LD Andy Cass designed/operated “the last Shpongle Live show ever” at Red Rocks in May. The two-night show for the psychedelic ambient techno-trance band was a year in a making. Cass collaborated with Johnathan Singer from Dead & Company and Android Jones on visuals.
LD Ben Stanton is designing lights for The National’s promo dates and their Late Show with Stephen Colbert performance. He’s also in preproduction for Regina Spektor’s Broadway residency June 20-26 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. All the while, he’s knee deep in design for three Broadway plays – two in collaboration with his wife, projection designer Lucy Mackinnon.
Chris Lisle’s CLLD recently wrapped the inaugural KAABOO Texas event, the NFL Draft site lighting, and released to the road a fresh tour with Chris Young. June sees new tours with Alice Cooper and Peter Frampton. LD Jared Rarick has been programming and providing design input for Frampton’s “Farewell Tour.”
LD Chris Lose’s calendar is filled for the year as lighting director for Hall & Oates. Paul “Arlo” Guthrie designed it, and Jesper Luth serves as production manager.
LD Chris Medvitz reports on Lightswitch’s design projects: lighting for Nintendo at E3 in Los Angeles in June, and lighting/media for Lionel Richie’s “Hello” Tour in North America this summer.
LD Chris Smith programmed for Pharrell Williams’ “Something in the Water” festival with designer Cory FitzGerald. (Sam Paine programmed and operated Pharrell’s set.) Smith also programmed Pentatonix’s World Tour with designer Travis Shirley, video programmer Manny Conde and LD Kyle Lovan.
LD Ed Warren updates us on his design projects: Idles, operated by John Roger; Lily Allen, operated by Josh Mansfield; Mumford & Sons, operated/co-designed by Phil Kaikoura; British musician Four Tet headlining Green Man Festival and rock band The Horrors at The Albert Hall operated by Warren himself. He also designed lighting for the three stages at Dreamland theme park in Margate, Kent, U.K., and the entire festival at Sea Change Festival in Totnes, Devon, U.K. On top of that, he’s teaching lighting master classes at Canterbury Christ Church University.
LD Ethan Weber finishes a few months of weekends with American stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, declaring it a “very nice change of pace and has allowed for some weekly family time.” Weber returns to the Rolling Stones’ “No Filter” tour in June with rescheduled U.S./Canada dates.
LD Martin Thomas is keeping his healed eyes on the sky for the second leg of Alan Parson’s tour. An upcoming summer highlight: a stellar concert for NASA to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing.
LD Meagan Metcalf is directing Sheryl Crow in Europe in June.
LD Michael Duncan worked a headline date with Alice Cooper at the Domination Festival in Mexico City and some Hollywood Vampire dates covering for LD Joel Reiff. He struts this summer with the Stray Cats and Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot.
LD Mike Ledesma set out again with Santana. The band celebrates its 50th anniversary with the Supernatural anniversary tour, named for the hit album that was released 20 years ago.
LD Myles Mangino is designing/operating Anita Baker’s Venetian Theatre residency in Las Vegas in June, followed by her European festival tour.
Patrick Dierson’s The Activity has flown production teams around planet Earth — and slightly beyond, with their gig of helping Jeff Bezos announce Blue Origin’s planned moon landing for 2020 (and manned expeditions in 2024) in Washington DC.
LD Robb Jibson’s So Midwest team wrapped up creative direction for the annual VEX Robotic World Championship in Louisville, KY. “It was a super fun job creating environments for these kids to kick butt!” he notes. They’re now full steam ahead on new designs and content for Train and Chevelle.
While Stacey LaBarbera continues his longterm gig as LD for George Strait, he’s recently moved into a sales position at Onstage Systems as a project manager. LaBarbera has worked at the Dallas company for 30 years.
Steven Garner is programming/running Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing of music and dance under the stars for LD Andrew Grant June through July.
LD Tim Routledge’s design plate is overflowing with the Spice Girls’ Spiceworld stadium tour and Rita Ora’s arena tour, both in the U.K.
While the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp beside the golden door, she needed more illumination for a special event: the grand opening of her museum on Liberty Island. LD Tom Kenny did the “lamp lifting,” shining on the symbolic statue, the gardens and the Statue of Liberty Museum for a gala event. “We had a super posh dinner, speeches and tours of our Lady Liberty and the new museum,” Kenny says. Tony Bennett, Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Estefan and other celebs shared thoughts between performances about the immigrant experience. While Kenny has lit many iconic figures in his career, he had to say that this was one was “spectacular” and achieved with great help from Oxygen’s Adam Burrows and Michel-Said Belkati and crew.
Shed light on your late summer gigs. Let Debi know at dmoen@plsn.com.
