Purdue Theatre Partners with Show Technologies for Dead Man's Cell Phone

The phone rings.
They kiss.
Embossed stationery moves through the air slowly, like a snow parade.
Lanterns made of embossed paper,
houses made of embossed paper,
light falling on paper,
falling on Jean and Dwight,
who are also falling.

That is how Sarah Ruhl describes the last moments of the first act of Dead Man's Cell Phone, the first show of the 2024-2025 Purdue Theatre season. The image is striking and beautiful, but figuring out just how to make it happen--over a thrust stage, with a tension-wire grid overhead, mere feet from the audience in the Carole & Gordon Mallett Theatre--vexed the design and production team.

Enter Purdue alums Shep Dick, BSE '22, and Trevor Marshall, MFA '23. Marshal and Dick shared an interest in control systems for live entertainment as students, and upon graduation began exploring a potential opportunity space in the entertainment technology industry. By the fall of 2024, the two of them--with their business partner, Xiong Wang, a friend of Marshall from college--founded Show Technologies, LLC, an entertainment technology company creating control interfaces for small-scale effects.

Rich Dionne, associate professor of practice and chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, learned about their venture in a phone call with Dick and realized there was a unique opportunity to collaborate. "The devices that Shep, Trevor, and Xiong were developing would provide a perfect interface between the pneumatic devices we were planning to use for the paper parade and the control system we were going to use for sound playback, allowing for easy synchronization of the paper dropping with the music created for this moment of the play," says Dionne. "That Shep and Trevor were alums, and that a collaboration with Purdue Theatre could be a great first-adopter demonstration piece for them as they entered the market, seemed too good an opportunity to pass up."

"The products we installed at Purdue for Dead Man's Cell Phone grew directly from projects Shep and I did as students at Purdue," says Marshall. "Shep's capstone control system design project for Men on Boats guided his work designing hardware for our C44 product, and Trevor's work implementing an immersive 'telephone booth' project provided inspiration for product features, firmware, and the sorts of projects we hope to support. Furthermore, what we learned working with Purdue faculty and staff in classes and as researchers and shop assistants has laid the groundwork for our company's principles."

Because the control devices needed to interact with sound playback, sound design and audio technology students needed to be able to integrate the devices seamlessly into their existing systems. "The collaboration with Show Technologies provided excellent, hands-on experience to our sound students in configuring show control networks and integrating show control commands into the sound playback system," says Mercer Aplin, clinical assistant professor of audio technology. "Students on the Dead Man’s Cell Phone sound team learned how to configure our playback computer to communicate with devices on multiple networks and subnets as well as the fundamentals of the OSC (Open Sound Control) protocol that we’re using to send commands to the Show Technologies automation elements used in this production."

Magical moments like this are often a part of Sarah Ruhl's plays, and Tom Robson, the director of Purdue Theatre's production, knew from the beginning how important it was going to be to find a way to create it on stage. "To me this was a moment of magical wonder, capturing the emotions of two characters connecting deeply and also guiding the audience into the far more abstract world of the second act of the play," he says. "On opening night, as I watched the first piece of paper gently float down, I saw audience members' eyes light up. We'd hit the goal."

Getting to work with people he'd worked with as students previously was a great opportunity for Vince Lobello, scenery construction supervisor. "It is great to see their hard work and dedication pay off in creating new technology," he says. "The skills and techniques they practiced as students became real-life skills as they listened to our needs and created innovative solutions. Without collaborations like this, challenging projects could just be written off as too hard, but this showcases the real added value new technologies can bring to a production."

For their part, the Show Technologies team were thrilled with this opportunity to work with the Department of Theatre and Dance again, this time as entrepreneurs and creators. "Partnering with Purdue Theatre felt like coming full circle for us," say Dick, Marshall, and Wang. "Two of our founders honed their skills there, Purdue Theatre gave them the foundation to explore the intersection of technology and live performance, and now, with Show Technologies, we see an opportunity to advance the field of show control together. Purdue Theatre's forward-thinking approach to performance arts aligns perfectly with our mission to push the boundaries of technical creativity, making it an ideal partner for developing next-generation tools for performers and production teams alike."

According to the Show Technologies team, "Show Technologies was founded to make high-quality show control systems accessible to creators of all kinds. Our goal is to bridge the gap between technology and creativity, with tools like the ShowIO hardware platform and ShowNET software, which allow designers to bring their ideas to life with ease and precision. Whether for theater, film, or immersive experiences like escape rooms, our products help turn visions into reality. With a foundation in both engineering and performance tech, we started this company to empower anyone with a creative spark to build their dream show."

Dead Man's Cell Phone performances ran September 20, 21, 22 and 27, 28, and 29, 2024.