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News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

November 29, 2004

NIU technical theater students to bring
Tennessee’s Christmas to life

DeKalb — Tracy Nunnally was – appropriately – in the air when he found his reindeer.

Nunnally, technical director and assistant professor in the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance, and three of his students will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., next month to give flight to Jesus and a trio of angels during “The Living Christmas Tree.”

It’s a grand production, staged for live audiences and televised each December by the Sevier Heights Baptist Church inside the sprawling Thompson-Boling Arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee. The roof is 100 feet above the floor, and the length of the seating area is 270 feet, nearly the size of a football field.

Three hundred choir members from the church and others congregations from miles away will stand on half-circle risers inside a 60-foot-tall Christmas tree, powerfully singing carols accompanied by a full symphony orchestra.

But despite the scriptural nature of the program, the producers want Santa Claus, his sleigh and the fabled eight tiny reindeer to soar above the crowd at the opening.

Nunnally, a national expert in creating flying effects, is their man. And, fortunately for their audiences, he likes to put on a big show.

“They want to ramp things up this year,” says Nunnally, who also worked last year’s performances. “The sleigh will be 80 feet in the air, and I’ve spec’ed it to hold 600 pounds. It needs to be safe – and look good.”

He discovered the perfect reindeer in an on-flight catalog during a trip home from Texas, where he had flown Peter Pan. They’re just lawn ornaments, and overpriced if purchased through the middleman, but they’ll do the trick – and Nunnally has no plans of paying retail.

Amazing effects at a bargain price is Nunnally’s trademark. The real magic – beyond the pulleys and the programmable logic controllers and the tracks along the ceiling – comes in how and why he does what he does.

His students not only serve as his crews but often come to the outside jobs as the designers and builders of the equipment.

For “The Living Christmas Tree,” NIU graduate student Ryan Poethke is encoding the programmable logic controller, which powers the drive that runs the motor. Sophomore Eric Boxer is networking the PLC to the drive. Third-year MFA graduate student William Auld is building the sleigh.

Meanwhile, all three are watching over each other’s shoulders to learn everything they can about theater effects.

One multipurpose pulley system will fly Jesus, the messenger angel and Santa and his entourage along the same kind of track automobile plants employ to carry cars down the assembly lines. Mathematical equations help the student techies determine how to spread the load over a certain area and the weight-bearing capabilities of the mechanisms.

Auld, Boxer and Poethke assembled their equipment over the Thanksgiving weekend, and will journey to Knoxville the Sunday after final exams. The show plays Friday, Dec. 17, and Saturday, Dec. 18.

“I take students with me everywhere,” Nunnally says. “They’re getting their hands on the real equipment that’s being used in the real world, which, quite frankly, our university can’t afford.”

Producers, meanwhile, get professional-level effects in exchange for their patience. Nunnally paid $2,000 from his own pocket for the hardware used to build these test models and, in all his contracted work, the client’s money later buys “the real stuff.”

“It’s a healthy marriage. The client gets a good product, cheaper than L.A. or Vegas, for what they give up through money in advance and time,” he says. “The students get real experience, mentored by me, and I make sure no on gets hurt. Everyone wins.”

The winners include NIU, he adds.

“We’ve become known as a school that can teach this level of production,” he says. “It’s a point of pride.”

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