University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN’s Theatre Department’s Barry Cleveland Wins
National Design Award for Invention for the Stage

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Nov. 2, 2006) -- It started with a simple party conversation. Four years later, Barry Cleveland, production manager in Cal State Northridge’s Department of Theatre, is sharing a Live Design Product of the Year Award for an invention intended to make putting on a live stage performance easier.

Cleveland and his co-inventors, theatre and engineering students and faculty at Colorado State University, were lauded last month at the Lighting Dimensions International trade show in Las Vegas, the largest gathering of technical professionals in the live entertainment industry.

What won them all the attention was the Keystroke, a simple looking box that Cleveland said can execute special effects in the theater with the push of a button.

"It’s actually a very simple idea that incorporates a computer," he said. "I can see it making life easier for people in college and community theatre around the country."

In the past, a stage manager would have to give oral cues to colleagues poised strategically around the theater or behind the stage, to hit keys on individual computers to trigger a specific effect on stage. Since the manager is relying on individuals to trigger the effect, there are no guarantees that it would go off exactly on time or simultaneously.

Keystroke is a simple programmable blue box that connects a DMX512 lighting board controlling the lighting cues with remote computers running the effect, such as Power Point slides. On the stage manager’s cue, the light board operator pushes a single button to simultaneously trigger multiple projection, sound or special effects cues.

"Keystroke is definitely a little piece of genius,"said one of the trade show judges.

Cleveland said the idea for Keystroke came out of a 2002 conversation he had with electrical and computer engineering professor John Mahan while at a party for a colleague at Colorado State, where Cleveland was working at the time. Mahan was looking for projects his undergraduate students to work on, and Cleveland was looking for ways to ease all the juggling that goes into putting on a staged show.

Engineering and theatre students were assigned to the project and began working on a prototype for what later became Keystroke. "I’ve been teaching for a long time and I’m always looking for opportunities for students to have a hands-on experience like this," Cleveland said. "The opportunity to work across disciplines with engineering was wonderful."

The project continued even after Cleveland moved to Cal State Northridge two years ago. By then, Rosco International, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of products for theatre, film and television production, was interested in the project.

Keystroke premiered last year at the Lighting Dimensions International trade show in Orlando, Fla., to rave reviews. The team that developed Keystroke, including the students, will share in any royalties the product generates with Colorado State.

Cleveland said he still has a couple of the "projects" he’s working on with the electrical and computer engineering department at Colorado State, all generated by that conversation four years ago. But when those are done, he’s looking forward to teaming with his colleagues here at CSUN to work on some other ideas he has for making live theatre production easier.

"Oh, I’ve got ideas," he said. "I’m just waiting to talk to the right professor."

Cal State Northridge’s nationally recognized Department of Theatre is located in the College of Arts, Media, and Communications. The department has 12 full-time faculty, seven professional staff and approximately 15 part-time faculty who serve more than 200 undergraduate and graduate students. BackStage Magazine ranked Northridge as one of the nine university programs in the nation that were "the most effective and offer a unique approach to the college-professional connection," noting the department is "ideally suited for finding internships in the Industry."

California State University, Northridge has 34,500 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.