Actorsingers latest production, Shrek the Musical, called for a ferocious dragon, and Donald Smith-Weiss, set designer, was determined to create just that. With some help from a Look Solutions Tiny FX, the team exceeded even their expectations.
Actorsingers began in New Hampshire during 1955 with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado. Since then, the company has grown steadily and now produces at least six shows a year, all delivered to exceptional standards by a team of dedicated volunteers. Dennis Schneider has been one of those volunteers since 1984, holding a place on the Board of Directors and fulfilling a variety of roles during production periods. Shrek the Musical was his 71st show and Schneider was Tech Director. He explains how, with the right tools, the company continues to bring a slice of Broadway magic to every production.
“The particular effect we were looking for was achieved and then some, it was pretty spectacular,” he recalled. “We had used the Tiny FX before, so when I was talking to Don Smith-Wiess, the designer of the dragon, he was willing to give it a try and see how it would turn out. It came out great!”
Schneider’s relationship with the Look Solutions USA team goes back to when he contacted Nathan Kahn, the company’s President, to ask about the Unique haze machine. He ended up making the purchase and shortly after also bought a CryoGate. But it was their 2024 production of Beauty and the Beast that made him think of purchasing a Tiny FX.
“There’s an inventor’s cart in the musical that needed to roll around the stage. In the story it’s driven by a steam engine, so it needed to smoke,” Schneider continued. “I rang Nathan and said, hey, I think I need a Tiny FX. He agreed so, I put one of those in my inventory and I’m happy I did! The Tiny FX has been used three times now. As far as I know, only the Tiny FX can do the things we need.”
The Actorsinger Shrek dragon makes a massive impact. Voiced by Victoria Sebastian and articulated by four puppeteers, Patrice Nicole Doherty, Danielle Godjikian, Holly Melancon and Mei Sicurella, the dragon has been lovingly crafted and is a huge presence on stage. The nostrils of the puppet smoke as it moves, serving as a warning and punctuating the action. Ensuring the spectacular dragon’s head was safe to wear required a little bit of ingenuity from Schneider and Smith-Weiss. As with all fog machines, the fog nozzle of the Tiny FX gets hot, so working together, they found a way to make Smith-Weiss’s design completely safe.
“We inserted the Tiny FX into a modified can, which insulated the costume against the hot end of the Tiny FX. We left the ventilation holes around the sides exposed so that air could be pulled in,” he explained. “We then secured it into place with zip ties inserted through holes in the cardboard rib above the fogger, and placed the fogger with the start button and light facing up.”
Actorsingers is careful with budgets, but this doesn’t reduce creativity. The can Schneider describes was actually a repurposed aluminum beer can. Schneider came up with the idea to use it as a heat shield, protecting the fabric and acting as a heat dissipator to also protect the puppeteer, all at zero cost. Placing the Tiny FX within the head also had a number of other benefits, as he continues.
“The zip ties allowed room for technicians to reach up and press the button. You can confirm it’s working by sending a little puff of smoke out of the fogger; there’s no need to see the light. This also kept the bottle of fluid easy to reach and replace as necessary. We ran the wires for the remote switch and battery to the back of the head. The remote was taped to the side of the helmet, and the battery was zip tied through small holes in the blue backing fabric onto a wooden rib in the back. This allowed us to access the wires so we could disconnect the battery easily for re-charging.”
Staffed entirely by volunteers, the whole team pulls together to make amazing shows across all their performance spaces. The company has a permanent home in the Actorsinger Hall, but performs Main Stage shows in the Keefe Center for the Arts, Nashua, with its Second Stage and Fringe productions showing at the Janice B Streeter Theater alongside the Teen and Youth shows.
“We can only dream about having the amount of equipment that multi-million-dollar Broadway shows use,” continued Schneider. “But, thanks to relationships with people like Nathan and the Look Solutions USA team, I’ve been able to get a little bit of what they might use. I grew up in New York and I saw everything on Broadway, so we love it. Our shows are a labor of love, our two-story set for Shrek the Musical was erected in under four hours, and it took our amazing art department a week of afternoons to paint and dress to make it into a swamp.”
The company is built by community spirit, giving audience members amazing performances and fantastic memories. Being part of the company from a young age gives children and adults access to a wide range of life affirming experiences and skills. It is this community-building mindset that led Schneider to forge relationships with Nathan and Look Solutions USA, upgrading Actorsingers equipment and heightening design possibilities. The company makes full use of not only the small and effective Tiny FX, but also their Unique 2.1 and CryoGate machines that deliver great results every time they are used.
“I can’t say good enough stuff about the team,” Schneider concludes. “Look Solutions products are great, they work well, they’re rugged and they’re very well supported. In my mind, that differentiates them from others. I’ve got other machines and they’re loud, you can’t control them via DMX, so I have to put a relay in front of them and program around it. The Unique 2.1, the CryoGate, the Tiny FX, are all fully DMX controllable. But most of all, it all just works.”
