Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern — Off-Broadway
Twenty-Sided Tavern Stage 42 New York, NY
Lighting design for the 2024 production of Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern — Off-Broadway at Stage 42, directed by Michael Fell.
About the Lighting Design
The show’s central technical challenge was its variability. Twenty-Sided Tavern can statistically never be the same twice; somewhere around three hundred thousand permutations of characters, situations, and scenes are built into the script. The design solution was a show file that reprograms itself in real time, developed with programmer Henry Wilen. Behind the scenes, presets and palettes update mid-scene based on audience choices. To the audience, the show plays back as if it had always meant to go in that direction.
The design establishes two interconnected worlds. The tavern is where the audience gathers and the campaign unfolds: warm, wood-toned, intimate. When the players step into the fantasy, the lighting shifts. Saturated colors, dynamic angles, effects-driven moments. The transitions back and forth are signaled by visual vocabulary that the audience learns over the course of the show. By the second tavern section, they know where they are.
The core design concept was that magic exists in ordinary objects. The 546-bulb canopy embodied it directly. Individual festoon bulbs (Glasson Calescos) that looked like casual brewery string lights became a programmable pixel surface. During the thirty-minute walk-in, bulbs flickered to life one by one, each representing an audience member logging in to that night’s quest. Throughout the show, bulb activations marked moments of genuine audience connection to the narrative.
Astera NYX bulbs carried the same color-shifting magic into every on-stage practical: lamps, chandeliers, in-world fixtures. The D20 dice gobos that washed the house during key audience-participation moments became one of the show’s most photographable design elements, signifying the audience’s invitation into the campaign.
The design also accounted for phone cameras. Spectators were encouraged to photograph and video throughout the show, which is unusual for theater, so the house got special attention during preshow, intermission, and walkout. Looks were calibrated so selfies came out clean across different iPhone and Android versions. During tech, the team tested moments on multiple phone models, informing subtle color and intensity choices. The audience-generated photography became one of the show’s strongest organic marketing assets.
- Additional Writing
- Conner Marx
- Illustrator
- Noah Ruff
- Director
- Michael Fell
- Scenic Designer
- KC McGeorge
- Costume Designer
- KC McGeorge
- Lighting Designer
- Mike Wood
- Sound Designer
- Glenn Schuster
- Projection Designer
- Ruby O'BrienDerek Christensen
- Show Control Designer
- Chet Miller
- Associate Lighting Designer
- Abby May
- Associate Lighting Designer
- Dalton Hamilton
- Programmer
- Henry Wilen
- Production Electrician
- Dan Mullins
- Head Electrician
- Alex Michels
- Lighting Shop
- 4Wall (Rep: Al Ridella )
- Production Stage Manager
- Samm Lynch
- Production Manager
- TINC
About the Show
A stage production combining actual play, improv, and immersive theater as a player-cast navigates a Dungeons & Dragons adventure set in the Forgotten Realms. Audience participation ranges from select audience members joining the cast on stage to browser-based voting that determines what happens next, so no two performances unfold the same way. The first scenario, Carriers of Chaos, was created by David Carpenter, David Andrew Laws and Sarah Davis Reynolds; a second adventure, The Tomb of Havoc, was created by Carpenter and director Michael Fell with additional writing by Conner Marx.
Source: Wikipedia
Cast
David Andrew Greener Laws as Dungeon MasterSarah Davis Reynolds as Tavern KeeperTyler Nowell Felix as FighterMadelyn Murphy as MageDiego F. Salinas as RogueRJ Christian as PlayerR. Alex Murray as PlayerCassidy Sledge as PlayerAlex Stompoly as Player
Production Photos
Press
Mike Wood's lighting and M. Glenn Schuster's wacky sound design (with whimsical original music by Benjamin Doherty) imbue the proceedings with a sense of magic.
With lighting that must adapt each night to audience decisions and character interactions, Lighting Designer Mike Wood and his team faced a unique task. 'Every night is a new adventure,' Wood explained. 'The audience and characters make different choices, which changes how the show unfolds. To handle this, we had to design a system that could respond in real-time to every possible twist and turn while appearing to the audience to be a natural linear playback.'
Wood was joined by a highly experienced team, including Associate Lighting Designers Dalton Hamilton and Abby May, Programmer Henry Wilen, Production Electrician Dan Mullins, and show control designer, Chet Miller from 4Wall New York. Together, they crafted a flexible lighting control system that mirrors the dynamic nature of the show.
Running over a year off-Broadway has been a dream come true, and has set us up for huge success nationwide.
Rip-roaringly funny… incredible video wall transforms the stage into literally hundreds of different settings.
The sound by M. Glenn Schuster and lighting by Mike Wood work seamlessly with the narrative, creating an immersive experience.
It's part tavern, part toy box… an adventuring party you won't want to miss.
A show that weaves the unpredictability of improv and the game itself into a feat of controlled chaos.
The cozy tavern set is elaborate, inviting, and functional. Live dice rolls are cleverly projected behind the stage, part of the immersive lighting, projection, and sound design that top off the experience.
Three actors try to pull off a mission by reacting to prompts, solving riddles and, naturally, engaging in fights.