Annie Erin Clark is the artist who performs as St. Vincent. PLSN tapped into the creative minds behind the design of the Daddy’s Home Tour, which started in September 2021 in the U.S. and resumes in 2022.
The design process started for UK-based Paul Normandale with a call from Annie Clark’s management about her upcoming tour in support of her new album, Daddy’s Home. Normandale had worked previously with many of her management company’s other artists over the years. Clark called minutes later, following up. “Annie is a true force of nature, Renaissance woman, a gifted artist in all senses,” Normandale says. “The whole album/tour is based on Daddy’s Home in the time period of the ‘70s. This was reflected in the clothing, colors, and sounds. Using this as the inspiration for the design, she had a strong series of ideas on how the show should be theatrical and evolve. My role was to bring this to a practical solution.”
The designer says he started with a basic criterion: “It had to be a modular show that could morph into a diverse range of venues: sheds, theaters, festivals and well-known places like Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. It’s incumbent, I believe, for designers to ensure the show is on the stage, not in the trucks.”
Design Started with a Turntable
Using a turntable revolve platform was his first design solution and as luck would have it, Clark agreed. Normandale notes that the turntable provides a means of changing scenes, adding different backgrounds and elements whether it be a conceptual city to tie into the overall base look, or a means of creating a lighting wall of the battery-operated Astera LED Titan Tubes, which can be grabbed by the performers. “The battery recharge aspect of lights on a revolving set piece should not be underestimated,” he points out. “The scenic perspective is maintained by revolving buildings, mirrored back and material-clad windows, all of which change as the show develops. The old school-painted gauze and cyc trick allows the fun to become sinister. The [physical] clouds are the unexpected icing. I take no credit for the [scenic] transitions, that’s all Annie; my role was to facilitate and watch.”
Robert Achlimbari at All Access Staging was “invaluable for his understanding of the concept, which made the whole process possible,” Normandale says. “Lighting-wise we tour a modest floor package, which gives us the basics. It’s a two-truck tour so enormous credit has to go to Lighting Director Tess Falcone for creating on a daily basis with whatever is in the venue. For my minimal ramblings in the three days of rehearsals and programming, Tess has evolved and developed a great looking show. It was actually a great new project to come back with, be it with masks and all, full of reminders as to what creativity can do for the soul. It was a challenging and rewarding one, a show I hope stands up to a great tradition of unique live performances that Annie is renowned for.”
A Stylized ‘70s Vibe
Normandale’s finalized design gives the show a stylized, 1970s theater vibe inspired by the movement of the Disneyland ride, It’s A Small World, notes Falcone. “The color palette of the set is pretty far outside of my normal realm, so I decided to lean into that and it has made for what I think is an interesting, beautiful show that just takes a little bit more time color matching every day! When it comes down to it, though, it’s all about Annie and how much of an incredibly talented, hard-working guitar player and singer she is. Her stage persona is also really fun to light. She brings so much energy to the show every night and the band and singers are all so ridiculously good that it feels like an absolute all-star cast that I have the pleasure of lighting.”
For the lights specified in the rig, everything serves a specific purpose—nothing is there just for flash. “[TMB] Solaris Flares do a lot of the heavy lifting, they wash the scenery really well and create some really interesting effects when shot through the windows on the scenic flats,” Falcone says. “The back of the flats have a mirror fascia to them and we found that the [Martin MAC] Auras and Vipers that backlight the windows create some really cool looking reflections on the backdrop. Vipers also provide the front lighting for some scenic clouds that hang above the band, and there is a great deal of programming just on those. There is not a ton of physical movement from lights in the show and the Vipers’ animation wheel on the clouds gives a lot more visible movement. They’re fantastic.”
Photo by Steve Jennings
Working with the Local Rig
The tour is not carrying any overhead lighting as the venues on this tour are incredibly varied. “Throughout the tour though, I’ve figured out some really nice moments to utilize the overhead rig in a way that is replicable in every city, whether the house rig is comprised of 12 fixtures or 200,” explains Falcone. “Local rigs have been one of the most challenging parts of this tour so far and it has absolutely made me a better programmer for it.”
Falcone feels fortunate to work with such a top-tier group of professionals. “My Lighting Tech, Jordan Hadwen, and our Stage Manager/Set Carpenter, Sean Bates, have been so integral to getting this show up and running every day, especially when I am having to program a festival rig with limited time, or when I’m being picky about the set or lights needing a touch up. Our support staff is also insanely good at their jobs. I can’t say enough about how grateful I am to all of these magnificent people.”
But most of all, the lighting director credits the artist known as St. Vincent as an “absolutely creative force” behind it all. “She has so many ideas: ‘Can the clouds be dripping blood?’ While not all of them get realized (‘it might be a bit messy’), her ideas were strong, realistic, and always helped to elevate the show.”
St. Vincent Daddy’s Home Tour
Crew
- Production, Set & Lighting Design: Paul Normandale
- Lighting Programmer & Director: Tess Falcone
- Lighting Tech: Jordan Hadwen
- Tour Manager: Britton Billik
- Production Manager: Brian Southall
- Stage Manager/Set Carpenter: Sean Bates
Vendors
- Lighting: PRG / Matthew Wyman
- Staging & Set: All Access / Robert Achlimbari
- Drapery: Sew What? / Megan Duckett
- Trucking: Truck’N Roll, Upstaging
Gear
Lighting:
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 light (MA2 mode)
- 8 Martin MAC Viper Performance
- 8 Martin MAC Aura XB
- 16 TMB Solaris Flare
- 6 GLP JDC1
- 19 Astera Titan Tube
- 6 Chroma-Q Color Force II 12
- 4 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion Hazer
- 2 High End Systems FQ-100 Fogger
Automation:
- 1 16’ Turntable Deck
More St. Vincent Daddy’s Home tour photos by Steve Jennings:
