Lighting Co
Upstaging Inc.
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
Lighting Designer: Roy Bennett
Lighting Programmer: Cory FitzGerald
Lighting Director: Fraser MacKeen
Lighting Crew Chief: Ron Schilling
Lighting Techs: Ben Meserole, Jessica Quinn
Rigger: Bob Powers
Projectionist: Nick Strand
Carpenters: Martin Capiraso, Michael Kinnard
Stage Manager: Harold Behrens
Production Manager: Alan Hornall
Tour Manager: Dennis Sharp
Staging/Set Company: Tait Towers
Video Company: Chaos Visual Productions
Trucking: Janco Ltd.
Gear
1 grandMA 2 Lite console
55 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtues
40 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash FX fixtures
20 Chauvet COLORado 72 battens
96 Martin MAC 301 Wash fixtures
1 Lycian M2 short throw followspot
4 Cirro Strata CS6 mist system
4 Barco FLM-HD20 projectors
2 Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers
More photos by Steve Jennings of Kelly Clarkson’s tour are at www.plsn.me/clarksonextras
Designer’s Insights, by Steve Jennings:
Fraser MacKeen (Lighting Director)
“I have been involved with Kelly Clarkson’s camp for quite some time now. Roy Bennett (lighting designer) and I had a few casual conversations during the initial phase of the design, but I didn’t get involved in this tour until we began programming. I met up with Roy and Cory FitzGerald (lighting programmer) at Upstaging following a Jingle Balls tour Kelly did. We were at the Upstaging facility for about two weeks before Christmas, and then met up again after a couple corporate shows we performed in the New Year.
For the most part, the show hasn’t changed since the start of the tour, apart from the day-to-day touch-ups. Kelly added a background singer to the mix, and I added a FOH Sharpy for her. At one point, Kelly let me know that she was changing the center section of the show (our acoustic set), and wanted me to change the lighting for it as well, but that’s about it.
This tour has been such a great experience. Kelly constantly goes out of her way to make everyone feel welcome and like family. Roy and Cory, as always, were a great pleasure to work with, and collectively created a fantastic show.
The guys at the Upstaging shop put together a rock-solid, smooth-moving rig, and John Huddleston (Upstaging) continually went out of his way to make sure we had everything we needed or wanted, both in the pre-production/programming side of things, as well as once we started touring.
The crew that production manager, Alan Hornall, staffed on this tour are top notch, grade-A techs who believe in nothing other than “tip of the spear” professionalism and loyalty. People like Alan, Bob Powers (rigger), Ron Schilling (lighting crew chief), Harold Behrens (stage manager), and Martin Capariso (carpenter), to name just some, are the reason I started in this industry, and traveling with a show of this caliber, with all of its staff (band members, designing team and touring staff) has been nothing short of remarkable. Shows like this, designed and staffed, are what make people envious of gigging.”
