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Behind the Scenes at a NOAC Show

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes at a NOAC show?  The Shows staff gave us an exclusive behind the scenes look at how they produce the great shows.

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The CVC of Shows is John Bicket.  He said that they generally arrive at Hilton Coliseum by 8:30 am and leave between 12 am and 3 am each night.  There are over 150 members of the Shows staff and 15 actors who perform on stage.  They will put in over 10,000 man hours working on  the 6 shows for NOAC.  He told us that the script is generally written 2-3 months before NOAC to allow time to prepare all the shows.   Each night there will be over 7,200 in attendance at the shows.

 

Mike Coley, who is a media relations guide, gave us a tour through the Hilton Coliseum.  He spent over an hour and a half giving us an excellent tour of the facilities and the different production areas.

Our first stop was the Multi-Image area.  Here slides are made that are shown on 4 main screens in the coliseum.  They incorporate these images for use by 12 different projectors.  They also spend hours researching different topics to find images that can be used for the show.

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Our next stop was the Video Production area.  Here Gaither Frye, Jr. told us about the many aspects of using live and taped video.  There are four camera crews that travel around NOAC gathering more than 150 hours worth of tape.  This is then used for the show and for the NOAC Video.  There are 5 live cameras in the Coliseum that are used to show everything from someone dancing in the audience to the National Chief addressing the crowd of Arrowmen.  The video is shown on the main screen and the diamond screens during the show.  There are 3 to 4 miles of video cable in use throughout the Coliseum.

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Next we saw the Scenic crew putting the final touches on the scenery for the shows.   Most of the props were made before the show so that the sets were almost ready to go when they arrived at ISU.  There was more than a tractor trailer full of set materials.

What is FX?  It is the special effects of the NOAC show.  Here they use everything from fog to concussion cannons to pyrotechnics.  There will also be a 20 minute laser show at the Theme Show.  Over 75 different special effects will be used for the shows.  It takes several hours to mix the chemicals they use during the show.   This is one of the few chances that an 18 year old Arrowmen has a chance to work with this type of equipment.

We got a chance to talk with Mark H. who is the Section Chief of NE-1b and from Tisquantum Lodge #164. He played the young Carrol A. Edson. He participated in plays during high school and is a member of NAG (NOAC Actors Guild).  The Shows staff has printed over 15,000 sheets of paper for scripts.

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Our tour ended with a stop at the costume room and the dressing room.  It was great to see this aspect of a NOAC Show.

The Web Team would like to thank the Shows Staff for their time to allow this interview.

Revised 8/03/98b.


This page was produced as part of the official 1998 National Order of the Arrow Conference web site, (http://www.oa-bsa.org) by the web team of the NOAC Communications and Public Relations Committee. Send any comments to webmaster@oa-bsa.org.

Copyright © 1997,1998 Order of the Arrow, Boy Scouts of America. All rights reserved.