Sure, you know iWeiss.
Or do you?
Don’t confuse it with I. Weiss, the century-old supplier of soft goods to Broadway productions. Building on that legacy, the company continues to embrace that market while expanding into others. This includes putting their rigging expertise to work on different projects, and their foray into products like the ViaWinch.“We felt that ‘I. Weiss’ did not fully express all we do today, or the idea that we look forward to applying our expertise to custom work that requires especially creative solutions,” says president David Rosenberg on their 2011 name change to iWeiss Theatrical Solutions. “We want to apply what we’ve learned through our extensive theater work to other areas. For example, when a museum asks if we can rig an 80-foot whale skeleton, we don’t hesitate to say yes.”
“A lot of companies view us as a drapery company, as a company that does high end theater soft goods,” says Jennifer Tankleff, vice president. “But we want more of them to know of our extensive experience in rigging and automation.”
Rosenberg adds that iWeiss has developed partnerships with companies like Stage Technologies, J.R. Clancy and Serapid. “It’s great to work with respected companies like them, and we want to do more of that,” he says. “We want to focus on what we do best with a wider range of clients in a larger live entertainment sphere.”
Where They’ve Been
The company’s history is one of the oldest and most esteemed in the live event industry, with roots going back to 1900. By the late 1970s, the company’s reputation for quality continued to thrive, but the owners faced business challenges that were overwhelming. I. Weiss enjoyed a rebirth in 1981 when it was reincorporated, and Rosenberg assumed the helm in 1985.
When the economic downturn hit in 2008, at first the company didn’t experience too great a change, as many projects they participate in are of the big, long-term variety. “But money for nonprofit and school projects dried up, and Jennifer [Tankleff] and I looked at things and said, ‘Okay, hard times are coming, how can we plan for it?’” Rosenberg is proud they didn’t have to let anyone go, and that’s because of what they did in terms of planning and budgeting.
But it’s equally important what they didn’t do: “We concentrate hard on keeping the focus on what we do best, rather than getting our hands in every nook and cranny of the entertainment business,” he explains. “We are really good at anything soft goods related, rigging, and design and build. We solve problems with that special custom job. So the mission now is to apply more of those skills for a greater array of clients.”
In May of 2010, after 28 Years, iWeiss moved from Long Island City across the Hudson to swankier, larger facility in Fairview, NJ measuring 30,000 square feet. The new site is home to the company’s sales team, drapery fabrication and rigging shop along with its production and project management staff. It features a large layout, hanging space, and room for efficient levels of inventory. “We have a steel shop that handles all the fabrication of our ViaLift and ViaWinch plus other projects,” Rosenberg says. “It’s wonderful because we can be better, faster, and more competitive than ever.”
The Theatrical Twist
While rigging has always been part of the iWeiss repertoire, the company has made an effort to become more dominant in that competitive field. In 2001, Richard Parks joined the company. The longtime member of IATSE local 635 quickly rose to the senior project manager position and is responsible for all of their historical renovation projects in addition to the many custom rigging related projects. “He has really grown our installation design rigging department,” Rosenberg says of Parks. “And then, two years ago, Paul [Kelm], previously a head of automation at Cirque du Soleil, joined and began to design machinery for us.” Today Kelm, often referred to as the “mad scientist” of the company, has created a lot of custom line shafts; batten hoists; curtain machines; controls; and other integral parts for theaters, colleges, and big PACs. (For a closer look at one recent project, the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, see PLSN, Oct. 2012, page 68).
“It’s important that lighting, staging and production companies understand that we provide a different area of rigging expertise,” Rosenberg says. “There are plenty out there who are good with truss and chain motors, but we bring a theatrical twist to the arena that others just don’t have.”
iWeiss played a key role in the renovation of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. Parks led a team that put in a first-of-its-kind acoustic fire curtain. It’s the traditional fire safety curtain for use in an emergency, but it’s also a reflective orchestra performance shell that’s so soundproof an orchestra can practice in the pit while a ballet troupe practices on stage to a piano without one hearing the other. The 66-foot wide by 43-foot high steel frame weighs 23,000 pounds and the winch that operates it was, as just one example of their partnerships, engineered and fabricated by J.R. Clancy. The custom arbor is 30 feet high and contains 290 counterweight bricks weighing 73 pounds each. Motorized light ladders are mounted with trolleys to 11-foot I-beam sections for lateral movement, and each I-beam is motorized with a dual drum line shaft for vertical movement. “The project was finished on time and on budget, and it’s something we’re very proud of,” Rosenberg says.
Their digital print work is growing as well. They’ve done major projects for opera houses in Miami, San Diego, and Dallas, and are currently working with Texas Scenic on the Tobin Center in San Antonio, TX.
“We recently completed two other interesting projects for two tours of Book of Mormon that played in Chicago and Denver, and a sit down show in London.”
Then there’s King Kong, by Global Creatures, the same producers that were involved with Walking with Dinosaurs and How to Train Your Dragon. Set for a Melbourne debut in June as one of the most expensive (and ambitious) spectacles ever staged down under, King Kong is currently tech’ing in Sydney and is pulling in production elements from around the world, including soft goods from iWeiss.
“For King Kong, we worked closely with the Australian design team and [PRG’s] Scenic Technologies in New Windsor, NY,” Rosenberg says. “There were a number of large Austrian curtains that needed to be coordinated with Scenic’s automation, and all had extreme spatial limitations,” Rosenberg adds.
The grand ambitions for King Kong include hoped-for debuts in New York and Japan. But iWeiss is quick to take on smaller projects, too — including productions staged at high schools and even elementary schools. Churches also continue to be an important mainstay for the company; the recent refurbishment project at Riverside Church in New York City is a case in point. “They asked us to come in and give an inspection, and it was in a bad state of disrepair,” Rosenberg says. ?“After our report, they hired us to rip out almost everything and create a facility that, rigging-wise, was dummy proof.”
Selling Solutions
On the issue of safety, Rosenberg says iWeiss doesn’t touch a project without a complete final set of drawings reviewed by an engineer. “We need to know the material, the methods, and understand the structure to be comfortable,” he says. “Also, we don’t go cheap on equipment. Everything we use is of the highest quality and meets the highest standards. Every piece of gear is inspected by our senior staff.”
In 2011, iWeiss introduced a new product, the ViaWinch, a feature-enhanced alternative positioned between a manual hand crank and high-end hoist. Serving as a single line point hoist that travels close to 60 feet per minute, it garnered positive reviews from users, and even snagged a nomination for a Parnelli Indispensable Technology “IT” Award.
When asked what makes iWeiss better than another, Rosenberg searches for something beyond the knee-jerk cliché, “customer service.”
“I went to a general business seminar once and the lecturer said, ‘that’s a terrible answer!’” he laughs. “But I will say this: We’re creative. Also, we only take jobs we’re willing to do our best at, from the first phone call to a project’s conclusion. When you hire iWeiss, you don’t just hire a company, but a group of people who work together well, who do good, safe work always with the client’s best interest in mind. That’s why we get calls from clients who ask us to come back and work with them again.”
