Waldo Warshaw, a theatrical special-effects professional from New York, is a consultant for the Phoenix Theatre production of "The Lieutenant of Inishmore." (Photo provided by Phoenix Theatre)

Ready, aim, act!

Special-effects expert brings firepower to Phoenix play

From Broadway to regional theater and from film to rock concerts, if it goes bang in a big way, there's a chance Waldo Warshaw had something to do with it, especially in New York.

But now, the Long Island special-effects guru with a company he calls Show Effection has taken his show on the road, to the Phoenix Theatre.

Warshaw, who was the "weapon master, fight choreographer and blood effects designer" for the Broadway production of "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," has been called in to consult on Phoenix's production.

The local cast, directed by Bryan Fonseca, includes Shane Chuvalas as an Irish paramilitary man called Padraic; Stephen Hunt as his father, Donny; Benjamin Snyder as their not-very-clever neighbor, Davey; and Joanne Dubach as Davey's sister, Mairead.

Sixty-one gunshots go off during Martin McDonagh's comic farce that ends up denouncing terrorism.

At the Phoenix, Warshaw helped make the firepower possible, providing guns from his personal collection. And because airport security guards don't like finding them in Warshaw's luggage, he had to ship them.

"I can't even travel with my special effects," Warshaw said. "They don't look right, either, because they look a little like bombs. I learned that lesson twice already. It's not good when I have to stick my hands up in the air in an airport."

But Warshaw said that his weapons aren't just any weapons.

"The kinds of weapons we're having onstage were specially designed for theatrical combat use," he said. "We don't actually have anything come out of the end of a barrel, but we are using live rounds. We are using blanks.

"In a performance of 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore,' there are times you would have as many as five guns onstage at one time. That's a lot of firepower onstage, and that's a lot of thinking for the actors, because they've got to pay attention to every one."