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Rachael Barbash & Melissa Starker
Apr 29, 2021
We know it's been a while since you've been able to view a live performance at the Wex. As we make tentative plans to bring back in-person performance this fall, enjoy this look inside Mershon Auditorium courtesy of photographer and Wex projectionist Rachael Barbash. Her photo gallery includes views of spaces the public rarely, if ever, gets to see, including the theater's vintage projection booth. "I feel like I'm part of history when I'm working in the Mershon booth," Barbash says. "You think about everyone who has worked up there before you and the films they might have run."
We're looking forward to welcoming you back inside soon. In the meantime, there's lots to watch in our virtual screening rooms and on Tuesday, June 2, we'll share an online presentation of the performance installation work HYSTERIA! by Raja Feather Kelly. More details will be available here in the coming days.
Before the advent of projector bulbs, film projectors used carbon rods like these to create a light source, and they're still in use in some vintage machines. The rods are aligned inches apart in metal housing behind the mechanism that runs the film through the projector, creating an arc of light between them that illuminates the projected image.
The projector mechanism, through which film moves at 24 frames per second.
In the age of celluloid, Simplex was considered the gold standard for projection equipment.
The rafters
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