Music tells the story of our lives, not only through its melodies and lyrics, but also in the rainbow of colors it evokes in our minds. This is beautifully evident in ICONIC, a cutting-edge multi-media production at the Alabama Theatre (the venue is named after the legendary band), that takes audiences on a captivating journey through the music that has shaped our sense of time and place, from country hits and Broadway show tunes, to power rock anthems and pop ballads.
While a group of talented performers on stage told this magnificent story through music, and a large video wall supported it with vivid imagery, the shades of colors so important to its telling was provided by an enchanting rainbow of a lighting design created by Susan Rose.
Helping Rose work her magic was a collection of c. “This show is very edgy and contemporary and definitely a major step up from the typical production shows,” said Rose. “It was especially fun for me to light, since I had such a wide variety of music to light. Creating a rainbow of colors with my Chauvet fixtures was a key part of achieving my vision for this design.”
Most critical of all though, was the help Rose received from David Hart, the theatre company manager/production manager, who designed the set house, and house LD Lance O’Connor. “I was fortunate to work with some very talented people at the Alabama Theatre,” said Rose. “As the LD/technical director, Lance put together a very excellent rig, including the Chauvet fixtures.”
Although Rose opened a box full of vivid colors for this show, she usually kept her palette simple for each particular song. “For the most part, I generally lit each song with only a two-color palette, which changed from one number to the other,” she said. “The ‘less is more’ type of look is often my favorite.
Rose was also mindful of the colorful costumes on stage when selecting her palette. She positioned 12 COLORado 1 Solo units stage left and right to accent the colorfully dressed dancers. “It was so important that my lighting help bring out the vibrant color and beauty of all these beautiful costumes,” she said. “I relied on color to compliment the colors, as well as create the mood of the song and make people ‘see the music.’ Also, the video content in this show carried a lot of the visual stimulation, so I had to be creative and achieve a good balance to avoid having things become too busy.”
At other times, however, Rose unfurled multi-colored looks to capture the mood of a song. She also used color changes during specific songs to underscore their story-telling dimensions. Such was the case with two of her favorite looks in the show. “For the intense powerful beamy moments in the ballad, “The Prayer,” I included dramatic builds and intense hard stop moments to enhance the incredible emotional impact of this song. Also, in “Somewhere over The Rainbow” we built the songs from dark and moody into intense multiple colors, created the mood of the vibrant story told by this song.” It was through such storytelling that the performances on stage became more alive, and in the process connected audiences more closely to the music of their lives.
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