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Scarlett Johansson as Maggie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; photo by Joan Marcus

The Flow and Motion of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The latest Broadway incarnation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has generated a big buzz, thanks to star Scarlett Johansson as Maggie, and the well-rounded cast includes Ben Walker (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) as Brick, veteran Irish actor Ciarán Hinds as Big Daddy and Broadway veteran Debra Monk as Big Mama. Williams’ tale focuses on a wealthy plantation family whose patriarch (Hinds) may be dying of cancer. He has two sons as potential heirs to his cotton business — the self-serving Gooper and his wife and brood of five bratty children, and the alcoholic Brick (Walker) and his distraught, rejected wife Maggie (Johansson) who are childless. Gooper is strongly vying for the estate, but Big Daddy favors the troubled Brick, who spurns his wife physically and mourns the death of his close friend Skipper. On the evening of Big Daddy’s birthday, a firestorm of emotions is swelling and ready to burst in the household.

Beyonce photo courtesy of Sennheiser

Super Bowl XLVII: The Technology and People Behind Beyonce’s Halftime Show

When the clock ticked down to 00:00 at the end of the first half of Super Bowl XLVII, more than 700 people began a well-choreographed and meticulously rehearsed process to get the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show onto the field. In under eight-minutes, the field was transformed into a fully realized concert spectacular. Beyoncé, along with a reunion of Destiny’s Child, entertained the 75,000+ football fans in the stadium and over 108 million people watching worldwide. Twelve minutes later, the field was just as quickly cleared and the game resumed. (Okay, for only a short time before an unscheduled break, but that is not our industry’s story to tell.)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wrecking Ball Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Jeff Ravitz, LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Jeff Ravitz, longtime LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, got a surprise call in late 2011: The Boss would once again be hitting the road with the 2012/2013 Wrecking Ball tour, with a new five-piece horn section attempting to fill the void left by The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, who died June 18, 2012. Ravitz and fellow Intensity Advisors designer Kristie Roldan were in New Jersey most of February for rehearsals. The tour launched in Atlanta after pre-tour gigs at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and Austin’s South by Southwest Festival.

At the Grammys, Elton John and Ed Sheeran perform

Lighting the Grammy Awards

There are two things that you need to know about lighting the Grammy Awards, the 55th annual edition of which was telecast on CBS Feb. 10 from the cavernous Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. First, even though the venue holds nearly 20,000 when seating can be extended to include the floor (it’s less than half that for basketball and hockey — it’s a big floor), and the first 20 rows on that floor hold the crème de la crème of the music industry, the show isn’t about them. Rather, it’s about the 28.37 million or so pairs of eyeballs that the show drew this year, some of which will buy recordings that they might not otherwise have. The camera adds ten pounds and 10 million units of sales. On a less pecuniary level, it’s also about presenting a record industry as robust, creative and vital despite concerns about losses to piracy, a bad economy and growing consumer ennui.

David Rosenberg, Jennifer Tankleff and Richard Parks

iWeiss Rebrands, Expands, Partners Up

Sure, you know iWeiss.

Or do you?

Don’t confuse it with I. Weiss, the century-old supplier of soft goods to Broadway productions. Building on that legacy, the company continues to embrace that market while expanding into others. This includes putting their rigging expertise to work on different projects, and their foray into products like the ViaWinch.

LD/Programmer Steve Richards

LD/Programmer Steve Richards

PLSN: Steve, tell us what you’ve been up to lately.

Steve Richards: I just finished the U.S. leg of the Gotye tour. I was also the lighting director for Lady Antebellum. That was a long run, but it was a lot of fun. And I’ve also been working for U.K. artist Cher Lloyd. She was on X Factor a couple of years ago. She’s got a single out now, and I’ve been doing some promo stuff with her.

Top 40 Rules of the Road

Industry veteran Bob Higgins has more than 30 years of experience in the touring industry as a video producer, director, editor, dancer, troublemaker, and problem solver. With the help of contributing minders K. Lipschutz, G. Jones, V. Jarvis, A. Kramer, R. Alvarez, W. Willoughby, and B. Riedling, he’s pieced together the following rules, gleaned from his own early mistakes, mistakes he’s seen along the way (with the shipping records as proof), eyewitness accounts, and road stories too numerous to mention. Please read carefully, you will be tested daily…

Elation Event Cylinder

Elation Event Cylinder

Elation’s Event Cylinder, designed in conjunction with Port Lighting Systems, gives lighting professionals a new color-changing LED element to work into their own creative designs, from dangling LED chandeliers to glowing horizontal arrays, tabletop centerpieces and stacked columns of illumination.

GAM LED Stik-up with filter

GAM LED Stik-up

The Stik-up, an ultra-compact, four-ounce incandescent single source luminaire from GAM Products, has a new LED sibling, the LED Stik-up. As with the original tungsten-based version, designers can use LED Stik-ups as a general wash light to fill holes, light back stage areas or sneak extra illumination into the nooks and crannies of set elements from a completely self-contained package of portable LED light.

New Years Eve, 2013 at Aria in Las Vegas. Photo by Kelly McKeon.

Experimenting with New Technology

On a recent show, I chose to work with several new pieces of technology. I love the opportunity to work with new equipment, learn new concepts, and discover new creative ideas! The experience was challenging, but it was definitely well worth it. Here’s a recap.

Roland V-800HD Video Switcher

Roland V-800HD Multi-Format Video Switcher

The world of video switching gets thicker and more competitive by the month, it seems. For example, the small-to-medium multi-format market is booming right now — and for good reason. Lots of different devices offer lots of different I/O options. Designers “in the biz” realize that they need to provide a lot of bang for the buck, and it usually falls upon the technical crew to come up with the solution.

Vectorworks Spotlight Label Legend Manager

Making the Most of Vectorworks Spotlight

In contemporary society, some may argue that man is plenty without tools, but perhaps Thomas Carlyle was on to something. Perhaps a stronger argument can be made for the fact that man improves with tools—so long as they’re the right ones. That sounds right to me, especially when it comes to design tools for the entertainment industry.