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LD Jim Tetlow lit this GM display

LDs at Auto Shows: The Car’s The Star

Some LDs seek out assignments during the cold-weather off season for outdoor concert touring. Michael Keller, LD for Ozzy Osbourne and other touring artists, has worked with the auto shows on and off for more than 20 years with titles ranging from designer to master electrician.  This year, Keller was involved with NAIAS in Detroit, LAAS in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Auto Show, the St. Louis Auto Show, and CIAS in Chicago.

Illustration by Andy Au

The Big Picture

Teamwork. It’s a big word. Everyone nods their head and agrees that, on any show, big or small, it’s about the teamwork. But lately I’ve been wondering why so many people in our business don’t really practice what they preach. Don’t get me wrong, I watch them work their butts off, doing great at the task they have been assigned. But the minute they are done with that, they are out of there. Gone from the arena. Waiting for that silly inconvenience between the load in and the load out (the show), to be done.

Keane 2013 tour photo by Steve Jennings

Keane 2013 Tour

Lighting Companies:
Upstaging (U.S.), Lite Alternative (U.K.)

Venue
Various (Tour)

Lighting for the Camera

We all have our specialties when it comes to the business.  In the attempt to make a name for ourselves, each of us has carved a specific niche.  But sometimes our path to success does not go the way we originally planned, or even imagined. I am a prime example.  I knew early on that lighting design was where I wanted to go. But if you were to go back in a time machine and ask my former self if I thought I might be destined to become a writer and an editor of a magazine, I would have laughed hysterically. (I still do that sometimes; I guess that is my jolly nature.)

From left, Yes production manager Joe Comeau and LD Don Weeks. Photo Debi Moen

Don Weeks, LD for YES

TOUR: Yes (the band)

DATES: March 1- April 12, North America; May, Brazil; more dates though summer 2013.

SHOW CONCEPT: Live performance of three albums in their entirety: The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going For the One.

Texture and clutter add realism and grit to the set for Picnic on Broadway. All photos by Joan Marcus

Exterior in the Interior for “Picnic”

The social graces, traditional roles and quaint backdrops of 1950s Kansas belie an unease that some people feel underneath the norms that they conform to in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Picnic. When college dropout and Hollywood failure Hal Carter comes home to roost, lacking any real vocation or direction, he reconnects with his well-to-do college buddy Alan Seymour and meets Seymour’s girlfriend Madge Potts and her sister and single mother. While everyone prepares for a big town picnic, and Alan prepares to spend time with his sweetheart before heading away for a semester at school, Hal and Madge become irrepressibly drawn to each other, sharing an urge to flee the small town, which threatens the peace, harmony and conformity of those around them.