Peter Pan physics:
NIU School of Theatre and Dance
hosts seminar on stage flight

Tracy Nunnally, technical director for NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance, deals in mechanics – and magic.

Nunnally is an internationally renowned expert on stage flight who devotes much of his time to designing and testing the systems that help actors soar above the stage.

“Flying,” Nunnally said, “is lifting a performer above the stage via a system or several systems of mechanized or manually operated rigging. But it’s magic, too. Flying on stage is exciting to everyone. There is a perceived element of danger, though it’s not actually dangerous.”

Nunnally hosted a seminar on stage flight earlier this fall. First held in Canada in 1997, it moved in 2001 to NIU, now drawing attendants from all over the United States and Canada as well as some from overseas.

Creating safe mechanisms for flight, testing new systems and training people in the use of these systems are the goals of the seminar.

“Flying is important to talk about. This seminar ensures continuity of knowledge, and builds on what has come before. This knowledge is interdisciplinary, and the workshop is a collaboration,” Nunnally said.

“Some people who attend know nothing. They are from grassroots theater companies with elementary knowledge,” he added. “Most of the people who come are people in the industry working to develop new and better systems.”

This year, Nunnally and his team tested a new system of flight tracking.

“We improved a tracking system that used 20 different pulleys for lifting,” he said. “We had researched and developed a system that used only six different pulleys that did the exact same thing.”

Tracking systems permit actors in flight to move from one side of the stage to the other and allow for more directed movement.

In a two-point suspension system, actors fly from the hips and are able to use their arms and hands more freely for expression. This system is different from the single-point suspension systems that call for precise movement from the actors and uses all their dance training.

“It’s the difference between a fairy in ‘Midsummer’s Night Dream’ and Peter Pan and the lost boys,” he said. “With a fairy, you can make expansive gestures, lean down and throw flowers. Peter Pan has to be dynamic, fly quickly, play up there.”

To fly like Peter Pan, actors must exert tight control over their own bodies. Because Peter Pan uses a single point suspension, the entire body has to be involved in the flight.

The flight stance is deceptively simple, Nunnally said: “Actors appear effortless up there, but Peter Pan is a very physical stance.”

An actor playing Peter Pan lifts one leg and crooks it at the knee, points the other at the floor, directs the head and one arm in the flight direction and crooks the other arm jauntily at the waist.

“This prevents the actor from spinning from his or her single point suspension wire,” Nunnally said.

“Peter Pan” often takes longer to master without dance training because it entails total awareness of the body. The actor is a pendulum; he or she must switch position quickly to fly in the opposite direction, but the actor has little control over the flight. He or she must respond to the wire and manual operator.

If the actor doesn’t swivel fast enough, he or she will fly backward. Then, it is up to the actor to appear “cool” in reverse, as if it were intentional.

“A fairy-like character flies by a two-point suspension. His or her balance is shifted to the waist, arms freed for those slow, graceful movements the audience expects,” he said. “Above the actor is a frame that distributes their weight, and allows them to bend forward, forming a plane parallel to the stage.”

The seminar on stage flight draws experts from varying backgrounds.

“We had one guy from Disney this year and a guy from Sea World last year,” Nunnally said. “We’ve had people from Cirque du Soleil for two of the three years at NIU.”

Interest in the seminar is growing because of the interest in live effects for stage. The same stage effects used in productions such as “Peter Pan” are used with some modification for high-end rock concerts and stage effects for some magicians.

This seminar, however, is not directed toward choreographed stunts. Nunnally is adamant about the difference between a stunt and an effect.

“In a stunt, people stand the chance of injury,” he said. “We use a flying wire. The flying wire lifts the actor off stage, but is controlled by a whole team of people dedicated to their safety.”

11-10-03