Mandylights LD Richard Neville — assisted by his associate Alex Grierson — designed the lighting, video design and programmed the Ricky Martin Live tour, which was an all-new show following the artist’s success as a judge on The Voice Australia. Lighting Director Churry Lafuente is operating the design on tour, which wrapped up in Australia (Oct. 3-20) and heads to Mexico in December. Veikko Fuhrmann created the stage design.
Says Neville, “The sold-out tour used an innovative lighting design with four controlled hexapods with further automation on the various video screens. Mandylights created all video content in house for the tour and conducted lighting programming in pre-viz first before only a week of production rehearsals in Newcastle, Australia.”
Neville’s design for the Backstreet Boys has just finished in Japan, and up next: the musical Cats begins its return season in China.
Legend of the Fall
This fall, singer John Legend embarked on his first headline tour, Made to Love, since 2009. Rehearsals started in October with production designer Nook Schoenfeld at the helm. John Featherstone and the Lightswitch media team once again were tasked with creating the visual content.
David Norman and Chris Stinebrink assume their recurring roles as tour manager and production manager, respectively.
Schoenfeld’s company, Visual Ventures Design, recently designed the production for this year’s How Sweet the Sound gospel tour as well as touring shows for Imagine Dragons and Kid Rock. Business partner LD Mike Ledesma has been going nonstop between his duties as well, lighting and designing separate productions for more legends: Gloria Estefan, Santana and Kenny Loggins.
Directing Lionel
For Lionel Richie’s North American tour, lighting director Debbie Fowler went from the tour’s start in Hollywood, FL on Sept. 18 to its end Oct. 18 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA. Operating the show on the road for the designers Baz Halpin and Chris Nyfield, Fowler noted eight days of full band and tech rehearsals at the Paramount Studios prior to the tour’s month-long run.
“The tour was amazing,” Fowler said. “Tour manager Glenn Matthews assembled a crew that got the show up and running quickly and smoothly. Both Glenn and creative director Dirk Vanoucek were invaluable to me with their support.
“It was a pleasure and an honor to work with the creative design team of Silent House Productions,” Fowler added. “Baz Halpin, Chris Nyfield, and programmer
Bryan Barancik put together a dramatic visual presentation that enhanced every moment and mood of the show. The show was beyond beautiful! Lionel is an incredible singer, songwriter and artist, and his rapport with his audiences is truly a gift. The sold-out tour certainly lived up to its name: All The Hits All Night Long!”
Touring Career Workshop
LD Chris Lisle and Erik Parker created the Touring Career Workshop to “give back” to their colleagues in the industry. Their first one was in 2011. This year’s free event takes place Wednesday, Nov. 13 in Nashville. The keynote speaker will be Jim Digby, production manager for Linkin Park and a key driving force behind the Event Safety Alliance. His focus for the Touring Career Workshop will be on event safety. Other topics — presented by experts in the field — delve into health and fitness on the road, women in the touring industry, life coaching, surviving the business, health insurance, accounting, financial planning, navigating relationships and managing stress on the road, and more. To register, go to touringcareerworkshop.com.
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
Steve Cohen designed lighting for the touring musical, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. The project — a collaboration between author Stephen King, John Mellencamp and musical director T-Bone Burnett — ran Oct. 10-Nov. 6 throughout the Midwest and Southeast U.S. The roots of the musical began 13 years ago when Mellencamp told King a story about a cabin on his land. According to the cabin’s lore, two brothers had fought over a girl; one brother killed the other, then died with the girl in a car crash. King wove this into an outline for a play, and a musical started to develop.
Quick Cues…
LD Rich Locklin revealed that he and Danny Nolan are working on a co-design for the Paul Simon and Sting 2014 tour, which runs in February and March.
LD John LaBriola is touring with Phoenix, which finishes the year in Europe (with the exception of some December radio shows in the U.S.). The band returns to the U.S. with a full production in 2014.
LD Travis Shirley is the production designer for Keith Urban’s “Light the Fuse” tour, which runs into 2014. Joining Urban on the bill is Little Big Town, with LD Chris Schrom.
Troy Eckerman programmed Josh
Groban’s tour with LD Mac Mosier. He also is working on his tenth year “changing the seasons” display at the Bellagio Conservatory in Las Vegas, with fall in full swing with bridges, pumpkins and other autumnal props…
LD Alex Skowron is touring with John Fogerty.
LD Seth Jackson designed the touring show for NBC’s America’s Got Talent.
LD Kille Knobel is out on Pearl Jam’s tour; Blue Leach is the video director.
LD Howard Ungerleider and his PDI company are involved with an alternative medical installation. “We are installing color into a treatment room as a way to assist the senses to relax as [patients] undergo treatment,” he explains.
Michael Keeling recently designed the lighting for the new Daft Punk music video, Lose Yourself to Dance. He describes it as an “Old School retro look vs. all the new technology these days. The band had a vision in mind that crossed 70’s live rock, disco and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
LDs Michael Duncan and Alex Ares designed Meat Loaf’s 18-date residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Sept. 26-Nov. 5. The show is part of the series, RockTellz & CockTails, which tells an artist’s life story through a video presentation while accompanying the live artist onstage. Creative director of RockTellz & CockTails is Steve Cohen.
LD Alastair Bramall-Watson is finishing up Joe Satriani’s tour after 92 shows. His lighting design for AFI is on the road, with Graham Rolak as lighting operator, and STP are doing “bits and pieces” of assorted dates as well.
Among his many TV projects lately, LD Jeff Ravitz designed the lighting for 24 Hours of Climate Reality, a news show and discussion about climate issues, anchored by former vice president, Al Gore.
Production designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie has designed the current theatre/festival tour for Chris Isaak.
After 17 years with ZZ Top, LD Chris
Stuba “needed to move on,” and he handed the reins to LD Jeff Archibeque.
