A Career in Production Lighting: Club Med
Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog.
The Club employed professionals from every career path you could imagine: Office staff, to Nurses, Chefs and Bartenders, Tennis Pros to Boutique staff, Child care professionals to Circus performers, and instructors for every known beach activity possible., then there was us, a full blown production crew: sound, lighting, set designers, choreographers and costumiers.
I worked at 5 different Clubs total: Sandpiper in Florida, Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Club Med in St. Lucia, Club Med Ixtapa in Mexico, Club Med Turks and Caicos, and back to Paradise Island for one last dose of Island Life.
(above image of Sandpiper Animation Team)
The Village of Sandpiper is located in Port St. Lucie Florida and was my very first Village. Sandpiper was for training purposes mainly, as with any organization, training of new employees is a must. I can't speak for the other departments, but for the Animation Team or Production Team, there was a lot to take in:
Work performance and expectations, team coordination and reliability, lessons in club culture and history. Not to mention, the Club needed the time to evaluate new hires making sure they were "stable individual" as some of the Club Med Villages are seriously and isolated. You really don't want to present some out of the way Village with a problem.
I worked for Club Med for almost 2 and a half years, living in these villages for 6 months at a time. Believe it or not, I learned a lot about stage lighting working in this environment. Being the only lighting person on the team there was no one to go to for advice, if there was a problem, I had to solve it, fix it or make do without it.
Each theater in each village was totally different from the next, each with a totally different set of issues, so you can imagine the learning curve was steep.
(Set Designed by my good friend Gregg Duym for the village of Paradise Island)
So lets' talk about the set above: The show was called "Dancing in the Streets" Choreographed by Ronald Halemai, Paradise Island's Chief of Animation.
Basic lighting plot, Starting upstage: 2- 6x striplights, uplighting the Cyc, an upstage downwash, center stage downwash and a downstage wash, seen on the proscenium. Each of the wings panels had their own wash hung from battens directly above the curtains (this is normal), also hanging from those battons were offstage sidefills. I believe I used wide angle par 64s with vertical hotspots so I could cross wash that section of the stage.
There were typically 6 specials, 1 center stage, and 2 specials onstage left and right, then I had 3 specials in front of the proscenium: center, left and right.. also on the proscenium was a back wash for downstage edge, which you can see in the image as well. This was my basic stage plot for that theater. Mind you, this stage was small so it didn't take a lot of fixtures to cover those positions, I did however have enough inventory to saturate the stage completely.
Here are the extras for that stage design:
Let's' start upstage at the Cyc: I produced a day scene and a night scene with a sunset, by using the striplights and a set of stage floods mounted on the floor, with a single floor Par 64, to produce my sun effect for the sunset. I also utilized a row of par 56's above the cyc hung on a batten for the cyc wash.. There was also a moon effect via a 6x9 Altman hung midstage.
The City Skyline in front of the Cyc had 2 pars left and right to add some color which were mounted on the platform in the back, also mounted on that platform were 2 sets set of pars focused out to the audience for mid level blinders. Under the platform behind the grills were a set of pars that gave the glowing green slime effect, it looked great with smoke and also served as a low level stage skim blinder effect at 100%., Also great with smoke.
There were christmas lights on top of all the buildings, some had 2 others had only 1.
The Traffic Light had 3x 75 watt floods on 3 separate circuits, red, yellow, and green, to signal start of performance, transition of performance and end of performance. The initial lighting design of this set had 6 par 38's at the base of each wing set piece. for uplighting, however the dancers kept kicking them over during exits and entrances, so I removed them. This was an awesome production design, and all the credit goes to Gregg as he designed and built a helluva set, lighting it was easy.
Here is another shot of that Stage clean with house lights up:
My ritual whenever I got to a new Club Village was the same, I would learn the shows of the existing choreographer, attend rehearsals take notes, and get to know my team. After about 3 weeks of school, I would go onto the stage and load out the entire lighting plot left behind by the previous lighting designer. I would strip out fixtures, cables, and circuits right back to the dimmers dropping everything onto the stage floor. This was the only way to know EXACTLY what was on the stage and what I was working with. The number of forgotten lights and abandoned cables was always amazing.
My on-hand inventory would increase 3-fold by doing this. ( finding cube taps were like striking gold)
I would then place a basic lighting plot to cover the stage for all the shows, then I would add in all the special lighting needs for specific shows that I spent the last month learning. Leftovers circuits and fixtures I used to add my own touches to existing shows or new shows that were in production. All in all, this process would take 4 weeks in the beginning of my season.
Once my stage load in was done, I spent the rest of the season at the beach. My job typically was the theater shows at night, so I had the entire day to do what I wanted and enjoy the Club Med Lifestyle.
My days were simple, I would get up in the mornings about 0800, head to the restaurant grab a coffee or a short breakfast, swimsuit on, beach towel in one hand, coffee in the other, a fanny pack around my waist loaded with essentials, then headed straight to the beach.
The G.O. congregation on the sand was already in full swing. I'd grab a beach chair and place it in formation, followed by the ritual of applying suntan lotion and assuming the perfect body position.
Most of us on the beach were either trying to burn off the hangover from the night before, or trying to catch a little more sleep. Either way, conversations were sparse and usually about ones exploits the night before.
As for me, not only was I "Ralph Lights", but for my first two villages, I was also "Ralph DJ".
with that said, my days didn't end until 4 or 5 in the morning which meant "beach time" was recovery time for my soul.
A good friend of mine and I use to have this contest I would call: "Sun Tan Wars".
We would try to see who could get the deepest darkest tan possible. We would go long and hard into the sun for days on end, sometimes using nothing but baby oil. The tan lines were incredible, when you'd flash them, you'd think you were looking at 2 different people. Some weeks she would win, others I would come out on top, either way, I was always up for the battle. Yeah! I know baby oil = bad for skin, and now 30 some years later I can see the deep freckles on my arms, but you know.. worth it.
As I mentioned, in my first few Villages I was also the DJ in the nightclub., of course I would try to channel Larry or David while I played, I actually got pretty good at this DJ thing, and I realized then, how much skill was involved in holding a crowd's attention and giving them a party, this added much more respect for Larry Levan and David Depino than I already had. I was not anywhere close to their level of talent and expertise, but every now and again I could put a set together and make it sound like something awesome.
I remember this one evening in Turks, I drifted into the club to hang for a bit. It was early morning and the Nightclub was just about to close, a lot of the guests were already "getting BUSY" in their rooms so there was just a small G.O. contingent and a few GM's inside. The DJ asked me to play while she burned off some energy on the dance floor, she knew I had DJ'd before, as she worked in a previous Village with me, so I obliged. I remember playing a few House tracks for old time sake, then for some reason, she asked me to play a bit of Rock and Roll. I thought it was an odd ask, but I dropped the needle on "Welcome to the Jungle" by G-N-R.
The place went batshit crazy.... I lit a FIRE bro, apparently a nerve was struck..
People were dancing and jumping on seats and tables, the floor was in motion, I took a play from Larry Levans Handbook and played the song a few more times back to back... the scene was bedlam.
I wish I could take credit for this emotional reaction but Turks was a "Singles" Village so I attribute the physical response to kids cutting loose motivated by alcohol.
You know, out of all the nights that I DJ'ed for Club Med, this was definitely the best Disc Jockey moment that I experienced, and I wasn't even the DJ at this Village.
I am just really skimming the surface here as the G.O. lifestyle is really off the chain. I am trying to give you the P.G. version of things but navigating these waters is difficult. All of this to say the life of a G.O.'s was about burning candles at both ends and up the middle.
At noon we would file off the beach and into the restaurant for lunch, we would always sit with the guests and invite them back to the beach with us if they weren't otherwise engaged. The afternoon beach scene was as you imagined, the tropical ocean breeze and suntan lotion mix permeated the air. There was always some beach activity going, volleyball, sailing, snorkeling, windsurfing, whatever your taste, it was all there. The G.O.s would come and go during the day depending on their work schedule, but for the most part the beach was the place from sun-up to sun-down. Life happens on the sand.
At around 4:00pm I would leave the beach and go to the fitness center. My workouts were hard, typically lasting for an hour or so maybe longer depending on how I felt. After the gym, I would head back to my room for a shower or a short nap before the evening began. If there was a major show that night, I would just head to the stage after the gym and set up for the evening show adding whatever extra design fixtures that were needed. Usually, I would chat up the chief of the animation team or set designer to find out if the evening had anything special planned, then head back for a shower as my day was beginning.
Sidenote: (Personal Achievement, remember when I was on Cape Cod, I weighed in at about 252 lbs, I started jogging and dropped down to about 235lbs. When I got to Sandpiper at 235, I worked out every single day for 7 months straight, I didn't miss a beat. I exercised and ate right. When I left Sandpiper for Paradise Island, I was 185lbs and well built. In fact, I was in better shape then, than I was when I was in the Marine Corps. This was the power of youth.)
Staying fit at Club Med was easy to do as there were so many activities around, you were constantly on the go. I wouldn't say we were on the beach 24/7, but it was almost 80% of the time. There were things like Archery, Baseball, Tennis, Sailing, in Sandpiper there was Golf, other Villages had horseback riding and scuba. Lets just say Club Med was my most active time in life.
After the days activities, we'd showered and dress for the evening. Headed to the bar for a drink before dinner, hang out with the guests for a spell and see how their day went. Because I wasn't a Tennis instructor or Sailing G.O., my contact with the guests was mainly done at the bar or the theater or in the nightclub. I would just plop myself down at their table or just roll up at the bar with a smile and a " Hey, How you doin' "
The Mother and Daughter in the image to the left were awesome people, their names escape me as this was almost 34 years ago. They were from New York so we had lots to talk about. We had few awesome dinners together, I remember catching up with them on the ferry-boat into Nassau. We hung out on Bay Street for a bit while I did some well needed shopping for sundries. One afternoon we took a trip to Merv Griffen Casino which was just on the other side of the Island. ( now called Atlantis )
This was Club Med Life.
Incorporating the GM's into our daily was the Club Med Ethos, it was part of the culture and part of the companies origins. The Guests (G.M.'s) came to the clubs to hang out with us. The Staff (G.O.'s) are part of what makes their vacations special. Hanging out, laughing, telling stories, doing excursions, playing on the beach, and some times, more personal interactions. I've seen some crazy relationships coalesce within Club Med, some that were over in a flash and some that last even to this day. It was all part of the Culture. Along with all of this free flowing passion, there was also a fare amount of "Relationship Drama" .. lol, Oh I can tell you stories of drama. I have some of those scars as well. I had a young Lady tell me one time, "you may not think so now, but one day you will look back and say: I had a good time with....." and she was right, I had a blast.
Ok enough of that before I get into trouble.. back to the topic.
As I said each village had its own set of challenges when it came to production.
Some villages like St. Lucia and Turks were so remote it was hard to get supplies and extra equipment sent in, as logistics were a complete nightmare. Most of the village theaters open air, yards away from the beach so rust and corrosion were a major issue for maintenance and upkeep. Villages like Paradise Island in the Bahamas weren't remote so you could order replacement gear regularly from Miami, it would be sent to you, but unfortunately, it would just disappear off the docks in town.
And speaking of extortion, I remember hearing stories that Club Med Head office would pay off the local Banditos in Mexico, for the Village of Playa Blanca, so Banditos' wouldn't raid the Village outright. It was like a yearly expense.. Needless to say, The Club was a unique experience in production management. Crazy Right?
As the lighting guy my job was to do the shows, not appear in them, but every now and then, if persuaded, I would actually go on stage and participate in a skit of some kind...which was a total blast!
I would get dressed for for the routine, hang in the booth, operate the show opening, wait til the last minute, then dash backstage and get in position. If the number was complicated I would teach the followspot person how to work the cues, and trust they wouldn't blow it. I tried to make an effort at least once in every village to get on stage. Most of the numbers I participated in were an Animation Team events, and not one of the major productions. This way I wasn't train wrecking the entire evenings entertainment. Club Med Shows were a major part of the day, it was a chance for the entire Village to be together in the theater and hang out together. For the guests it was a specticle to see that Tennis Instructor they were with that day on stage doing a dance routine that night. And for some of the GO's it was a chance to live that theatrical dream.
Ixtapa was a strange Village for me, I wasn't actually supposed to do a contract there, I was supposed to go home and reset for starting a new contract. I had just closed the Village of St. Lucia for the season so I was ready to go home, Unfortunately Club Med needed my help.
The G.O. team in Ixtapa was already into their season when I showed up so I was behind the 8ball. The Chief of Animation was having problems with the lighting designers he was receiving, I believe he had fired two already, so either Club Med put me on the chopping block or, my reputation for being a good Lightman was the reason to send me there and help the team finish their season.. Anyway like I said, I totally liked the Chief of Animation, we hit it off almost immediately. I gave him 100% and he seemed to appreciate it. I stayed till the end of their season and went home.
In fact there are images of me somewhere out there, in fishnets and a blonde wig playing one of the Supremes for Diana Ross.. It was all for fun, and as embarrassed as I was, I had a great time doing it.
Village life is that way.
The Other side of the coin:
The G.M.s that come to the Club are also intertwined in that Village life as well. They are with you sometimes for two weeks or more. We all coexist in this fantasy realm for a time, it really is a symbiotic relationship of sorts.
I have known GMs that loved the GO's and the Club so much that they ended up staying and working at the Club. These people had jobs and lives back home, spent a few weeks in a Village and said "Fuck it, I'm staying"!.... Its an odd thing to hear but it happens quite often, people would put their lives on hold at home and just stay at the club to be apart of this fantastic energy. Sometimes they would land a paying job and become permanent G.O.s, others would just work Au Pair, finish out the season and then go home..
If I had to pick Villages that were my favorites, I would say Paradise Island for the purely emotional rollercoaster that it was. The shows were good, and I loved them all. But the emotional ups and downs that I enjoyed were life changing. The second Village was Turks and Caicos, solely for the Lighting experience as Turks was a singles village and the shows were a bit racier, more adult oriented. The Chief of Animation and Choreographer John Rodrigues. (RIP) and I, had worked together in Sandpiper a year before or so before so I knew what he liked and what he expected, he was also a Paradise Garage Alumni so we had common ground.
(The Sound Cabin in Turks: John on the Right, Mark Our Audio Tech on the Left )Short Story:
John was setting up to produce The Rocky Horror picture show, one of the stage props built was this semi-transparent booth 7ft tall 3ft wide 3ft deep with an open back, just up-stage left, where Rocky was supposed to undergo his transformation.
I saw the box and immediately knew dramatic lighting was needed. Besides I saw RHPS at the 8th Street Playhouse in 86... Anyway..
I took an old L4000 board they had, The same type we used at the Garage btw, and plugged some effects into it. A strobe some pin beams for streak effects 2 floods one red and the other white for flash effects. I set the chace pattern on high so it switched through all of the effects making it look like all hell was breaking loose behind this semi- transparent booth.
Later that afternoon, John catches me in the sound cabin and starts to go over the show, he mentions the translucent booth and explains what he wanted the effect to be.. I looked at him and turned to the stage, hit the fader on the board, turned back, look at him and said "Like That ?" John looks over at the stage, then back at me with this cheesy grin like he just ate the Canary and goes.. "Ok Then".
The way he said it and the look on his face was priceless.
Miss You John.~
Working for Club Med I gained huge amount of experience in lighting a wide variety of set-designs for shows ranging from original productions to adaptations of Broadway classics like Phantom and Cats.
Being able to develop and add my own artistic expression to a wide variety of these show while gaining the confidence to walk into a theater, dismantle the lighting grid and install my own set up, was priceless.
I stopped working for Club Med at the end of 94 as I felt it had taught me as much as I was going to learn in regards to this Cabaret Style of stage lighting technique, and I wanted to move forward.
I will never forget that experience nor the people I shared it with, and it just may have been the best time of my life.
Cruise Ships:
~ Ralph Curtis ~
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