Katy Perry’s 2011 tour, California Dreams, began its 123-show run in Europe in February, ending in the U.K. in April, with May spent in Japan and Australia. The summer North American leg of the tour included stops in 51 cities from June to September. The tour’s last scheduled date was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Nov. 22. On Nov. 23 — the night before Thanksgiving — Perry marked the end of the tour with an additional performance, “Katy Perry Gives Thanks.” Admission to the show was free.
Perry’s concert has been called a “jukebox musical,” with a storyline about a butcher’s assistant following her cat “Kitty Purry” through “Candyland” in pursuit of “the baker’s boy,” performed in quirky, outlandish outfits on a stage with a candy cane staircase, giant lollipops and cotton candy video clouds above.
Show director/production lighting designer Baz Halpin and lighting director Brad Teagan spoke to PLSN about the creation of the otherworldly land of Katy Perry make-believe that is sometimes referred to as “Candyfornia.”
Welcome to “Candyfornia”
Halpin and Chris Nyfield, associate designer, through Silent House Productions, began working on the tour design in Nov. 2010. “The show went through a few different design iterations before we finally settled on Candyfornia,” Halpin says. “When we begin to work on a project, it is a very symbiotic creative process, and once we step into rehearsals, our roles shift,” he added. “On the California Dreams Tour, in my role as the director, my hands were full dealing with the artist, performers and the narrative of the show. Chris then dealt with the nuts and bolts, the vendors and bringing the vision to life. We have each other’s back and bring out the best in each other.
“Of course, for the first couple of months, Chris and I would talk about the set and stop ourselves with comments like, ‘Wait, flying sparkly sausages and glitter T-bone steaks?’ After a while, though, you talk about a flying cotton candy cloud and your first comments are, ‘I assume that the Barbie stand will be candy-striped — and do we need that to be scented?’ You fall into the Candyfornia world of Katy Perry very quickly, and nothing surprises you after a while.”
Scaling Up
Halpin says that the most challenging part of the tour, from a design point of view, was scale. “When I had my first meeting with Katy’s management, we discussed the tour of Europe as being a predominantly theatre-based tour with one or two arenas. At that point, the U.S. tour had not gone on sale. We knew that Katy’s popularity was growing at an exponential rate, so we designed a set, lighting and video system which could grow naturally into larger venues.
“With each leg, the tour grew and I believe it is now somewhere around 14 trucks,” Halpin continues. “We added more lighting, video screens, props, costumes and added our own larger rolling stage with lifts, added a flying cloud stage and so on. Katy is an incredibly driven performer with a keen sense of herself and her show. She is constantly trying to build and develop the show. It has now turned into a sold-out arena world tour. It keeps us on our toes, but its a lot of fun.”
Halpin notes that the shows can be “physically tough” on both the star and her crew, “especially as it keeps changing and growing. The production manager, Jay Schmit, along with stage manager Aaron Ford, have fully embraced the Katy world and the madness with a smile on their faces,” he adds.
“From the moment the truck doors open, it is non-stop,” Halpin continues. “During the show, all of the crew are engaged in show cues, as this is primarily a theatrical show with cues and props in every song. At one point, Aaron comes onstage to put Katy over his shoulder and carry her off stage. At another point, Katy covers the audience in foam and then glitter confetti. It’s a modern day Katy Perry version of being tarred and feathered. This show is pure unadulterated fun, and everybody comes away with a smile on their faces.”
A Team Effort
Halpin notes that he and lighting programmer Bryan Barancik have worked on many previous projects together. “I think Katy is our third or fourth this year. We have a very similar style of programming, so I would start a song off, explain the context and what was happening on stage, and he would finish the song off. I try to work with the same team of people on each project so we all develop an unspoken language, and it minimizes any ambiguity.”
The Katy Perry tour was Halpin’s first tour, however, with lighting director Brad Teagan. “He had been with Katy prior to my coming on board. We spoke about the tour and had an affinity with the same consoles — in fact, Brad owns the touring consoles. So I was confident he would be a good part of the team.”
“Working with Baz was great,” says Teagan. “Both he and Bryan (Barancik) programmed a really good-looking show to both watch and run.”
Teagan has directed tours for artists including Bob Seger and Kid Rock, and says that, compared to the tour for Katy Perry, who’s more “pop-oriented,” the only real difference is the style of the music.
“You just need to completely know the songs that you’re working with and know all the changes,” he says. “It’s been a blast working with Katy, her band, dancers and the whole production team. Everyone brings their ‘A Game’ everyday. I have to especially thank my worldwide crew chief John Chiodo, who makes this tour incredibly smooth, and his crew, Andy Cimerman, Matt Hamilton and Wayne Kwait.”
Projection and Video
Another key ingredient in Candyfornia’s looks, of course, is the video imagery. “I’ve collaborated with Oli (Olivier Goulet, president of Geodezik, the tour’s video content creator) on about 11 or 12 shows now,” Halpin notes. “His style is as much a part of the shows as mine is. We have developed a real working shorthand with each other. He has a great team of people at Geodezik and can create phenomenal content to fit any style or budget. Aside from our working relationship, we are great friends, so it is always fun to be on a project together.”
Pat Morrow, senior VP, Chaos Visual Productions in Nashville, credited both the people and gear used for the tour. “Richy Parkin is a really innovative video director — he and his crew are great,” Morrow says. “They’re working with state-of-the-art gear,” Morrow adds — “HD Kayak PPU and board from Chaos Visual Productions, using the New WinVision hi resolution [9.75 mm] LED that is just silky beautiful.”
Teagan notes the console and media server setup. “We’ve got four servers running from timecode and manual cue-triggering through a Martin Maxxyz, plus two backups and two mains outputting to five screens. The Martin Maxedia Broadcast servers have been very solid, and thanks goes to Upstaging for putting together a wonderful media rack that made setup a breeze.”
As with the overall design of the show, the projection surfaces include a few quirks. “We have one scene where Katy rises up on a swing and has this wonderful large dress that rises up around her, which we project cartoons on,” Halpin notes. “Projection can be tricky,” he adds, “but its all about balance. It is not so hard when you have LED also. The projection dress was a specific song so, obviously, the lighting took a back seat.”
Lighting
For the lighting rig, Halpin says, “we chose the Martin Mac 301s because we wanted to have an array of mid level quick dynamic fixtures that could live on the video screens. They are light, bright and fast, so they worked out well. The [Vari*Lite] VL3000s are a great work horse,” Halpin adds. “Be it keylighting, dynamic beamage, or to create the more theatrical moments, they are my go-to fixture for that. The [Clay Paky] Alpha Beams,” he continues, “give great beamage and scale to the show. I chose the Coemars because of the fantastic saturated colors they can do, along with the beam shaper. They are all fixtures that I have used a lot, so I know exactly what they can do and what to expect from them.”
“I’m really impressed with Clay Paky’s Alpha Beam 700 and Sharpy,” Teagan adds. “The speed and brightness of both really worked well with this show. One thing that would make the Sharpys over the top will be when Clay Paky figures out CMY for them.”
CREW
Show Director/Production Lighting Designer: Baz Halpin (Silent House Productions)
Associate Designer: Chris Nyfield
Programming: Baz Halpin, Bryan Barancik
Lighting Director: Brad Teagan
Lighting Crew Chief: John Chiodo
Lighting Crew: Mat Hamilton, Andy Cimerman, Wayne Kwiat, Daniel Kirkman
Video Content/Creator: Olivier (Geodezik)
Video Director: Richy Parkin
Video Projectionist: Jason Lowe
Video Tech: Gordon Davis
Production Manager: Jay Schmit
Tour Manager: Fitzjoy Hellin
Stage Manager: Aaron Draude
Riggers: Chuck Melton, John Williamson
Pyro: Phil Maggs (Quantum FX)
Lighting Company: Upstaging Inc.
Video Company: Chaos Visual Productions
Set Construction: ShowFX Inc.
Staging Company: All Access Staging & Productions
Lasers: Laser Design Productions
GEAR
4 Martin Maxxyz consoles
4 Martin Maxedia Broadcast media servers
34 Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots
14 Vari-Lite VL3500 Spots
26 Coemar Infinity Wash XL
40 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700
18 Clay Paky Sharpy
7 Martin Atomic 3k Strobes
7 Martin Atomic Color Strollers
19 Martin Stagebar 54s
7 Coemar Parlite Leds
10 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze (72”)
63 Martin MAC 301 LED fixtures
6 MR16 Mini Strips (6’)
10 Four Light Moles (1 x 4)
1 Lycian M2 followspot
10 Martin ZR44 fog machines
7 Upstaging custom smoke filled bubble machines
2 Le Maitre LSG PFI 9d fog machines
6 Reel EFX DF-50 Hazers
{mosapa album=”Katy Perry 2011 Tour”}
