Rich with visual effects, ‘King Kong' stomps into Fullerton

Los Angeles Times

18-07-2025

From sailing on a ship to Skull Island to a fight between King Kong and a T-Rex, Maverick Theater's 'King Kong' is in its sixth year of bringing live audiences a bit of movie magic.
Using live-video capture, rear-screen projection, a green screen and miniature sets, the tech-heavy production opened July 11 and runs until Aug. 10 at the Fullerton-based community theater.
'It's all filmmaking and theater tricks,' said Brian Newell, theater founder and the show's writer and director. 'I fell in love with special effects when I first saw 'King Kong' on TV when I was 5. I collected any magazine or book I could read to learn how the effects were done.'
Guests enjoying the production might not realize the challenges of presenting a show with live visual effects, where some actors perform backstage in front of a green screen, or a projected backdrop with a miniature set. There are pre-recorded scenes, but most are done live. And then there's the 16-foot long Kong arm.
'The basic concept I came up with to pull off the giant scale of Kong was to project his image on a large rear screen that nearly fills the stage,' Newell said. 'Actors could then interact with Kong, and he would appear larger than life.
'Also, shooting my Kong actor on miniature sets gives the audience a forced perspective that Kong is a giant in our world. The only large-scale Kong element in the show is his hand and arm. The arm I built is about 16 feet long with articulating fingers to grab the actors. To add an actor in some of the Kong scenes, I set up a green screen to capture their performance and then mix their video feed into the live Kong video feed, blending the two together on the stage's rear screen.'
The Kong hand and arm is a welded metal frame on casters that can roll on and off stage. The hand is made up of hinges, pulleys and aircraft cable controlled by an operator backstage.
The technology has been used before, just not in this way, Newell said.
'All arena concerts have a live camera feed on a giant screen for audiences to see the musicians. The difference is with 'Kong,' the audience never sees what we are shooting backstage,' he said. 'Some theater productions have used live footage but probably not the way I do. I think our show could be a one-of-a-kind.'
But there are always challenges.
'Opening night, the backstage crew couldn't transfer the camera to a tripod in time for the scene on the Empire State Building,' Newell said of their first performance in 2019. 'So for the entire scene, they had to hold the camera as still as they could to get the shot. Of course that's really impossible, so it looked like Manhattan was having a small earthquake. That's frustrating because we all want perfection, but it was also very funny, which is probably why the camera was shaking.'
Alex Wesevich, of Fullerton, has been helping manage backstage for the production since its first year.
'I work on the cabaret side of the theater,' Wesevich said. 'My job, along with quick changes and the usual set movements, is to cue the actors using the green screen — who can't see what or who they're interacting with — and let them know what's happening and when to move.
'I also coordinate to help cue the Kong actor on the other side of the building since he can't see the actors either. Working with green screens means sometimes our actors are interacting completely blind. It takes a lot of trust. It's such an interesting and unique blend of technology and live theater. Of course cameras and projections are used in other shows, but it's rare to see people working with live projections, much less compositing several green screens while doing it.'
Wesevich said the technical aspects of the show can be very difficult.
'We've got it down pat after so many years, but oh boy, Kong's very first tech week was still the worst tech week I've ever had, before or since,' Wesevich said. 'But even now, I mean, what hasn't gone wrong? Sometimes the screens all go off and the actors have to continue on anyway in total darkness. Sometimes the green screen curtain falls down seconds before we need to use it. One memorable time, the stage-right curtain leg ripped in half horizontally on the Kong arm side and had to be held up with safety pins. It's never dull.'
Alex Conway, of Long Beach, who is a scenic artist by trade, initially helped Newell with the miniatures and Kong suit, and continues to assist on each production.
'The challenge of building mechanical props for a show like this is you can't just buy it off the shelf. Everything needs to be designed and fabricated from scratch,' he said. 'From paper to model to mockups, there are quite a few steps to make sure things will look and work great. Just like creating all of the props and sets for this production, the staging is also very complex. With the miniatures, projections, large-scale props and sets, it's really not like anything you have seen on stage.'
'King Kong' runs through Aug. 10 at the Maverick Theater, 110 E. Walnut Ave., Fullerton. Tickets range from $17.50 to $33 and can be purchased online at mavericktheater.com.