P!nk’s songs have always had an edge, but her shows never get too dark. “A part of the whole ethos of the Summer Carnival is to keep it light, keep it fun,” says Baz Halpin, CEO & Founder of Silent House, who served as Creative Director and Producer for the ongoing tour. Bright colors and silliness aren’t the only aspects of P!nk’s shows, the artist also defies gravity. Along with the artist’s aerial skills, she has been performing her hit, “Trustfall”, with a mesmerizing act involving staircases and trampoline artists. Halpin discussed the development of the trampoline/staircase structure in the Dec. 2023 issue of PLSN.
“I came across this trampoline artist that did a lot of gallery and performance art installations. He just had this amazingly, sort of, effortless and airy way that he used a trampoline, and it just made it incredibly beautiful. So, we teamed him and P!nk together and built this little duet for Graham Norton to introduce ‘Trustfall”. She always likes to do things that people haven’t really done before. I don’t think anybody’s ever really embraced trampolines on a tour because really, it’s quite difficult. To do the stuff that we have done, like where they’re dropping from height, you need to have a lot of a very big structure to do that. Everything is hinged around it,” Halpin said.
“We went to Circus Center in Las Vegas and did auditions for trampoline artists as well as other gymnastic scenarios. Part of the permanent trampoline installation they had there had walls at perpendicular angles, which we thought added a unique dimension because you want to be able to see a trampoline from two angles, so both perpendicular and parallel to the audience. So that’s where we came up with this double trampoline idea, and then building the stairs in and the platform at the back,” Halpin added. “That is because it’s going to be on stage for so long we wanted to be able to use it as an additional scenic element that would give us levels that we could use for more than just one song. Then we also knew it was going to be in front of the LED screen, so we decided to make it transparent. We used a clear Lexan that we applied an adhesive, pink-colored film. That worked out really well; when we weren’t using it, it disappeared. When we were using it, it was very present and very effective.”
From “Design Insight” by Michael S. Eddy, PLSN, Dec. 2023, page 36
