Campo & Company Puts Together the Event of the Summer for Newport, RI
Newport is a magical town located on Aquidneck Island in the New England state of Rhode Island. The town is next to a yacht-filled harbor that once hosted the America’s Cup, a renowned annual sailing regatta, for more than 50 years, along with the treasured Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals since the 1950’s. Newport is also known for its Gilded Aged mansions, that were summer homes for such historical figures as the Vanderbilt and Astor families of lore.
Another divine treasure of this historical town is the Audrain Automobile Museum (AAM). The Audrain building that was originally built in 1902-1903 by noted architect Bruce Price was renovated in 2014 and now houses the AAM, which acts more as an art museum rather than a car museum.
On Aug. 31, The Audrain held its annual Summer Gala, “Come One, Come All — Vintage Circus,” with keynote speakers Jay Leno and Donald Osborne. The Gala, held at Salve Regina University’s historic Ochre Court, served as this season’s location for the AAM’s fundraiser, featuring a display of cars, circus performers a cocktail hour, dinner, show and after-party. The show headliner, Jay Leno, is known for his own extensive car collection.
Francesca Campo and her company have been producing fundraisers in Newport since she settled in the area in 2003. “At Campo Company & Events, we work primarily for nonprofit organizations setting up galas and counseling people on fundraising,” she says. “I enjoy working with something that has heart.”
So how does producing a fundraiser that will entertain masses of people willing to spend $1,000 a plate to attend help the AAM? “This gala benefits the museum itself — specifically, their endowment, which is used to seek out, purchase and restore historic Newport cars that were around this area. They also work with educational programming on the island. The funds raised by the AAM aid other nonprofits that support low-income families, allowing them an educational experience that they otherwise would not have access to.”
There is a lot of history in Newport, a town where sportsmanship is big, especially racing, whether it concerns horses, boats or cars, Campo adds. “We started the AAM Gala three years ago, and it has kept growing.”
This Year’s Event
Initial meetings for events like this often start happening almost a year before the actual Gala date. “One of the first things we need for an event like this is a theme,” Campo explains. “With vintage cars being the main attraction, we came across the idea of a vintage circus. This is an amazing event. It’s something I’ve actually wanted to do for years, because I like the circus and like anything vintage. As we expanded on this idea, thoughts of a big top tent, various circus and sideshow attractions became something we felt could attract and entertain an audience.”
Essentially this event had three locations to it. The guests arrived at the Ochre Court mansion at Salve Regina University which currently serves as the university’s administrational offices. It’s a grand building with frescoes on the ceiling, wood carvings, and gilding. As attendees arrived at the front gate they were greeted with champagne as they walked through cars and circus performers throughout the property. Inside the building was a fortune teller and an accordion player playing circus music among other performers.
“The patrons then walked out onto the back lawn or the “Midway,” for the cocktail hour. Francesca expands. This area contained about 40 cars and performers such as fire breathers, stilt walkers and jugglers. In the center was a pyramid structure used as a performance area for aerial silk acts.”
Patrons were then ushered into the “Big Top,” a tent structure that hosted dinner along with a stage show featuring Jay Leno and Donald Osborne. Jay and Don did a 45-minute set with a PowerPoint presentation and a lot of humor involved. This culminated with an audience Q&A.
The most demanding thing to set up in the tent was an 18-foot-high ground supported structure to be used in conjunction with an aerial Lyra act, which involved Cirque-type performers with a large suspended ring. While this was one of the more difficult production requests to facilitate in a tent, East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS) rose to this aerial challenge, adding to the magic and spectacle of the evening.
After the show, the guests returned to the Midway, working their way back to the main building for the after party. The event team had turned one room into a nightclub and another into a faux casino. With the party going late into the night, guests had available to them an endless bar and desserts, and a fortune teller, tattoo artist and midnight food truck were well-attended.
The Production
It took a huge conglomeration of vendors to put the talent together for the show portion of the event. Nimble Arts, a circus performance school in Brattleboro, VT provided 28 of the individual performers. Ten31 Productions out of Pawtucket, RI furnished living statues, steampunk-attired personnel and a ringmaster, who was the MC for the night.
“For the production elements, I always turn to two local vendors that I depend on. I wouldn’t do an event without them,” Campo says. Exquisite Events (EE), led by Kelli DuBeau, handles all the décor and decorative lighting. “She did the most amazing job on the ceiling, transforming it into a Big Top tent with dark red and ivory colored fabric striping mixed in with chandeliers and twinkle lights,” Campo says. “For the production lighting and video elements and everything else I need, from labor to power and logistics, I turn to East Coast Lighting and Production Services (ECLPS). Nate Almeida has been my go-to guy for 11 years. Nate and Kelli work hand-in-hand as my ‘A’ team. Their collaboration creates the vision.”
Nate Almeida is a production designer and project manager, employed full time by ECLPS. He talks about his company’s involvement in this production. “This is my third year working on the Gala, but I’ve known Francesca [Campo] for 11 years. The production has grown so large that I now work as a production manager on this event dealing with everything starting from the beginning this past January. Once Francesca, her client and the folks at Exquisite have a theme, they bring the ECLPS team in to confer on the design and how we are going to execute everything for the event.”
This includes power requirements, such as on-site generators (and spares running in tandem), trucking requirements (these old cars can’t just be driven on their own, they arrive on flatbeds), tent setups, video elements such as LED walls for the side of the stage and LED monitors set up around the tent for easier viewing of the Leno portion of the show. “ECLPS can take care of most production elements from audio to staging to lighting, but when we come to something that is out of our comfort zone, we’re not afraid to admit it and bring in the best the area has to offer,” he says.
“When the demand was made to have the Lyra aerial act perform inside the tent, I had to take into account all the logistics needed to make it happen. After consulting with the artist, I was told the act required 18 feet of clearance height and 12 feet of width. Before moving forward with any design for the structure, I had to ensure that the big top could accommodate these requirements. Once I compiled all the information, I then called in Steve Robinson and his team at SGPS ShowRig to design, deliver and install a ground supported system to specifications to support the acrobats. I give many thanks to Steve and his team for implementing a unique build.”
Lighting the Event
Nate knew from the start that it would be important for him to manage all the production elements of the event all week, so he turned to Alicia Colantonio to design all the lighting, Alicia a designer and lighting technician based out of Providence R.I, who gets the majority of her work from ECLPS and has been part of the team the past five years, explains how she chose to illuminate the event.
“We decided to bathe the mansion in a nice red/maroon color by uplighting the exterior with Color Blast fixtures. There was a band playing music up on the balcony during cocktail hour, so I chose a lighter amber color to uplight the balcony, adding dimension and depth to the view from afar. We mounted a couple of ellipsoidals to display custom gobo patterns on the tent exterior on the opposite side of the lawn.
“Inside the building, there was a band set up for late night dancing. We used Martin MAC 101’s to create a jazz nightclub atmosphere on the dance floor. These were programmed with some movement, subtle color changes and dimmer chases to produce that atmosphere.”
“We approached lighting the lawn with the idea of sports arena style lighting scattered throughout the back property of the mansion, using eight Applied L16 lifts and seventy-two ETC Source Four Pars. These enabled us to illuminate the automobiles and light the silk dancers performing while washing the lawn with enough light for all the circus performers to work.”
Space was at a premium in the tent, especially with the center truss structure. Rather than have it be an eyesore, the LD turned it into an arty looking structure. The structure was color toned with wireless Astera AX3 Lightdrops in a color that complemented the rest of the tent.” Various other fixtures hung from the truss.
Colantonio explains her design. “We hung two Robe Robin 1200 LED Wash fixtures from the top corners of the structure for down light and placed another four on the floor as uplight, which allowed us to sculpt the aerialists during their performance. We hung a couple ETC Source Four ellipsoidals at the top of the structure as front light for the stage. The stage area was where Jay and Don did their show.”
ECLPS brought in two LED walls that were ground supported on either side of the stage, adding décor and light to the main tent. Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 fixtures were hung along the perimeter of the tent, bathing the fabrics in a uniformed wash. “We also placed a four ETC Source Four ellipsoidals at the base of the truss structure and focused them on the roof of the tent to project gobo patterns and a mix of complimentary colors in the only part of the tent that didn’t allow for a fabric treatment.”
In the end, the gala was deemed a huge success. Performers who had worked with Ringling Brothers, Big Apple Circus & Cirque du Soleil ensured all the guests were entertained well into the night. Campo was pleased with the outcome of the event. “I must say, this is the most spectacular event Newport has ever had,” she said.
