Foster the People fans at the recent Firefly Festival June 21-23 in Dover, Delaware, were treated to a specially designed one-off production to tie in with the band’s new album in progress. “The show design was based around seven towers, eight to 28 feet high, that all rotated for a constantly evolving environment,” said Trevor Stirlin Burk, the production designer, creative director and show director of Foster the People.“We also collaborated with The Los Angeles Contemporary Dance company. It was super ambitious for the band to want to do a brand new production from scratch, specifically for Firefly. By all accounts it paid off.”
PLSN: What were the band’s design ideas?
Trevor Stirlin Burk: We wanted to move past the whimsy of the last design and move to a more structural and regimented look. We talked about finding the beauty in otherwise inert objects when they repeat in a regimented structure. It was also important to make a large-scale visual impact, and make it memorable while being true to who they are.
What were the dancers’ roles?
The dancers (featuring choreography by Artistic director Kate Hutter) artistically represented themes we talked about: finding beauty in repetition, telling the story that happiness sometimes comes when you break free from what you are supposed to do. They were meant to be scary, but intriguing and comforting at the same time. They humanized our show and set; they were the glue between the band and the production.
The dancers helped make the music and the production be of the same world — whether it was them climbing the towers, watching songs while perched on top, spinning the towers or dancing down on the stage, they were a link between the music and the set.
What inspired the seven towers?
The idea started off simply with periactoids [three-sided towers]. It led us to this concept of a tribunal space where the towers would serve as benches or places of judgment for our characters. This added an arc and a storyline to the show.
I liked surprising the audience. The band started with two well-known songs with all seven towers in the usual video
configuration for a festival show. For the third song, we introduced the dancers and the spinning towers with the first of the new songs. It was actually a second beginning to the show.
Later in the set, the dancers gave a massive spin to the lighting side of the towers — that was one of my favorite theatrical moments. To have the dancers control the towers was important to me. The organic imperfection of having seven performers controlling those huge towers in unison was something special.
How did the dancers spin the towers?
The towers — with the tallest weighing more than three tons — were attached to milled aluminum bases on ball bearings. This made them easy to spin. We had handles out- rigged on each side so the dancers had a grip. It was important that the towers were human powered, rather than automated, to keep the human factor.
Did the design achieve your expectations?
The show surpassed our expectations. The dancers, the video direction by Johnny Hays and LD Zach Matusow’s lighting took the show to the next level.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Reality Tour
Ten lucky Belmont University students from Nashville joined Mark “Professor Flo” Volman for a learning experience on the road in their own tour bus on the “Happy Together Tour.” They boarded the bus June 14 in Clearwater, FL for a two-week run.
Volman — a founding member of The Turtles and professor of Entertainment Industry Studies at Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business (CEMB) — took the students under his wing to teach them lessons of the road with artists and crew professionals. Tour management, stage management, audio engineering, tour accounting and merchandise sales were subjects of the “class.” Their duties also included the real world art of load-in, set-up, break down and load-out. This is the second year for Volman to conduct this road course.
“This is a unique and wonderful experience for all of us,” Volman said. “The students get a chance to see and experience first-hand what life on the road is really all about. We like to think of it as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Reality Tour.”
Quick Cues
LD Chris Lisle handed the console over to lighting tech Mike Marcario to finish Robert Plant Presents Sensational Space Shifters while he took up previous commitments. In July/August, Lisle travels to Korea with Quincy Jones. (For more on Lisle and Plant’s tour, turn to “On the Road,” this issue, page 8)…
LD Drew Gnagey designed American Idol Live! to showcase the show’s top finalists. LD Jason Rothberg programmed it and is running the 30 shows that hit major cities in July through Aug. 31. Gnagey has now moved on with Lil Wayne’s summer tour as lighting director/ programmer.
Justin Collie designed rapper Lil Wayne’s show and Kevin Cauley programmed video…
LD Steven Douglas continues with The Killers’ 2013-2014 tour, which finished in the U.K./Europe and started Aug. 1 in North America…
LD Louis Oliver designed the world tour for Scottish electropop group from Glasgow, Chvrches (yes, that’s the correct spelling)…
LD Jason Lyons designed Let It Be, The Beatles tribute show, which opened on Broadway July 24…
LD Gurn Kaniski returned to his roots to light major festivals in Poland, Belarus and Russia for The Offspring on their Eastern European summer tour…
LD Scott Warner tours year-round as LD/director with Smokey Robinson, except during December. But he still found time to design the summer tour for Sublime With Rome, with lighting director Patrick Sieg…
LD Seth Jackson designed the lighting for Cirque Musica’s touring circus show. His lighting cues correspond to the classical and pop music, without distracting the aerial performers, animals and other performers. Lighting director is Teresa Porterfield.
LD Robb Jibson is out with Fall Out Boy’s U.S./Canada tour.
Got news about any towering achievements? Be sure to share the details with Debi Moen. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com.
