Lighting Company
Volt
Venue
Various (Tour)
Production Team
- Creative Direction/Show Design: Melody Tseng, Fireplay
- Lighting Designers: Brian Vaughan, Nick Whitehouse, Fireplay
- Lighting Director/Media Server Programmer: Emily Bornt, LEAPS
- Creative Producer/Lighting Programmer: Brian Vaughan, Fireplay
- Lighting Crew Chief: Martin Woytas
- Lighting Tech: Ernesto Jovel
- Volt Account Rep: Craig Caserta
- Video Company: Fuse/Mike Drew
- Video/LED Crew Chief: Timothy Johnson
- Tour Manager: Andre Morales
- Production Manager: Javier Alcaraz
- Production Assistant: Keeks
- Stage Manager/Carpenter: Lenny Rogers
- Rigger: Timothy Johnson
- Staging/Set Company: Gallagher Staging/Kyle Gallagher
- Scenic Company: SewWhat/Megan Duckett
- Video Content Creation: Comix; Content for “29” by Brittany Groth
- Trucking Company: Upstaging/Jeni Clark
Gear
Lighting
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size Console
- 22 Elation Artiste Monet
- 20 Claypaky Mini-B
- 24 GLP JDC1 LED Hybrid Strobe
- 12 GLP impression X4 Bar 20
- 4 Robe Robin Forte FollowSpot
- 1 MDG ATMe Hazer
Video
- MBox Studio Media Server
- ROE Visual Carbon Series CB8 Tiles:
- Main Wall: 11’9W x 12’7H (432 x 864 pixels)
- 2 Risers, each 8’W x 4’H (288 x 144 pixels)
- 2 Risers, each 8’W x 2’H (72 x 288 pixels)
Tour Notes
Demi Lovato’s Holy Fvck Tour 2022 has been traveling across the U.S. and Canada from mid-August 2022 to Nov. 10.
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
The creative team of Fireplay working on this tour included Melody Tseng (Creative Direction/Show Design and Creative Producer), Nick Whitehouse (Lighting Designer) and Brian Vaughan (Technical Producer/Lighting Programmer/Lighting Designer), for Demi’s more rock vibe this time around. We spoke with both Melody Tseng and Lighting Director/Media Server Programmer Emily Bornt (LEAPS) about the tour. Tseng had not worked with Demi before but was told she and her team had seen the work Nick Whitehouse had done with Justin Timberlake and Carrie Underwood tours and knew Fireplay were more than experienced in building a tourable show.
Melody Tseng (Creative Direction/Show Design):
“In my first conversation with Demi’s team, I was told she wanted to go in a new direction that was different from her previous pop image. She wanted a darker and more punk vibe, going back to her roots. I knew I wanted to give her something that felt intimate and raw, a space that allowed her to rock out. I didn’t give her too much direction during rehearsals, I wanted to watch how she naturally moved. I wanted to retain that authenticity of how she interacted with the band, the audience and the music and not saturate it with unnecessary choreography. The only hard constraints I was given initially was that the show had to be scalable to different venue sizes and that it all had to fit into two trucks. The soft goods allowed us to capture that atmosphere beautifully and took lighting really well. I drew on some classic theater tactics to get the most bang for truck space and I really love how the whole show looks. I’m really proud of this show and how it turned out!
“It’s always a pleasure to work with like minded creatives, notes Tseng, saying Nick and Brian really respected the treatment and understood the vibe I was trying to capture. “We’ve all come from a production/touring background so we know how important it is for the show to not only look good but that it packs and moves seamlessly. They were integral in putting together the technical design without compromising the integrity of the overall creative. The slow songs were beautiful and feminine, and the rock songs were moody and punched hard. We didn’t have a lot of time for rehearsal with the full rig, the lighting programming was done mostly in previz and then polished once we had everything hung and running before the first North America show.”
Tseng had a couple of zoom calls with Lovato and her team, saying they were very clear about what they wanted but never micromanaged her. “I think they felt confident in the ideas that I had showed them and trusted that I understood what they wanted. Demi was straightforward and knows what she wants and wasn’t shy with feedback. I stuck true to the sketches and renders so there really weren’t too many surprises which kept things simple.”
Initially Tseng had planned to not have any LED or video at all because she didn’t think they would have enough truck space for that. “I had planned for the texture of the drapes and ropes when lit to be dramatic enough on their own. I was happy Nick and Brian were able to find some space to fit the screens, our collaboration allowed us to enhance the whole show and add more dimension with content. The beauty of the show is that the main scenic pieces are all soft and can be folded or tucked away in a smaller space or stretched to fill larger areas. Maybe this was leftover from my fashion school days, but I wanted the production to be “mix and matchable” and as versatile as possible so that whether it was full production in most cities, a higher or lower trim height in others, that the show would look stunning no matter the space.”
Emily Bornt (Lighting Director/Media Server Programmer)
Lighting Director Emily Bornt notes that for their run in South America, they used all local rigs, and only carried consoles from Volt. “For this North America run, we are completely self-contained, including our followspots (4 Robe Fortes manned by Robospot operators). Not having to tie into house systems or clone things over helps streamline the day’s workflow and keep surprises to a minimum.”
Bornt says when the show was programmed, the rig was locked in, so luckily there hasn’t been any cloning involved on the North American run. “We are also very lucky to have Volt as our lighting vendor because they have a great inventory and set the standard for how to maintain gear. The Clay Paky Mini-B has been a wonderfully versatile fixture, used as a band wash at some moments, and beams that slice through the audience at others. The Fortes offer beautiful color mixing for our key light. And who doesn’t love the JDC-1, Monet, or X4Bar. They’ve become the work horse of touring, and for good reason.”
Creative Producer Brian Vaughan did all of the lighting programming in rehearsals while Bornt was still out with another project, so there wasn’t too much overlap. “I had a day at home before the South American run to do the media server programming, and since we were still waiting on custom content, we used stills that didn’t need to be frame-synched. I was able to program sequences that piggybacked off Brian’s lighting cues, matching them up in the timecode timeline, and then I was able to update the content in the server on site. When it came time for the US run, it was quick work to update the video presets in the existing sequences and check timecode starts, so it was a fairly seamless transition. Having two consoles logged in as separate users in the same session also allowed both of us to work in tandem to update things in rehearsals as needed.”
Bornt says she was thrilled to find out that the tour vendors were Volt and Fuse, and that their sales reps were Craig Caserta and Mike Drew. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with them on other projects before they went into sales, so I had complete faith that they would take care of our show’s needs with the understanding of someone who has been on the battlefield. I definitely won the ‘vendor lottery’ with these two.”
More Demi Lovato 2022 tour photos by Steve Jennings:
