Lighting Co
Bandit Lites
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
Lighting/Production Designer: Seth Jackson
Set/Production Designer: Nathan W. Scheuer
Lighting Designer/Programmer: Brent Sandrock
Lighting Director: Andy May
Lighting Crew Chief: Chas Albea
Tour Manager: Toby Mamis
Production/Stage Manager: Cesare Sabatini
Pyro Tech: Dianne Fleming
Associate Production Designer: Jack Rushen
Bandit Lites Rep: Mike Golden
Trucking Co: Upstaging/Evan Lawrence
Staging Co: All Access Staging/Dave Agar, Robert Achlimbari
Pyro: Pyro Engineering/Luis Torres, Jr.
Backdrops: Sew What?/Megan Duckett
Props: Image Technologies/Bob Casey
Gear
1 grandMA 1 Full
21 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
4 Bandit GRN wash fixtures
12 Bandit GRN battens
6 8-light Molefays
120 PAR 64 1Ks
8 4-lamp ACL bars
2 Reel EFX DF-50 hazer
3 High End Systems F-100 foggers
More photos at www.plsn.me/AliceCooperExtras
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings
Seth Jackson (Lighting & Production Designer) –
“When Nathan Scheuer (Set Design & Production Designer) and I sat down with Alice and his manager, Shep Gordon back in May, the original discussion was to reboot the theatricality of the original Welcome To My Nightmare show from the ’70s in honor of the new record, Welcome To My Nightmare 2. We played around with the magic screen, with concepts and story lines, and did several treatments, even a two act theatrical piece. After a few months the ideas had evolved from all of the discussion to focus on true “old school” theatrics; backdrops. We decided on five kabuki drops that would move the story of the show through a Dante-esque journey to deeper and deeper catacombs as Alice is “killed” and joins his former friends who have already passed on: Keith Moon, Hendrix, Jim Morrison, & John Lennon. They were all part of a group in the early 70s they called the Hollywood Vampires. Basically, they would gather on the balcony of the Rainbow Room in LA and play music and drink. They even made a softball team of the group. Once we reach that part of the show Alice does some revamped cover tunes of each artist. We took a lot of chances and shunned all of the traditional “rock-n-roll” trappings. You won’t find a lot of audience light, won’t find a lot of heavy cueing, and School’s Out (the show closer) is literally one cue. Instead the show is built on deliberate, dramatic, highly specific cue choices. It isn’t lacking in lighting, it is just picking the moments of greatest impact. Each section of the show has its own identity. The visuals in section one you won’t see repeated in section three and so on. It truly is a five act piece of theatre. There is no video, at all. The drops we created from scratch. Brent Sandrock (lighting designer & programmer), Jack Rushen (associate production designer) and I took out a shoot permit to go into the catacombs under the city of St. Louis and did all of the photography there. We then gave the imagery to Nathan, who did all of the artwork and assembly.
This show took quite a village to put together. All Access Staging & Production handled the physical set and risers. Drops Everything did all of the digital printing and assembly of the backdrops. Image Technologies out of St. Louis did all of these brick rubble piles out of foam and a host of gravestones (things you only say when working on Alice Cooper). Bandit Lites helped coordinate all of the lighting requirements for overseas and Canada in addition to supplying us a facility to program in before the tour started in Europe. Even Webster University, the school I teach at, had a hand in supplying light kits and equipment for shooting all of the imagery six floors underground. Bandit Lights has been the lighting provider for I believe close to a decade. Mike (Golden) at Bandit has always handled the account, and he and I go way back. He was actually who introduced me to Alice’s manager Shep three years ago and started this whole train running. Then you add in all of the work that Cesare Sabatini (production & stage manager) and Toby Mamis (tour manager) orchestrated to get it all in the right place at the right time, and well, you’ve got a village.
This tour is unique in a lot of ways. You’ve got lighting techs dressing up in costumes, everyone pitching in to pull off the effects in the show, they all work themselves to death. It is really something to experience. Everyone is completely committed. Also, this is the first time in his entire career that Alice has toured with pyro. Luis (Torres, Jr) and the team at Pyro Engineering were just incredible. They kept offering ideas and solving problems, even took Shep and I out to their shop WAY out on Long Island so we could see exactly what we were dealing with and how it was all going to come together. Lastly, I’m always amazed at how Cesare and Toby keep this train on the tracks. With this kind of touring (hoping through continents at break neck speed) it is amazing that all of this comes together on a daily basis be it Poland or Brazil (and that might just be in the same week). I also need to commend the lighting director, Andy May. He manages to manipulate local vendors, a variety of venues from stadiums to clubs and somehow the show always works. I would be exhausted!”
Andy May (Lighting Director) –
“Traveling around the world with this show has put in perspective just how big of a rock n’ roll icon Alice Cooper truly is. Directing lights for The Alice Cooper Show is both intimidating and exciting. Intimidating because of the responsibility that comes with the reputation that took Alice years to build along with the fans that faithfully follow. There are Cooper fans that have been here from the very beginning and I can’t disappoint the people in the crowd or on the stage. I take it personal. Exciting because this show is not just a rock n’ roll show but a theatrical act as well. At times Alice can be unpredictable and get lost in his character, you never know what is going to happen from one night to to another. It’s nice to work with an act that keeps you on your toes. What else could I ask for, I’m where I want to be.
“I travel with a full size grandMA. I’ve been using the grandMA for over 10 years and it’s my weapon of choice. The show is written on the MA therefore we carry one with us at all times along with a full size backup of course. As for fixtures, we carry 21 – VL3000’s, 10 – Bandit GRN Battens, 4 – Bandit GRN Moving Washes and 6 – 8-Way Mole lights, then rent daily 72k of Pars, 16 – ACL’s and 5 – 40′ runs of truss + rigging.
“Seth Jackson is a great lighting designer who is easy to work with, and when he says something is going to happen it does. The guy has the talent and vision; he just hands you the design and the show works. I’ve known Seth for years and his work shows he loves what he does. Bandit Lites is a great company to have behind you. Their service is both professional and flawless. Bandit is full of people who not only know what they are doing but love it and do it well. My lighting technician Chas Albea is a major contribution to the success of each day. Lets face it, I can’t be everywhere at once.”
