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Case Study

NEXT TO NORMAL IMMERSIVE

Desilence added a heavy dose of colour, scale, and immersivity to a recent adaptation of Broadway hit Next to Normal.

Next to Normal, the hit musical, recently premiered in Barcelona with a fully immersive format. Its authors, Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, adapted the book for a new era, paring it down to a tight sixty minutes intended for a 20,000-square-foot venue in which actors and audiences would share the same space.

Del Campo Global, Layers of Reality, and Barcelona Grec Festival co-produced this wholly new take on the musical and trusted Desilence to deliver immersive projections to accompany live performances. It was a bold task to undertake, as there would be no scenography or props–simply great surround sound and 360 degrees to cover.

Desilence wanted to transport audiences directly into the mind of the protagonist, a woman named Alice who suffers from bipolar disorder. They began by building styleboards, storyboards, and animatics with Director Simon Pitman to prepare as much as possible leading up to the monthlong rehearsal period. The creative team used SMODE video servers and Notch as their primary software with some elements prepared and rendered in Cinema 4D and added touches in DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, and After Effects.

Their full-venue immersive videos, projected at a resolution of 6896x7388 pixels, were pre-rendered while other elements were composited in real-time for flexibility in SMODE. As the team noted, Notch allowed them to deliver on a massive scale quickly. The show ran five days a week for six weeks, selling out completely, and Desilence were nominated for Best Digital Tools at the Premis de la crítica for their work.

Notch’s flexibility helped us highlight both projections and performances without diminishing the power of either.
Tatiana Halbach, Co-Owner & Artistic Director, Desilence

Additional press coverage:

The New York Times, London Theatre, Broadway Shows.

Full Credits

Diana

Alice Ripley

Dan

Andy Señor Jr.

Gabriel

Lewis Edgar

Natalie

Jade Lauren

Henry

Eloi Gómez

Doctor Madden

Adam Pascal

Lyrics

Brian Yorkey

Music

Tom Kitt

Director

Simon Pitman

Musical Director

Tomás Mayer Wolf

Visual Artists

Desilence (Tatiana Halbach & Søren Christensen)

Desilence Crew

Rita Molinero, Miquel Donat, Pedro Waldemainer, Aitor Rosás & Juan Pedro Rodriguez

Music Producer

Manuel Moreno

Sound Desinger

Iker Rañé & Roc Mateu

Lighting Designer

Albert Faura

Costume Designer

Miriam Compte

Associate Director

David Pintó Codinasaltas

Technical Director

Pere Pau Hervás

Technical Coordinator

Santiago Rosell

Sound Operator

Iker Rañé

Video & Lights Operator

Ventura López

Moving Light Programmer

Daniel Sánchez

Stage Manager

Laura Enrech

Atrezzo & Costume Assistant

Riccardo Tafuro

Production Manager

Isaac Vila Doblas

Production Assistant

Jessica Foong

Spanish Translation

Manuel del Campo & Guido Balzaretti

Catalan Translation

Isaac Vila & David Pintó

Head of Sales & Communication

Núria Navarro

Content, Media & Activation

BUSHI (Damian Armocida & Andra Papini)

Global Press

Michael Jorgenseen & Valentina Berger

Local Press

Còsmica

Visual Creative Concept

Bruno Tortolano

Photography

David Ruano

Art Direction

Ilusion Art Agency & Gocho Espagnol

Electric & Acoustic Bass

Andrés Rotmistrovsky

Electric & Acoustic Guitar

Mariano Cantarini

Drums

Robert Fighetti

Piano & Keyboards

Tomás Mayer Wolf & Manuel Moreno

Violin

Julio Dominguez

Cello

Paula Pomeraniec

Vocal Chorus

Patricio Witis, Federico Coates, Mariano Barreiro, Manuela del Campo, Maria Álvarez de Toledo & Lucila Gandolfo

Voiceover

Javier Diez

Recording & Mixing Engineer

Daniel Ianniruberto

Music Recorded at

Openhaus Studio, Argentina

Rehearsal Pianist & Vocal Assistant

Adrià Aguilera

Video

Photo Editing

Matias Gordon

London Video Crew

Barcelona Video Crew

Alice Ripley’s Assistant

Lisette Reynoso

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