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Marc Broidy - Teatro La Scala

The Marriage of Figaro

November 9, 2023 - Los Angeles California

Following years of musical training and appreciation, the study and practice of lighting design, and a passion for travel photography, I achieved lighting in a bottle.  I was able to attend a performance at one of the iconic opera houses of the world - La Scala.

Nothing about the evening disappointed - with the entire production evidencing the artistry and quality associated with the vaunted theatre and company.

I merely express appreciation and gratitude for providing such a memorable evening - and hope that for the younger generations, we find a way to keep this esteemed art form in existence.  

Not knowing whom this post might reach, I provide the following information to anyone philanthropically minded:

Milano per la Scala Foundation

tel. 02 72021647 fax 02 72021662

miscala@milanoperlascala.it,

www.milanoperlascala.it

via Clerici, 5 – Milan – Italy

Gratzi Mille!

                     (Photo Credit - Marc Broidy (c) 2023)

The Physicists - 1994 Pomona College Theatre Department - Lighting Design by Marc D. Broidy

 

Last Known Photo of Babe Ruth

 A Dying Babe Ruth In Memorial Hospital July 29, 1948

New York – Babe’s Most Recent Picture – This picture, taken at Memorial Hospital here July 29, is believed to be the last picture of the baseball idol. It was made just before the Babe’s most recent relapse. With him is Steve Broidy of Allied Artists movie studio, who is presenting Ruth with a check for the Ruth Foundation for underprivileged children. The homerun king’s condition today was critical.  photo – AP, August 11, 1948

Dr. Ian Jay Kaufman - Obituary

 New York Times - Obituary

KAUFMAN--Dr. Ian Jay. Dr. Ian Jay Kaufman, age 65, died October 3, 2005 after a prolonged battle with metastatic melanoma. Dr. Kaufman is survived by his sister Caron Kaufman Broidy and brother-in-law Steven D. Broidy of Los Angeles, as well as his nephew Marc D. Broidy of New York City. After a 40 year career practicing international trademark and patent law with the firm of Ladas and Parry, he retired as the Managing Partner in 2003. Dr. Kaufman was a world renowned attorney, having been appointed as a delegate and lecturer for many international meetings and conferences. With a passion for travel, he enjoyed fine cuisine and was a patron of the arts. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, attention: Dr. Steven O'Day, Director, 11818 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA. 90025.

 

Samuel “Steve” Broidy (June 14, 1905 – April 28, 1991) 

1962 Jean Hersholt Award 

Acceptance Speech

Steve Broidy (born Samuel Broidy) was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and attended Boston University. His entrance into the film business was as a salesman for an independent company in 1925, and he moved to Universal Pictures in 1926 and then Warner Bros. in 1931. He was hired by Monogram Pictures in 1933 as a sales manager, and by 1940 was on the board of directors as VP and general sales manager. By 1945 he had been named President. Broidy presided over Monogram during its metamorphosis into Allied Artists, a change that came about because he believed that the Monogram name had for too long been associated with low-budget, low-quality productions, and he wanted to upgrade the company's reputation. He remained president until 1965, when he left to become an independent producer. In 1962 he was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Steve Broidy, former head of Monogram Pictures and Allied Artists and the philanthropist and humanitarian who crafted the merger of Cedars of Lebanon and Mt. Sinai hospitals into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, died Sunday.

Medical center spokesman Ron Wise said Broidy, the founding life chairman of Cedars-Sinai, was 86. The longtime Dodgers fan suffered a heart attack at Dodger Stadium while watching a ballgame. He was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center.

Born in Massachusetts and forced from college by the Depression, Broidy began in the film industry as a salesman. He worked his way up through the industry, moving to Los Angeles in 1940 and taking over Monogram and Allied Artists in 1945. In 1965, he formed his production firm, Motion Pictures International.

If thousands saw his pictures over the years, thousands more in this city benefitted from his fund-raising and organizational abilities.

In the 1960s, Broidy first decried the “duplication of medical effort” at Los Angeles’ two leading Jewish hospitals and led merger efforts, working long hours to raise the money to meld them into a single multipurpose, multimillion-dollar center. It took 15 years before the first patient was admitted April 3, 1976.

His charitable and professional efforts produced dozens of awards and honorary degrees, including “Pioneer of the Year” in 1959 from the Motion Picture Pioneers, the American Judaism Award from the United American Hebrew Assn. in 1963 (a first for someone from the West Coast), and that same year the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (Oscar) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He served on the boards of Union Bank, the Motion Picture Academy, the Jewish Federation Council, the Salvation Army, Claremont Men’s College, Loyola Marymount University and others.

Survivors include his daughter, Eleanor Sattinger, sons Arthur and Steven Broidy, and six grandchildren.

Steven D. Broidy 1938 - 2018

January 22, 1938 - November 3, 2018 Steven D. Broidy passed away on November 3. He was 80 years old. Broidy leaves a rich legacy of leadership and service to the Los Angeles Community. Broidy's career in finance earned him the admiration of his colleagues in the banking world. He served as founding chair of the Private Bank of California, executive vice president of Union Bank, and held key positions with Loeb and Loeb, City National Bank and United California Bank. Broidy played an instrumental role in the success of Cedars-Sinai, where he was chair of the board of directors from 1998 through 2001, sat on myriad board committees and, until his death, was a member of the executive committee of the board. In 2010, he received the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Lifetime Leadership Award. He established the Caron and Steven D. Broidy Endowed Chair for Movement Disorders, the Broidy Fund for Neurodegenerative Disorders and contributed to a variety of other programs. Broidy was chairman of the board and CEO of the Weingart Foundation from 1999 until 2003. He was a respected leader at a host of worthy organizations, including Wilshire Boulevard Temple, National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Jewish Federation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Huntington Library and Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. He cared deeply about a host of organizations and gave generously to them. Broidy was a devoted husband and father who cherished his family, and he was a warm and loyal friend. As a businessman and philanthropist, he led with integrity, compassion and grace. Broidy is survived by his devoted wife, Caron, his son, Marc Broidy, sister, Eleanor Sattinger, and his nieces, Jill and Janice Sattinger.

THEATRE Learning Abilities: Dyslexic Students At The Gow School Conquer Macbeth Jul 14, 2010 5:48am

 

Learning differences only make you different if you let them: students at Gow Hunt (Edward) Tuetken and Norris Mead were assistant LDs and programmers for the production.

Nestled in the bucolic town of South Wales, New York, The Gow School is world-renowned for the education of young men with learning differences (specifically dyslexia). Having recently moved to the area,  I became fond of the school when its director of development, Gayle Hutton, played violin at a local reception, and upon meeting the head of school, Brad Rogers.

After having been given a tour of the school and spending time with some of the students, I was terribly impressed by the quality of the program, the quality of the students, and level of the instructors. Having already discussed my “artistic” interests in theatrical lighting design, Rogers introduced me to Peter Weisenberger, English teacher and drama instructor. Between us and with Rogers’ support, we conceived the idea of bringing moving lights (Philips Vari-Lite fixtures, specifically) in for the Spring production of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

The school has a specialized mission: “The primary purpose of The Gow School is to maintain and operate an independent, not-for-profit school for the education of young men, grades 7 - 12, using a college preparatory curriculum with emphasis on the remediation of dyslexia and related language based learning difficulties through reconstructive language.” The students at Gow seem to have a few strengths because of their learning differences, but among their assets are spatial relations and working with their hands. The teachers at Gow inject many of their lessons with multi-sensory activities, or VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile). Weisenburger jumped at the opportunity to use these powerful theatrical tools to enhance the production and to give a few of his students the chance to use their strengths, learn a new skill, and to work with a professional lighting designer.

Gow is already on the forefront of mechanical education, as the facility has a lab program for seniors (and some juniors) designing and constructing “battlebots” for national competition. Given the students’ ability to excel in this area and their penchant for strong spatial relations, I believed that the combination of moving heads and the geometric nature of lighting design would be a great fit. After meeting my new assistant lighting designers and programmers, Hunt Tuetken (grade 11) and Norris Mead (grade 12), I could tell we were going to have a productive, successful, and interesting collaboration.

Six days before curtain, Tuetken, Mead, Weisenberger, and a number of cast members awaited the arrival of the rental gear from Buffalo’s Advanced Production Group. Three road cases with four Philips Vari-Lite VL2500 Spots and a Barco High End Systems Hog 3PC were rented to complement the existing rig of 11 6” Fresnels and four Altman Lighting 6x9 ellipsoidals.

Over the course of the next two days, all students participated in the rigging of the new equipment and learned a little about the instruments, their versatility, and what the role of a crew was during the process. With the VLs up and running and everything else focused, we were programming in no time.

Taking the lead, Tuetken took to the role of programming like a fish takes to water. After about five minutes of instruction, he grasped the idea of the multiple attributes and processes necessary for the interface between the Hog and the moving heads and conventional fixtures. Aside from a few instances of needing to prompt Tuetken to move the head in the opposite way (“your other stage left”), one would have never known that either of my able assistants possessed any learning differences whatsoever.

After working for the next few days together, we had written nearly 100 cues, with Tuetken and Mead adding artistic ideas (color, texture, beam angle, etc.) and easily grasping the complexities of live cues, moving cues, and repositioning cues. Following a dress rehearsal in which our cast was still tentative and worried about their lines, we embarked upon opening night.

Thursday, May 6, 2010 was not a remarkable day; we were a group of committed thespians intent on giving our audience a good show. Director Peter Weisenberger and I joked about the ongoing lore of “The Scottish Play” and made light of all the stories associated with uttering “Macbeth” in the performance space. A few chuckles and an hour and a half later, the curtain metaphorically rose and less than ten minutes into the show, a circuit-breaker blew, leaving us without control of sounds nor lighting and providing yet more non-scientific data supporting the theory that the curse of “The Scottish Play” is something more than lore.

With a high level of calm and professionalism, we quickly identified the problem, reset the circuit-breaker, and regained control of our equipment. The show must go on, and it did, and our team breathed a collective sigh of relief as bows were taken after a successful opening night.

Twenty-four hours later, we experienced a flawless closing night. The Gow students exited the Birnam Wood with their heads held high, having conquered Macbeth, moving lights, and further demonstrating that learning differences only make you different if you let them.

Watching the cast and crew interface with the lighting equipment and listening to their conversations with family, friends, and faculty, I am sure that this was a wonderful opportunity for their learning and development in theatre—an experience they will not soon forget. And just maybe, it will have inspired one of these superlative young men to aspire to be the next Bob Dickinson. Who knows?

Tuetken and Mead thrived. Here is what they said about the experience:

MB: How was your experience working with the lights?
Hunt Tuetken: Awesome experience—it was a great learning experience because I am a tactile learner. I learn by using my hands.
Norris Mead: It was fun because I had never thought I would work with theatrical lights.

MB: Do you think you have an advantage as a dyslexic student working with lighting design?
HT: Yes, and I don't think it is because I am dyslexic, but you were the creative engine behind the design.
NM: I don't know if it is because I am dyslexic, but I feel as though I am mechanically inclined, so I found it was easy.

MB: What part was the most fun?
NM: It was interesting working with professional equipment. I would definitely like to work with them again.
HT: The most fun was putting the show together—the cue-to-cue rehearsal—and seeing what exactly the lights are capable of. The lights did more than I thought they would do.

MB: Were your learning differences an obstacle in any way to the process of learning the programming?
NM: No.
HT: No [emphatically].

With our deepest appreciation to George Mask at Phillips Vari-Lite, High End Systems, APG Buffalo, and Live Design.

Marc D. Broidy is a lighting designer, among other professions, who volunteers with students at The Gow School. He has also worked with students at his alma mater, Pitzer College.

Pitzer College Opens LEED Certified Housing - November 2007

 

Green School: Pitzer College

Marian Sandberg

Dec 1, 2007 7:00am

Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, launched a new initiative to “go greener” with the opening of a brand new “green” residential hall (Gold LEED-certified sustainable dorms) that included a grand opening celebration featuring lighting design by alumnus/trustee Marc Broidy and senior theatre major Vanessa “Nessa” Rundle. Robert Redford, Pitzer College president Laura Skandera Trombley, and Ed Begley, Jr. were among those who attended the evening's activities.

Earlier in the year, at an annual Board of Trustees retreat, the college president mentioned that she wanted to have a celebration including fireworks for the new facility. That's when Broidy volunteered to get involved, he says, “simply to support the college in gaining profile, recognition, and additional media attention for our incredible accomplishments. Secondarily, the ability to paint the new campus facilities with light seemed to be both an exciting and interesting design idea/challenge.”

The use of fireworks was quickly abandoned in consideration of the environmental consequences, and the team turned, instead, to using an event with highly produced lighting, including fixtures from Vari-Lite and Martin Professional run on a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3. Broidy notes that the easiest aspect of the production was the flexibility of having a fully automated rig. “I would have nearly limitless ability to adapt to the multiple needs of the event — stage, architectural, and live light show — underscored by music,” he says. Broidy adds that he had a good deal of help from Tim Jones, sub-contracted by CalStage, who managed a series of obstacles on site.

And Rundle, the student acting as assistant LD, was able to learn a few things in the real-world environment outside the classroom. “As a design student, it is not common to be able to work with such advanced technology, using an entire plot of intelligent lighting or a light board with so many different capabilities,” she says. “Because of the nature of the light show, it was great to be able to utilize the perspective of an alum/trustee and a current student while working together to create a show that not only illustrated the success and efficiency of the dorms, but also their beauty.”

“We were pleased to be able to power the event with a CAT generator that ran purely on biodiesel,” adds Broidy. “As an alum, I was thrilled to see the college continue to garner profile and attention as a leader in socially responsible education, be recognized as a Top 50 school in US News and World Report, and be able to attract the support of leading green-oriented entertainment figures as well as the interest of the Sundance Channel. As such, I felt it important that the production values mirror the scope/talent of the evening. Additionally, I was thrilled to be able to involve a fellow theatre major as my assistant designer.”

The challenges, however, were two-fold. Based in New York, Broidy had to implement and manage the production from 3,000 miles away. In addition, a four-hour long window of rainy weather — during load-in and 60 hours before the event — and the failure of one of the lifts used to hoist the stage truss, caused a few kinks. “These factors deprived me from one night's programming time with the rig and thus resulted in no time for a run-through of the lighting elements under darkness,” says Broidy.

On the up side, those challenges also created another learning opportunity for Rundle. “It was really helpful for me to see someone programming on a Wholehog 3 and working around different problems that arose, most specifically the rain,” she says. “I have worked in an outdoor space before. However, when one is working within a two to three day span, every hour lost to rain changes the format of the day and demonstrates the importance of efficiency of time. Also, working in an outdoor space with architectural structures, as opposed to actors and scenery, is a very different process and pushed me to think of lighting in a more three dimensional, textural sense.”

Broidy adds that he understands how valuable it is to be able to learn on-the-job and gain practical experience while working with other designers. “As a theatre major at the Five-College program housed at Pomona College, I was able to seek out and create experiences that were atypical for the traditional liberal arts educational environment,” he says. “As a senior, I was fortunate to be able to spend my final semester interning at the design firm of what is now known as Visual Terrain in Hollywood. I learned invaluable skills in the real world art and craft from such legendary designers as Jim Moody and Jeff Ravitz that certainly make me a better designer.”

Broidy also notes that, as a result of his internship, he was the first designer in the Five-College Theatre program to employ intelligent fixtures on his plot for his senior thesis. “In 1995, that was a noteworthy opportunity!”