Sketching Out (and Revising) the Sketchbook Tour
It’s been more than 15 years since a young singer by the name of Fantasia Barrino won the crown on the third season of American Idol. Shortly afterwards she embarked on her professional road, only to suffer some personal and emotional setbacks in her life that put a stall on her career. Fast forward to 2019, and the singer announces a comeback with a new album and tour to back it.
PLSN caught up with production designer Michael Apostolos to see what this new adventure entailed, and how he got involved in the first place.
Steven Greene, Fantasia’s manager, had reached out to an industry rep named Brandon Louis, looking for a creative director type. He in turn referred him to Apostolos, a young Chicago-based designer known for looking after some younger acts including Chance the Rapper. “She had some grand ideas and wanted to run them by someone to gauge the feasibility of using them in her live production,” says Apostolos. “We chatted for some time on FaceTime so I could learn about her. How she got where she is, the backstory. The conversation just felt right — like it would be a good collaboration if we worked together. So in August, we started working on a production design.”
The tour was about her stepping back into the spotlight. “She had grand ideas and hadn’t thought much about budget, hence we started out shooting for the stars. Her ideas stemmed from awards shows and over-the-top productions with custom set pieces and huge video surfaces. But they were booking large theaters and small arenas for this tour. My job entailed designing things that looked grand, but could be geared to renting existing scenery. I needed to guide her down a financial road that was suitable. In the end, I went to Early Bird Visuals to have some renderings done, that she liked. Despite the fact that the realm of this show was outside of her budget, she still wanted it.”
Production manager Don Muzquiz got with all of the vendors and figured out the pricing to give the artist what she wished, and we moved forward with it. The thing she did not foresee was the amount of crew that would be necessary to pull this off. Having never toured with full production before, she quickly realized having 30-plus people on tour required a lot more busses, rooms and salaries.
Apostolos explains, “Once scaling back was decided, she wanted something completely different. She suggested, ‘Why don’t we give that video wall a breather, everyone does that.’ So I worked with Solotech to come up with something else we could do.” That involved a rear and two side horizontal rows of Martin Sceptrons, single hung rows of RGB LEDs that could be mapped with video, but would not look like a screen image.
“Instead of a grand set, the artist specified that she wanted something simple, but with different levels to work from. Apostolos went to SGPS to source out a four-foot-high riser that could span the stage along with some step units to walk up. A flared staircase filled the center while two offstage arms angled downwards, towards the downstage, offstage corners for the musicians to work. The whole set could be built in four-foot increments, meaning they could squeeze into a small venue or expand when playing arenas.
“Ryan Williams has been looking after Fantasia’s lighting needs for years. He spec’d some [GLP] JDC1 strobes to go under the set and shine a wash through the front. For lighting, we wanted to stick with three straight trusses. With the rows of Martin Sceptrons lining the back, we wanted to keep that linear feel going. So we spec’d Solaris Flare QLR+ strips to line all three trusses. I then had Ryan and Solotech collaborate on what lighting fixtures he could utilize that would fit into our budget.”
He adds, “We hung a kabuki curtain mid-stage to hide our set while the three openers played. As a special effect, we hung a projector with a very wide lens on top of the front truss to project her album cover on it as an opening gag. At an opportune time in the start of the show, we drop it to reveal the band playing on the set.”
The Sketchbook tour ran from mid-October through December, with more dates currently being booked. Apostolos closes by saying, “I think this was a good learning experience for this artist. I hope this is the first of many tours with this incredible team. She has a special spark and energy.”
More Fantasia tour photos by Todd Kaplan:
