THEATRE Copyright Lighting&Sound America

July 2025 complete issue: [Link]

WELCOME TO THE

UDOWN
PSIDE

Stranger Things:
The First Shadow
is the Netflix Series'
Spectacular Origin Story
By: David Barbour

38 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

 Left: The look of the void is achieved with a combination of LED tape and video projection. Above: The attic, Buether says, “exists in
two versions, depending on where we are in the story: the real location in the Creel house, and Henry’s mind space, in which we lose

T
some of the attic structure and the actors float with the help of wires and meticulous lighting and video.”

he newest and most dazzling example of Broadway’s tions, and the number “11” tattooed on one arm. Both
flirtation with IP is Stranger Things: The First Shadow, events are connected to the Upside Down, a hellish alter-
which opened at the Marquis Theatre in April. Based nate universe ruled by a monster known as the Mind
on the current hit Netflix series, it’s a daring gamble: Flayer, and to experiments at the Hawkins Lab, a govern-
Even as the final season is being prepared for an ment facility run by the indescribably creepy Dr. Brenner.
autumn release, the play dispenses with its young protag- The first two seasons bring Will back from the Upside
onists and Reagan-era time frame, flashing back to 1959, Down and reveal 11’s astonishing telekinetic powers,
when lead adult characters Joyce Byers (née Maldonado) which are needed as they and their friends battle headless,
All photos: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

and Jim Hopper are teenagers. The script, by Kate Trefry, all-devouring Demogorgons and fend off the Mind Flayer.
a member of the series’ writing staff, reaches even further In the third season, the Soviet Union gets involved, estab-
into the past, offering an origin story that answers many lishing a secret underground facility in Hawkins dedicated
burning questions even as it tees up the final season’s to penetrating the Upside Down; the action climaxes in a
epic battle between good and evil. battle royale that levels the local mall. By the fourth sea-
For the uninitiated, Stranger Things, the series, unfolds son, Hopper and Joyce are running around Siberia with
in Hawkins, Indiana, a small town teeming with disturbing conspiracy-minded journalist Murray Bauman as Will, 11,
phenomena. It begins with the vanishing of 11-year-old and friends probe a series of serial killings rooted in a
Will Byers (Joyce’s son) and the simultaneous appearance domestic homicide from the late 1950s.
of a frightened girl with no apparent past or family connec- For Stranger Things fans who haven’t seen the play,

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The First Shadow weaves together all these plot threads, Pearcy and Leo Warner for 59 Productions (video), and
beginning with a fatal military experiment, during World Paul Arditti (sound), must have often felt voyagers in the
War II, involving the battleship USS Eldridge. One survivor Upside Down. As everyone makes clear, close cooperation
of this top-secret misadventure is Victor Creel, whose son, and good humor were the keys to success.
Henry—aka Friendly Intern, One, and, ultimately, the mon-
strous Vecna—is revealed as the linchpin of the saga. Scenery
In The First Shadow, Joyce, Bob Newby (her future Scenic designer Miriam Buether, whose Broadway credits
fiancé in season two), and Hopper, son of the local police include To Kill a Mockingbird, Patriots (a West End trans-
chief, follow the trail of clues linked to a series of violent fer), Three Tall Women, and A Doll’s House, Part 2, has a
incidents; meanwhile, Patty, Bob’s adopted, mixed-race knack for high-concept environments that accommodate
sister, is drawn to the intense, socially awkward Henry, scripts with multiple locations. She is comfortable working
who is gifted with telekinetic powers and haunted by men- at many scales. For the drama The Jungle, she turned St.
acing visions. As Henry’s bizarre behavior becomes harder Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn into a French camp for
to ignore, he draws the attention of Dr. Brenner, who holds migrants. As The First Shadow was loading into the
the key to the mystery, which involves Victor’s exposure to Marquis Theatre, she was overseeing her designs for four
magnetic waves during the USS Eldridge incident. Caryl Churchill one-acts at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
A screening of the documentary Behind the Curtain: “It was a nice contrast,” she says, understating the case.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (available on Netflix) Buether is a longtime fan of Stranger Things; after giv-
follows the play’s evolution from its first workshop to its ing herself a refresher course on the first four seasons, she
November 2023 opening in the West End, where it contin- and Stephen Daldry (co-director of the production with
ues to run. But even after its successful opening, the pro- Justin Martin) went through Trefry’s initial script. The main
duction was treated as a work in progress, with the script challenge was obvious, she notes: “There are so many dif-
being tweaked and certain staging ideas rethought for ferent locations; a lot of them are real, like the school and
Broadway. Moving something on this scale across the the hospital, but many are unreal mind spaces like the
Atlantic was no simple matter; the design team, including black and red void,” where Henry goes when the Upside
Miriam Buether (scenery), Jon Clark (lighting), Benjamin Down begins to claim him. Also, she notes, the script calls

Much of the action unfolds in a high school gym, into which a trio of concentric turntables delivers locations that include the Hawkins
High AV club, a hospital room, a soda shop, and backstage at a Las Vegas showroom. “It was something we could always come back
to,” Buether says.

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Scenery and video combine to striking effect in many scenes, including the liquor store above, where one of the first of the story’s
killings takes place.

for moments of pure spectacle, such as the appearance of also describes the turntables as “a set and actor-delivery
the Mind Flayer. “We had to create a space in which all that system,” saving the cast members from having to make
could happen. In London, we didn’t know if it would work laborious entrances and exits that would slow the action:
because so many things had not been done onstage “It was important to keep the whole thing moving. We had
before. Kate wrote these incredible sci-fi scenes, like a two turntables, then realized that three would give us even
massive battleship appearing and disappearing, someone more possibilities of overlapping scenes. There’s a center
going through the roof, or a theatre catwalk breaking. We disk, which can raise, and two rings around it, and each of
could only pull that off if we worked closely together: the them can turn at a different speed in either direction.” With
set design team, video, sound, and light.” so many scenes, she adds, the stage crew is kept on its
Buether took a two-pronged approach, creating a larger toes. For this reason, “We had the revolves in rehearsals
environment that could house many intimately rendered from day one, because it’s all a complicated clockwork. We
locations while leaving room for massive effects. Much of had a rehearsal version for almost every piece of scenery,
the action unfolds in a high school gym into which a trio of items like the church confessional, benches, and lockers.”
concentric turntables delivers locations that include the One thing that couldn’t be added to rehearsals was the
Hawkins High AV club, a hospital room, a soda shop, and theatre catwalk, which figures in the climax, the structure
backstage at a Las Vegas showroom. Most of these are collapsing during a three-way confrontation between Henry,
minimally sketched in. Others are scaled larger, such as the Patty, and Dr. Brenner. “I worked closely with Team Illusion
stage for a school production of the Appalachian drama [visual effects designers Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher]
Dark of the Moon, directed by Joyce. (The stage is framed on how it could break apart safely,” Buether says. She
in a red proscenium—red being the dominant Stranger adds that this and other scenic elements “needed dedicat-
Things color—in a kind of grillwork pattern.) ed workshop time to develop a good prototype and to see
“The high school was something we could always come what each creative department needed.”
back to,” Buether says, adding that, in designing it, she Because a substantial amount of imagery is projected
drew on visual research for the series’ fifth season. She onto the set, Buether consulted closely with Pearcy and

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Above: Given the production’s cinematic pace and many illusions, Clark’s design is often a massive act of misdirection, turning the
audience’s attention away from the onstage mechanics, especially those of the illusions. “It’s as much about designing the darkness
as the lighting,” he says.

Warner. “We had to find the right shades of paint to start the right hue. Buether storyboarded her designs with con-
with,” she says. “The high school holding space had to be cept artist Anya Allin, a task that eventually numbered
darker for the video to work.” Trials were conducted to find roughly 150 pictures. Alongside this, her assistants, led by

42 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

 copied the set model for their previz program to trial their
video ideas on it.” She notes that in some scenes, the use
of Hologauze projection gauze “gives us an invisible pro-
jection surface, so we were able to layer certain scenes in
an interesting way and create much more depth. It’s par-
ticularly helpful when going into the black void, an infinite
mind space.”
Two of the most astonishing scenic moments occur at
the beginning and end of the production. In the prologue,
we see the USS Eldridge, two decks of which are visible
through cutouts in a show curtain. The Eldridge experi-
ment involves bombarding the ship with magnetic waves;
instantly, the two decks black out, followed by total dark-
ness. Seconds later, the lights come up onstage, revealing
the marooned ship with bolts of electricity projected on its
hull. “I’m not allowed to tell you how exactly this is done,”
Buether says. “But I can say it is a real piece of scenery,
which gets there extremely quickly and disappears even
faster.” She also notes the role that video, lighting, and
sound play in the effect, helping to animate the ship.
Even more show-stopping is the eleventh-hour appear-
ance of the Mind Flayer. “In London, it appears out of the
proscenium,” Buether says. "In New York, we wanted to
take it further, we wanted it to be bigger, more animated,
and closer to the audience. So, we came up with a com-
pletely new idea. [Special effects design consultant] Carl
Robertshaw and [scenic supervisor] Ed Pierce collaborat-
ed closely with us. The Mind Flayer is now an astonishing
creature, which descends over the audience, expands,
roars, fumes, and disappears. It is animated by video, with
lighting and sound effects, and smoke streaming through
the semi-translucent fabric.”
“In London,” Pierce says, “the red proscenium has
hatches that open; the Mind Flayer unfurls, like a
Japanese fan, aided by video projections and a little
smoke. In New York, it is a full-on puppet, nestled in the
proscenium, which opens like an umbrella fabric that
expands out. It is 100% different. The only thing that is the
same is that it is called the Mind Flayer.”
Buether also cites the “Scary Patty” scene in which
Henry, in a locker room, stares into a mirror that sponta-
neously cracks. Patty appears, but she is a manifestation
of the Mind Flayer, turning into a demonic presence. “It
was a very, very complicated scene to tech as the timing
of the sequence had to be precise and synchronized with
the performers to the second,” the designer says, adding
that the construction of this element was further improved
for Broadway. “By then, we knew how much space we
needed for all our technical gear—like smoke machines,
Joana Dias, produced a 1:25 scale model of the theatre, LED screens, batteries—that never gets seen and how the
every piece of scenery, and many props, first as white card lockers had to be designed to do the tricks.”
models during design development with the directors, and The most gothic touches feature the Creel house, which
later a painted scale model. The effort, shared with her is first seen both as a wall with faded wallpaper and a
colleagues, was well worth it: “Once I designed it all, 59 door. Several scenes unfold in the attic overhead, where

[Link] • July 2025 • 43

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Above: The appearance of ths USS Eldridge. Note the video flames backing the set piece and the electric bolts projected onto it.
Clark’s lighting, aided by plentiful smoke effects, completes the look. The sequence is filled some of Arditti’s most arresting sound
effects.

Henry faces the nature of his strange powers; among other Brenner has to fly through the roof; this had to be carefully
things, he rises into the rafters. Buether notes that the high designed with Team Illusion, so the actor is safe. For its
school scenic surround contains a superstructure that third appearance, the truck secretly receives another back-
“holds the breakable gantry and the attic space. Both span wall, made up of many televisions, which break open to
the entire width of our holding space and can travel up reveal a gate and a membrane through which we see a
and down. The attic space exists in two versions, depend- Demogorgon. This was a big new idea for Broadway and
ing on where we are in the story: the real location in the took a long time to develop, again in close collaboration
Creel house, and Henry’s mind space, in which we lose with the different creative teams. For its last appearance,
some of the attic structure and the actors float with the we remove the back wall, so it is essentially an open
help of wires and meticulous lighting and video.” frame, located in the room created by Team Video.”
Hawkins Lab, where Henry becomes an inmate, is rep- Scenery and scenic effects were supplied by Show
resented by a white box and a bank of TV screens. (See Motion and Silicon Theatre Scenery BV (the latter also pro-
photo, page 45.) “The lab appears four times in the play, vided flying effects), with additional scenery by Daedalus,
each time with very different features,” Buether says. “As Empire Technical Fabrication, J&C Joel, Rose Brand, and
we don’t have enough space in the theatre, we have to Souvenir. Props are by Arnold S. Levine, Inc., BB Props,
adapt it backstage during the show before each new Jerard Studio, Lamp & Pencil, Mangostone, Monkey Boys,
appearance. The first time, it appears as a seemingly Paragon Innovation Group Inc., Prop & Paint, Q1 Lighting
straightforward white box, trucking from the back dock & Scenic, Ross Macdonald, Rob McFadyen, and Show
toward the audience. The second time, it has a little Motion.
adjoining room with a big glass window, revealing a pris- Describing the division of labor, Pierce says, “The
oner, which we achieve by replacing the back wall. Here, superstructure and deck with turntables were supplied by

44 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

Silicon Theatre Scenery. The cladding, fly automation, End was sometimes of limited use in New York: “It’s not
mechanics, grid ribbing, and other scenery are by Show just about remounting the London production. You have to
Motion. The deck units and large prop pieces, such as fur- teach [the actors and stage crew] how to do everything,
niture, are from Daedalus, BB Props, and Souvenir. And a and that takes time. Each illusion requires every depart-
slew of hand props, with effects, were supplied by the ment to work together precisely. The lighting has to be
other houses.” It’s a remarkable achievement to have right, the sound has to be right; never do we execute a
pulled together so many providers during Broadway’s trick with only one department.”
busiest season—12 productions opened in April—when The video component combines LED video panels
most companies are slammed to the wall with projects. upstage and elsewhere with imagery delivered to the set
via projectors. Each approach has its virtues, Pearcy says.
Video “We’re using a 10-bit workflow on the video wall, which
From the production’s first moments, which mimic the gets us a full dynamic range. When the wall isn’t on, it’s an
opening credits of the series, The First Shadow depends inherently black surface, which you can never really get
on an array of video effects: wartime footage, close-ups of with a projector.” The projected imagery on the set often
classified documents, clips of the Creel family’s home has filmic or graphic qualities: the title of each act, World
movies, Las Vegas backdrops, flames, shattered mirrors, War II scenes, and, in a sly touch at the finale, the stan-
and glimpses of the Upside Down. At certain points, the dard button inviting viewers to click onto the next episode.
entire proscenium comes to throbbing life via projections. Still, whichever medium is used, the effects can be star-
“Working with Stephen and Justin,” Pearcy says, “we tlingly realistic. “We do a lot of smoke effects with video,”
put together a video illusion workshop, saying, ‘Here are Pearcy notes. “There was a moment in London when we
the tricks we can do.’ That started us with different ideas had video running behind the wrecked ship. Stephen said,
and gave us a basis.” Once a full script was available, he ‘I just want to see what the video looks like without the
and Warner identified various opportunities for video smoke.’ I said, ‘The video is making the smoke’.” He adds
effects. Some were more daunting than others: “I read the that he and his design colleagues aimed for a perfect
script, and it said, ‘The ship disappears.’ Miriam figured melding of video, lighting, and scenery, making it impossi-
out where it could happen, with us jumping in to provide ble to distinguish the contributions of each.
effects.” One particularly eerie effect is the bank of 36 television
Pearcy notes that the experience garnered in the West screens in the Hawkins Lab, showing Henry under obser-

“The lab appears four times in the play, each time with very different features,” Buether says. The images in the TV screens unit above
are achieved using projectors, Pearcy notes.

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THEATRE

vation. Despite the authentic look, the images are project- system. Ed Cooper, director at Blue-I, says, “We went with
ed. “We wanted to have TV screens, but the weight of that Brompton due to its rugged outputs, 10-bit capabilities,
unit would be too much given all the mechanics in the lab excellent reporting, and Dark Magic functionality. These
set, which does so many tricks,” Pearcy says. “And four things are the reason why we always use Brompton,
because of the mechanism that splits the unit in half, it and particularly the last two set them apart from everyone
would have been really difficult to do with real screens.” else.” (Dark Magic is a Brompton technology that
Another close collaboration involves scenes set in the “improves the quality of the image or video showing on
void. (See photo, page 38.) The space is dominated by LED panels when they are operating at less than maximum
two moving lines of light, rather like cathode rays. The brightness.”) Pearcy adds, “We’re using Disguise’s [10-bit]
downstage line consists of LED tape, supplied by the light- HDR workflow,” which was developed for use in XR stages.
ing department; the upstage line is a projection on the “Disguise keeps telling me we’re the first theatre production
video wall. It is impossible to tell that they are created to use it,” he adds. Completing the package is a set of nine
using different media. Panasonic projectors. Video system design and support
The video gear, supplied by Sound Associates and Blue- were supplied by Disco Pixel Productions.
i Event Technology, includes INIFiLED video panels and a Pearcy says many video cues are triggered via the
Disguise GX 3 media server, plus Brompton Technology sound console “because the sound is the bedrock the
SX40 processors and six Brompton Tessera XD data distri- show sits on, based on the timings that were developed in
bution units for a full-redundancy main and backup LED rehearsal.” He adds, “We can rely, in an extraordinary way,

“I wanted to locate the characters in a warm theatrical world when they’re in the naturalistic locations that are safe spaces away from
all the horrors,” Clark says. In contrast, the lighting in the supernatural scenes is much starker.

46 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

on Louis McCartney’s performance as Henry.” (The actor
created the role in London and is now on Broadway.) “He
is so impossibly precise that we can cue images around
him. When he’s riding around the stage and we’re doing
real and projected smoke around him, those sequences
work because of the precision of his performance.”
With so much content to create, the 59 team had its
work cut out for it, researching, sourcing, and creating
imagery. “The London opening was in November, and we
started work on it in May,” Pearcy says. He adds that the
New York production is far from being a carbon copy of
the West End original. “For Broadway, we did another To light the play’s everyday scenes, Clark says, “The bridge
overhead is filled with open-white PAR cans, which is a surprise
series of workshops in London last fall. Ed [Pierce] and to many people seeing this very high-tech show.”
Miriam built a model for New York, but we built another
one to project on; we put an HDR OLED screen behind it
so we could test out new content. We do this a lot, build- But, he adds, these conventional units have “a real heat
ing a physical model to try things out.” and honesty that provides a human sense among all the
supernatural flying around.” It also helps to evoke the
Lighting show’s time frame, he adds: “I thought if I lit the stage as it
Lighting designer Jon Clark is the only member of the might have been in the 1950s, it would support the period
design team who was initially unfamiliar with Stranger without overemphasizing it.”
Things, the series. In 2019, working with Daldry on the Many scenes, featuring one or two actors and minimal
Broadway transfer of the Tony Award-winning drama The scenery, have a film noir quality. “It’s about constantly
Inheritance, Clark says, the director floated the idea of put- redefining the darkness,” Clark says. “We did a lot of work
ting Hawkins, Indiana, onstage. Clark quickly binge- to make the auditorium darker, trying to get the support of
watched the series and was taken with the idea. the fire department to control the space as much as we
“We were talking about it at the end of 2019 and into could. I’m always trying to make sense of the volume of
2020, as it went through many revisions and workshops. space in relation to the architecture onstage and what’s
Obviously, COVID stopped us, although we did a work- happening dramatically.” The designer also makes strate-
shop in the middle of it when we could get a West End gic use of blinder cues to divert the audience’s attention
theatre. We did the best part of a week there, trying out during some of the big illusions.
ideas and bringing in other specialists to demo things. It The moving light component relies on ETC Halcyons
was helpful from a lighting design point of view.” and Martin MAC Encore WRMs and CLDs, which allow
Given the production’s cinematic pace and many illu- Clark to work with different color temperatures. Regarding
sions, Clark’s design is often a massive act of misdirection,
turning the audience’s attention away from the onstage
mechanics, especially those of the illusions. “It’s as much
about designing the darkness as the lighting,” he says. “We
all worked closely together, but I worked especially with
Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher. It’s a very technical
design, in terms of where there’s light and where there
isn’t, how it’s controlled, and the interaction with Jamie and
Chris. And we’re passing the baton back and forth with
Ben, who led 59 in New York, and Leo, who was in
London. It’s painstaking, although in New York slightly less
so because we learned so much doing it the first time.”
Clark’s lighting takes a two-part approach. “I wanted to
locate the characters in a warm theatrical world when
they’re in the naturalistic locations that are safe spaces
away from all the horrors.” In contrast, the supernatural
scenes are much starker, often defined by cold white light.
This approach cued an old-school solution: “The bridge
overhead is filled with open-white PAR cans, which is a
surprise to many people seeing this very high-tech show.”
Many scenes, featuring one or two actors and minimal scenery,
have a film noir quality. “It’s about constantly redefining the dark-
ness,” Clark says.

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the Halcyons, he says, “I knew we’d need a strong back- effects. “The first presentation of the model was some-
light source overhead, and I wanted to use the new Martin thing of a shock,” he says, chuckling. “There was so much
MAC Ultras, which are phenomenally bright. Unfortunately, to cram in that we had to fight for space like never before.
they’re huge. Each one needs roughly 900mm of turning There’s a huge structure that supports the catwalk and,
space. I was already having conversations about finding behind that, the attic piece takes up a huge
any light positions, let alone the largest moving light on the upstage/downstage footprint. Initially, we were six or seven
market. But the Halcyon has an output that’s very close to meters upstage of the setting line before there were any
the Ultra in the form factor of the MAC Encore.” Lighting lighting positions.”
gear was supplied by PRG. Helping to address the lighting position issue was Gary
The lighting rig includes, from Martin, 35 MAC Encore Beestone, the production’s technical director. “He had
Performance CLDs, 23 MAC Encore Washes, 18 MAC such an overview of the whole thing,” Clark says. “He was
Encore Performances, and nine MAC Ultra Performances; relentless about trying to make it all work, but realistic
from GLP, 20 Impression X4 Bar 20s and 11 Impression X4 about what couldn’t be achieved. We were trying to deal
Bar 10s; 19 ETC/High End Halcyon Titanium Ultra-Brights; with a huge number of practicalities to achieve the big set
and four Ayrton Diablos. Conventional units include thirty- pieces. That’s when you need someone with a technical
six 1,000W PAR 64 NSPs, and twelve 1,000W snub-nose overview, who can protect the creative elements but be
PAR 64 NSPs; from ETC, 36 Lustr3s and six Lustr2s; and, realistic in achieving them.”
from Chroma-Q, 12 Color Force IIs in various lengths. Getting more downstage positions involved an ingen-
Followspots include three Robert Juliat Arthur LTs plus the ious collaboration with the scenic department, Clark notes.
company’s SpotM and the Lightstrike tracking devices. “The third electric is built under the attic set, which flies in.
The plentiful special effects component includes, from Underneath it is a full-width lighting position built into the
Ultratec, four Power Fog Industrial P9Ds and three Eclipse ceiling piece with a dozen moving lights and PAR cans. It
LSGs; from Look Solutions, four Unique 2.1s and four spends most of the show trimmed at a regular height with
Viper NTs; from Master FX, four Force 8s and four Solstice the rest of the rig, but for the attic scenes, it flies in at just
Snows; from Froggy’s Fog, seven Poseidon A2s and two above head height.” At the same time, he says, “A wall
Poseidon A6s, three Antari Z1520 Fog Jets; two MDG comes in, with two doors that open where the revolve is.
Atmosphere APS units; one Club Cannon Cryo Valve; and When I saw that, I said, ‘When you open those doors,
one Showven Sparkular Mini. you’re going to see a moving light at head height. You
The lighting is controlled by an ETC Apex console. Its won’t be able to get through the doors because there’s a
large capacity is necessary because “we have a huge num- position underneath.’
ber of wirelessly controlled props,” Clark says. “The list is “What Gary and the contractor, Silicon Theatre Scenery,
endless, the stars of which are the torches [flashlights] used came up with was two pods with two moving lights each;
by the main characters. They’re controlled, wirelessly, from when the wall flies in, they track upstage behind the mask-
the console because we need to cue them very specifically; ing, making room for people to move on the revolve. When
several scenes are lit only with the torches.” The wireless the scenery flies out, the pods automatically go back into
control also supplies the flickering lighting looks that will be position. It’s an expensive piece of engineering, but it
instantly familiar to any fan of the series. meant we could have a full-width position for the rest of
To get these all-important effects right, Clark says, “I the show. The final part was moving this huge structure
went through quite a few torches to find ones that gave us upstage at the very last minute to create a number one
the right quality of light and the intensity we needed to lighting position downstage of it.” Clark adds, “Ed Pierce
light the scenes. Then we installed the required electronics was incredible in managing the transfer from London to
and rechargeable systems. We also made them sturdy New York. He had every department’s back every step of
enough to last even when they get dropped by the cast.” the way, and he coordinated brilliantly. He understood
The UK-based effects firm Lamp and Pencil was drafted to what needed to be achieved from a lighting point of view.”
develop these props. “We got to a place where they work “We worked hard to make sure Jon’s ideas could be
reliably enough,” Clark says, “but there have been two realized,” Pierce says. “Because of time, space, and priori-
additional revisions since the London opening, to make ty, we lost some vital positions we would have preferred to
them hardier and more reliable.” Robin Barton, of Lamp have. Some highly engineered elements, like the falling
and Pencil, notes that products from North Carolina-based gantry, were where the second electric would normally be.
RC4 Wireless “are used in a large number of props and Jon had no lighting equipment there at all. I sat down with
practicals that allow the magic of the Upside Down to be him, and we went back to his original concept, giving him
brought from screen to stage.” another opportunity to see what worked well, what he’d
Arguably, one of Clark’s biggest challenges involved like to develop further, and where he felt it was lacking.
finding room for lighting units amid all the scenery and Then we worked to make space for all those ideas. When I

48 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

In Harrison and Fisher’s most eye-popping effect, a tormented Henry experiences spider legs emerging from his body. Like all of the
show’s illusions, it remains a closely guarded secret.

started laying out the show for Broadway, I gave ourselves the Broadway transfer required redoing fundamental
a little more open space in the hang. We knew that new aspects of his design. As previously noted, Arditti’s sound
ideas would evolve over the next nine months; we didn’t design drives many lighting and video cues. “On Broadway,
want to lock ourselves in too much. We also worked with when I arrived for the last couple of weeks of rehearsals, I
the engineers, not to undo all the great work that they had had a conversation with Paul,” Clark says. “He said the
figured out for the London production, but to find every lit- show had evolved significantly in rehearsals, adding, ‘I’ve
tle nook and cranny where Jon could put a new system, had to disconnect all the MIDI triggers for lighting and
both conventional and moving lights.” For example, “The video from the sound. I had to move so many things
London production had a tornado with smoke machines around that we would be unpicking it for days. I think we
that took up a lot of real estate. Since that idea didn’t need to start again.’ This meant getting up early each day
move to Broadway, we reclaimed a fair amount of space.” and working through the show, scene by scene. Ultimately,
Even with these new solutions in place, Clark notes that it was good to do, reassigning lighting cues to the right

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THEATRE

The Mind Flayer, the production’s pièce de résistance, is a giant puppet that emerges from the proscenium, accompanied by lighting,
video, and sound effects. It has been completely reworked from the London production.

place and working out how to pick apart the London show Trefry notes that she and the series’ other writers typically
file without breaking it while inserting the new cues.” But it begin each scene with a sound effect, say the rumble of a
added many hours of work for the designer. car engine or bacon sizzling in a pan; she wryly laments
that the same technique doesn’t work in the theatre.
Sound Nevertheless, sound paces the action of the play. To get
Arditti’s design delivers a cascade of special effects plus an accurate map of the work facing him, he says, “I sat in
original music by DJ Walde and the hard-to-forget series on every workshop and rehearsal in London and Broadway.
theme by Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon. Sound establishes I was there from day one of rehearsals on Broadway to the
itself as a key component during the prologue with a horri- opening.” This was necessary, he adds, because “we want-
fying screech, tied to the wreck of the USS Eldridge, that ed to update and change it” for New York.
strikes a powerful note of impending dread. Other effects To maintain a sense of continuity with the series, Arditti
will be scarily familiar to fans, for example, the ticking says, “We met with [Netflix associate producer/post-pro-
clock and reverberating chime that signals new horrors in duction supervisor] Joshua Kohl Hegman. I said, ‘I’m try-
the Creel household and the use of vocal distortion as ing to recreate a few particular sounds, like the
Henry begins to morph into Vecna. Demogorgon, the clock, and the voice of Vecna,’ all of
Arditti quickly realized that sound would play a central which needed to be as close as possible. They were very
role: “The first script was written rather like two episodes kind and gave us assets, which I use. You never see the
of the series, with hundreds of scenes. Kate Trefry writes ticking clock onstage, but it is very clear and recognizable,
in a very sound-oriented way. Sound moves us from one which is great. Others are used in a quite different way, but
location to another, and then it is used to establish where while I’ve created so much fresh stuff, they anchor [the
we are.” He’s not stretching a point: In the documentary, action] with sounds that are already recognizable.”

50 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America

 In most cases, the series’ effects were jumping-off lighting had to be moved slightly because of the projec-
points. “I wasn’t able to use very much of the monster tors. He designed a proscenium for the Mind Flayer, and
sounds from Netflix because our monsters do different the tolerance is incredibly tight. When she appears, there’s
things. But just a second or two of that recognizable a gap of only a few centimeters from the speakers.”
Demogorgon voice makes the whole scene feel genuine.” The main loudspeaker system relies on Meyer Sound
He adds, chuckling, “If genuine is the right word for an gear, including 42 LINAs, 20 LEOPARDs, 29 Ultra-X20s,
invented monster.” two Ultra-X22s, four Ultra-X40s, two X-42s, 16 UP-4slims,
Arditti says his process was like his previous experi- four UP-X4Ps, four USW-112Ps, VLFCs, and, for low end,
ences with Daldry, with whom he has worked on such proj- four 2100-LFCs and four 900-LFCs. “It’s an upgrade from
ects as The Inheritance and The Jungle. “But it was more what we have at the Phoenix, which is also a Meyer sys-
intense. As I created musical sections and timings for tem,” Arditti says. “But, because we have a bit more room,
effects, the other creators would lock into them. We I wanted to upgrade it, not necessarily to make it louder,
became the soundtrack and time code for the whole but because the LEOPARDs have incredible headroom. We
show.” The approach “suited DJ Walde and, I think, the made one or two tiny focus tweaks to what we’d planned,
rest of the team, because there was so much stuff to create but they were great from the time I switched them on.”
that everyone needed something to hang their work on. Processing is provided by Meyer’s Galaxy 816.
Someone had to go in first and say, ‘It could be like this’.” Also, Arditti says, “We have a punchy surround system,
In terms of underscoring, Arditti says, “Netflix gave us with bigger speakers than I would normally choose.” The
access to whatever we wanted from Stein and Dixon, so choice was strategic, for maximum audience impact, he
we used the theme music and one or two other things. But adds: “It’s always more frightening if something seems to
because the play isn’t set in the 1980s, DJ wanted to put fall apart or explode very close to you. The proscenium is
his 1950s stamp on it, so we have an interesting blend of such an artificial frame; if you can make good choices
Stein and Dixon, plus music from DJ and some classic about what’s going through the surround system, what you
tunes from the 1950s and early 1960s.” (The preshow get is punchy, localized, and helps to tell the story. We
playlist includes “Yakety Yak,” by The Coasters, and even have a couple of speakers in the ceiling, which are
“Mambo Rock,” by Bill Haley & His Comets. Others used used for one or two special effects.” The surround gear
in the show include Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself a Merry consists of d&b audiotechnik gear: 42 E8s, 14 E6s, four
Little Christmas” and Ella Fitzgerald singing “Dream a Little Y7Ps, and four E12X-SUBs. A limited amount of foldback
Dream of Me.”) is provided for scenes that cut between the attic and else-
Interestingly—and in contrast to the comments usually where, and for a dance sequence.
made by Broadway sound designers—Arditti is happy with The actors are fitted out with Sennheiser MKE 1 mics,
the acoustics of the Marquis Theatre. (Stranger Things is which, he says, “are tiny and robust.” Placement, Arditti
the first straight play in the nearly forty-year history of the says, is relatively straightforward despite the many hats
Marquis, which was built to accommodate big musicals and masks. And he adds, “We’ve got people backstage
like Me and My Girl, Victor/Victoria, and Thoroughly who are good at camouflaging mics. Maintaining accuracy
Modern Millie.) “Uniquely among the Broadway theatres is difficult, so we have photographs to ensure that each
I’ve worked in, it’s a treat,” he says. “Every surface is soft, mic gets placed on each actor with a degree of precision.”
which wouldn’t be great for an unamplified play, but for The wireless systems consist of Sennheiser SK6121 trans-
amplified dialogue, it’s fantastic because there are no mitters and E6000 receivers.
unwanted echoes, no reverberations.” Because the audito- The show is controlled by a DiGiCo SD7T console. “We
rium is placed several floors above street level, he notes, ran it on a slightly smaller desk in London,” he notes. “But
audiences are insulated from sirens and street noises. And, the internal logic of the SD7 is familiar to me, and there are
he notes, the air-conditioning system is notably quiet. a few things I like that are missing on [DiGiCo’s]
“Sound-wise, it’s a gift.” Quantum338.” QLab handles the playback of sound
The Marquis comes with certain challenges, however, effects and music. “We’ve got the maximum number of
Arditti adds. “The wide proscenium is more difficult for a outputs on it,” he adds, because of all the sound-deliver-
sound designer because the proscenium speakers are ing objects onstage. “All the radios, TVs, and Bob’s DJ
forced further out to the sides, which means that making booth have wireless speakers in them to provide source
sound appear to come from the center of the stage is points. Then I have speaker zones around the stage that
much more difficult.” Speaker placement was achieved can augment the sound coming from a particular place. It’s
with the assistance of Pierce, whom Arditti charges with about balancing multiple speakers, so they sound like
“magic powers.” He adds, “His job was to combine every- they’re coming from the source.” Speakers used for these
body’s needs, for example, moving the speakers by 2" to effects include EM Acoustics gear: nine EMS41s, four
accommodate the track for the Mind Flayer’s legs. The EMS51s, and five EMS61s. Audio gear, including a Clear-

[Link] • July 2025 • 51

THEATRE

Com comms system, was supplied by Masque Sound. achieve it. It was one of the most welcoming experiences
Also, Arditti says, “We have extra outputs for individual I’ve had in 30 years working on Broadway. For example,
surround speakers. Each speaker has a home run, so I can we talked about what to do with the Mind Flayer. I had
pick certain ones that are nearby. When an object is been working on the show for several months; we were
smashing, I can do ten different effects out of ten localized tearing things out and putting things back into the design
speakers, rather than a wall of sound coming from a group in really meaningful ways. Then, I flew to London with a lit-
of them. We also use Ableton Live to host all our plug-ins; tle box and pieces of cardboard hinged together and
these include a large number of reverbs and special explained how it might work. There was a lot of trust and
effects, the most notable of which is our Vecna effect, hope; it was one of the most collaborative practices. And
when Louis goes into that gravelly Vecna voice.” To then you get into the theatre and hold your breath. But
achieve this, he adds, “We push a fader that brings up a when Stephen saw us deploy it, he was over the moon.”
signal chain with plug-ins that do lots of different secret Additional key personnel includes Sightline Productions
things, including pitch changes and delays. We got these (production management); Markus Maurette (US technical
plug-ins from Netflix; they’re hosted in a Pro Tools session, effects designer/pyrotechnician class A); Rolt Smith (pro-
which they use on the actor’s voice in the series. We duction stage manager); Matthew Kurtis Lutz (stage man-
weren’t able to use it exactly as it was, but we used ele- ager); Dan Smith (UK technical consultant); Joana Dias (UK
ments of it to create our effect. Louis is brilliant at making associate scenic designer); Kelly Pooler (US assistant sce-
it work onstage. It’s about 60% actor and 40% sound nic designer); Lucia Sánchez Roldán (UK associate lighting
effect. He needs to change gears with his voice and be designer); Jessica Creager (associate lighting designer);
consistent about when he does it; we push the fader at the Elliot Smith (moving light programmer); Tom Wexler
exact moment, so it feels like it is coming from him.” (59/video content director); Matt Taylor (59/video content
associate); Teya Lanzon (59/video content producer); Jason
The transfer Devine, Emily Howells, Chris Rabet, Jarek Radecki, Nicol
Pierce says his involvement began almost as soon as the Scott, Edd Stockton, Laurent de Vleeshouwer, and
production opened in London. “I went there in early Lawrence Watson (59/animators); Brad Peterson (video
January [2024], when I tried to digest it all in a long week- programmer); Harrison Freni and Henry Wilen (special
end. After that, I visited every few weeks for about six effects programmers); Rob Bettle and Christopher Reid (UK
months, so I could be with everybody.” associate sound designers); Sam Schloegel (UK associate
He notes that his tasks multiplied over time. “We start- sound designer); Mary Halliday (UK prop supervisor); Paul
ed with a hit list of about a dozen items that everybody Wimmer (production carpenter); Zachary Feivou (head car-
agreed needed to be re-examined or redone. And there penter); Tim Perry (deck automation carpenter); Laicey
were new storytelling ideas that they wanted to work on. Gibby-Brown (rehearsal automation carpenter); Kris Keene
But, as we dug in, we started combing through the show (house carpenter); Kevin Keene (house fly carpenter);
in ten-second increments. Stephen Daldry is like a film edi- Hunter Keene, Alex Noerpel, and Dominic Russo (deck car-
tor in that way; he keeps working on every little moment. penters); Dan Coey and Derek Jones (production electri-
By the time we were ready for Broadway rehearsals, we cians); Asher Robinson (production video); Craig
had touched everything.” Caccamise (house electrician); Melissa Shippers-Harold
Pierce also dealt with the many vendors who con- (deck video); Derek Jones (light board operator); Nikki Wells
tributed to building the production. “We met with Show (lead followspot); Miriam Mejia and Taylor Kozlowski (fol-
Motion early, even before we started adapting for the lowspots); Mike Wojchik and Jake Scudder (production
Broadway stage, to make sure they could be available. sound); Reece Nunez (A1-mixer); Charlie Grieco (A2),
Even when we aren’t quite done designing a piece, we Elspeth Appleby (A3); Ray Wetmore and JR Goodman
need the technical engineering brains to start thinking (props supervisors); John Bryant (head props); Ray Chan
about it. Especially with the Mind Flayer, we needed Jon (house props); Steve Deverna, Joseph Difonzo, and Chris
Feustel, our mechanical and automation designer at Show McChesney (deck props); Matt Mezick (rehearsal props);
Motion, to be on the journey with us. We had a skeleton of Ashley Cara Newman (UK assistant scenic designer), Kelly
the design, plus some models and schematics. We were Pooler and Steven Kendall (US assistant scenic designers),
pretty precise in our estimates, but then we got to ques- Will Elphingstone (assistant lighting designer), Rhia
tions like: What are the machines that will drive it? What is Mitsuhashi (59/video content assistant); Sean Collins
that joint going to look like between segments, and what is (assistant production carpenter); Kwame Tucker (assistant
the fabric? We asked Rose Brand to get involved earlier production electrician); Max Marquez (assistant production
than is typical to do custom printing samples.” video); Cameron Brentlinger (props research assistant); and
Pierce had a hand in everything, from the configuration Piper Phillips (lighting design membership candidate).
of the set to the storage of scenery backstage. “I had a Stranger Things: The First Shadow continues its open-
unique role, which I loved,” he says. “There was so much ended Broadway run.
to think and dream about, and so many different ways to

52 • July 2025 • Lighting&Sound America