While his design for Coldplay’s “A Head Full of Dreams” world tour made its way to North America, we heard from U.K. production designer/LD Paul Normandale, who was winging his way to Chicago to make sure the show was playing out as planned. When asked to describe his design in one sentence — as there’s no space to cover the entire production here — he says it’s “a cascading waterfall of vivid stars.”
He clued us in on other projects he’s working on including Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Kings of Leon and Anohni.
The artist Anohni is transgender, formerly known as Anthony and the Johnsons, so in her new persona onstage, she presented a design challenge. “She wears a veil throughout her performance,” Normandale explains, “So the avatars — images of ladies singing her songs — are on the screen behind.”
Normandale avoids cameras. You won’t see his face gracing an article in PLSN or any other magazine. He likes his work to speak for itself. But fortunately for us, he doesn’t mind being on the other side of the camera, and he shared these shots with us.
Morse & Streisand
LD Peter Morse is currently designing Barbra Streisand’s summer tour, “The Music…The Mem’ries…The Magic!” “It’s a short one, though!” he says. The trek hits nine North American cities Aug. 2-23, with two shows in Brooklyn and one in Toronto. She’ll perform her legendary hits from each decade plus songs from her new album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Troy Eckerman joins Morse as programmer/lighting director, with additional programming from Benny Kirkham.
Sooner & The Lumineers
Sooner Routhier has recently sent out her production design for the Pentatonix World Tour 2016 with lighting director Ian Haslauer. She’s also put out production designs for rapper/producer G-Eazy (with lighting director Manny Conde) and The Lumineers’ Cleopatra World Tour (with lighting director Jason Rothberg).
A focal point of The Lumineers’ set consists of five large organ pipe-styled chandeliers. “Robert Long and I came up with the concept,” she says. “The band was pretty open to any ideas we had regarding the design. The only instructions were to make sure it could go into any venue as well as overseas to Europe.”
Doss & The Night Sweats
LD Eric Doss, the designer for Alabama Shakes since they burst on the scene four years ago, found himself with time off as the band takes an extended break. He has now taken up with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.
“I started with them a little over a month ago, and I’m currently putting together a rig for Red Rocks on August 21 that we plan on touring with afterward,” he says. The band presented quite a challenge, he says, because they prohibited haze.
“I’m trying to keep a tungsten look, mostly conventional lighting, with lots of backlight for silhouette looks,” he explains. “The rig I’m spec’ing now gives it a feeling of being on a movie set. I’m trying to stay away from anything that is LED and keep things simple, letting the music do all the work and allowing the lights to just light musicians. No movement or pretty looks, just simply lights doing what they should be doing. Lots of washes, low light and playing on a lot of shadows.”
Fitz & FitzGerald & Trainor & Stefani
Cory FitzGerald of Seven.Design.Works.just sent out his set and lighting design for Gwen Stefani’s This is What the Truth Feels Like tour, with lighting director Whitney Hoversten. FitzGerald also designed the lighting for Meghan Trainor’s “Untouchable” tour, sending out Harry Forster as lighting director/programmer, while SilentHouse designed the production. Meanwhile, Fitz & The Tantrums’ summer tour kicked off with FitzGerald’s set and lighting design, running into 2017 with lighting director Ben Lewis and programmer Dan Norman. “And I’m working on a few upcoming projects as well for fall. It’s been a busy one!”
Quick Cues
When Ryan “Stumpy” Campbell graduated from fire training school at Texas A&M, smoke was a cause for a literal alarm. But now as a lighting designer, he knows smoke can create some alarmingly good beam looks. Read more about LD Campbell on tour with City and Colour [Dallas Green and friends] in “On The Road,” page 12.
Chris Lose is on the road as lighting director for the Don Henley Live Tour. It’s a Butch Allen lighting design and runs to September. “I’m really enjoying working with Butch to put together an impeccable show,” Lose says. “The precision required to run this show is very demanding.”
LD Jeremy Roth has racked up four years and counting with Wilco. “We are wrapping up our Star Wars tour this summer,” he says, “and we will debut a new design during our West Coast run this fall to coincide with the release of the new album, Schmilco.
Craig Rutherford is out with Halsey as lighting director for LD Michael Smalley’s design. Meanwhile, his Alan Jackson design continues to tour as well.
LD Davy Sherwin has been with Foals’ What Went Down tour for the past 12 months as designer and operator. They’re currently on a festival run around the U.K. and Europe with headlining slots, and will hit the U.S. for a few weeks. He’s also designed and programmed the latest Travis world tour, sending out lighting director Jon Trincass to look after it for him.
LD Steve Comer is still touring with Jackson Browne, and not running on empty, as they recently finished a run of shows at the Beacon in New York. “Everything has been good, and Jackson has kept me working for the last eight years,” Comer says.
Finally, while the touring season hits its summer highs, we found a few who were chilling out on some days off. Lighting director Nate Cromwell is spending some personal time with his couch and good companion, his English bulldog Na’cho Smalls. Reporting from the sofa, he notes he is halfway through binge-watching Season 2 of the Showtime series, Ray Donovan.
How are you enjoying your time off? What are you working on this summer? Share your news with Debi Moen at dmoen (at) plsn.com.
