Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern — Sydney Opera House
Twenty-Sided Tavern Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia
Lighting design for the 2024 production of Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern — Sydney Opera House at Sydney Opera House, directed by Michael Fell.
About the Lighting Design
The Twenty-Sided Tavern made its international debut at the Sydney Opera House in late 2024, running in the venue’s Studio Theatre. The design problem was specific: bring the show originally built for a custom New York rig to one of the most iconic venues in the world, on a different continent, working within Sydney’s house infrastructure.
The bulb canopy was the first piece to reimagine. The 546 individual bulbs that hung over the audience in New York couldn’t translate cleanly to the Sydney space, so the team reworked them: string lights threaded around the house, plus chandeliers hung over the audience with Astera NYX bulbs inside. The color-changing magic survived in different positions.
On stage, the fixture mix combined Sydney’s house rig with select rentals. The house inventory included Martin Mac 250 Entours, fixtures almost thirty years old and some of the first moving lights I’d used myself, back in high school. Alongside them were conventional dimmers that needed actual gel to change color. Compared to the NYC rig that could instantly change color, Sydney’s mix couldn’t, so the design split the difference.
Lachlan Hogan handled the programming. He took Henry Wilen’s New York show file and dug into every layer of how the original adapts in real time, then rebuilt that adaptation for Sydney’s rig. The programming was invisible to the audience.
The core design held. Two interconnected worlds, the warm tavern and the saturated fantasy, plus the same show file that adapts in real time as audience choices push the show through one of roughly three hundred thousand possible permutations. And every page of the plot was drafted in metric.
- 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
- Lighting Supervisor
- Raff Watt
- Programmer
- Lachlan Hogan
- Production Electrician
- Matt Qunce
- Production Stage Manager
- Steph Kamasz
- Production Manager
- Jack ThompsonSarah O'Brien
- Company Manager
- Ryan Tate
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Ashley Swift
- Properties Supervisor
- George Buchanan
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
William Kasper as The Dungeon MasterZoë Harlen as The Tavern KeeperAtlas Adams as WarriorEleanor Stankiewicz as SpellcasterTrubie-Dylan Smith as TricksterSonya Kerr as Bar SwingEmma Throssell as Player SwingDavey Seagle as Player Swing
Production Photos
Press
The set design was impressive, having been meticulously prepared with smart ceiling lights, a large interactive screen (with strategically placed cameras featuring dice rolls), and distinctly coloured costumes and props.
Along with the changing lighting and runes that lit up around the stage when characters perform certain actions, it helped make for a very immersive experience.
The stage design, lighting, and sound all worked in perfect harmony to create an immersive atmosphere.