with for a very long time was Phantom of the Opera. I got to see that show one year because it was one of my Christmas gifts. I loved how the music and the technology worked together to bring you back in time to when the story would have taken place. One the scenes that sticks out the most to me as a great example of technology in theatre, is when the Phantom takes Christine down underneath the opera house. He takes her on a boat on a lake and they have fog covering the stage and candelabras rising from the stage to give the illusion they are floating. It was super cool. Another memorable moment is during the song Masquerade when the cast is dancing on a giant staircase. In order to give an illusion of a full staircase, they use dummies they have dressed up to fill in the empty spaces. The Phantom also appears in that scene and through the use of special effects, is able to vanish in front of the audience.

Lastly one of all time favorites is Wicked. I saw Wicked for my 10th birthday and it was an experience I will never forget. The use of technology is immense. The cast and crew of Wicked want you to feel like you have been transported to Oz through their use of costumes, lighting, choreography, dialogue, and much more. One of the most memorable scenes is in the beginning when Glinda appears in her bubble and she is descending to the stage. They use a bubble machine to produce bubbles that surround her as she is there. Another memorable scene is when Elphaba decides she's had enough of how she is treated and defies gravity. She steps onto a platform, that the audience cannot see, and is lifted into the air. Along with the use of lighting and smoke machine, it gives the illusion that she is flying with her broomstick which is really cool.