“We have all worked together for a good bit,” said Jackson. “Brent and I toured together in 2009 when we met on Star Wars: In Concert. He and I have done multiple tours together since then working together on the design. Nathan and I started working together after he graduated from Webster. Originally I hired him to assist me, but our work patterns and style were so similar that we began co-designing projects together. Jack was also a Webster grad (and former student of mine) who started doing a lot of site coordination and production management for us over the last two years. With Brent in Chicago, me in St. Louis, Nathan in New York, and Jack in Los Angeles, we’ve got it covered! We each all have our own careers and projects, and then we bring it all together for the projects that involve all or some of us.”
First up on their project list is working with promoter C3 Presents to handle lighting coordination for Lollapalooza (Chicago), Austin City Limits Music Festival (Austin, TX), LouFest (in St. Louis, MO), and CounterPoint festival (Atlanta).
Winter Olympics Factoids
An estimated two billion viewers will tune in to the XXII Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. The newly-built 40,000-capacity Fisht Olympic Stadium sets the scene for the opening and closing ceremonies. LD Al Gurdon is lighting the Olympic Opening on Feb. 7 and Closing Ceremonies Feb. 23. In the same venue, LD Durham Marenghi
follows that spectacle by lighting the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies on March 7 and Closing Ceremonies March 16.
Amsterdam Light Festival 2014/15
Each winter, the Amsterdam Light Festival stages light art and projections by contemporary international artists in Amsterdam’s historic city center. Rogier van der Heide, festival artistic director, is inviting artists, designers, engineers and architects to submit ideas for the Dec. 2014-Jan. 2015 festival, titled “A Bright City.” The deadline is March 1; the 30 chosen artworks will be announced April 15. For more information visit amsterdamlightfestival.com/cfc.
Quick Cues
Paul Simon’s lighting designer, Rich Locklin, and Sting’s lighting designer, Danny Nolan, are combining their collective design talents for the Paul Simon & Sting: On Stage Together tour. “We will both be there to run it,” said Locklin. “There’s no set change; it’s a blended two hour, 40-minute show so we’ll run it together. So far it’s been a blast to develop.” The tour runs Feb. 8 to March 16 in the U.S. and Canada.
LD Mike Swinford started off the 2014 calendar with Florida Georgia Line, the NBA All-Star Game, Jason Aldean, Ron White’s Salute to the Troops, Rascal Flatts, the CMA Music Festival, the NBA Draft and a few more in the “tinkering” stages, he said.
LD Bud Horowitz just wrapped up the Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas Tour, followed by designing Clive Davis’ Grammy Party. February is a concert shoot for Showtime and The Society of Singers’ ELLA Award.
LD David Hauss designed the Excision tour, which runs Jan. 22-April 20 in the U.S. and Canada.
Zach Peletz recently moved to New York City to be closer to the theatrical shows he’s involved in. He programmed media servers on the Broadway musical Big Fish and will program Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway in April. He’s still involved in concerts, most recently Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz and Cody Simpson’s
Paradise tours.
Besides shoveling show, Steve Garner has been staying busy programming the NFL Super Bowl Gospel Show at Madison Square Garden for LD Otis Howard, followed by the New York Spring Fashion Shows for LD Joe Saint.
LD Martin Heining is working on a new design for the upcoming European tour of Schandmaul, a medieval German folk-rock band. “It will be just a lighting and drape design,” he says, for the group that plays bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies along with their electric bass and guitar.
LD Cosmo Wilson started back with Foreigner in late January and tours to May. “Mick Jones is back after a year and a half hiatus to get his health back,” Wilson said.
LD Aldo Visentin is still out touring with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. A new set is on the drawing board following a few February shows in Monterrey, Mexico, and Ft. Lauderdale, FL for Valentine’s Day.
German lighting designers and lighting programmers Roland Greil and Michael Kühbandner recently combined their mindsets “within one brain pool” to form the design firm Einstein & Sons in Munich. They are eager to take on new projects in design, direction and development. Greil has worked with designers Adam Bassett, Patrick Woodroffe and Jerry Appelt, while Kuhbandner lists Marc Brickman and Chris Nyfield among his collaborations. Visit einsteinandsons.com for more details.
After a slight interruption last year, LD Martin Thomas returns to work again with Erykah Badu in 2014. “Thirteen years makes it hard to part ways,” he said. Thomas has upcoming tour dates in Africa and Australia with her and the Nedda Stedda band. He is also continuing on with Jill Scott, who will perform at the Essence Festival in New Orleans this summer followed by a continuation of a world tour, with dates scheduled in the Far East and South America. Thomas’ company, Relentless Entertainment Design, also had a hand in the lighting design for Michelle and Todd Rundgren’s Tiki Iniki bar and restaurant in Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii, which is up and running at full tilt, he said. “The environment design is by the famous worldwide tiki bar designer Bamboo Ben,” he added. “The club is unlike any other tiki bar you’ve ever been in.”
Spring forward and share your upcoming touring news by emailing Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com
