Many in the audience at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center during Shaindy Plotzker’s performance on April 6th could be forgiven if at times they thought they weren’t looking at a mere stage, but into a new, and very inspirational world. The beautiful melodic voice of this New York singer was responsible for some of the transformative effect, but also casting this powerful spell was a deeply immersive, multi-level set design on a massive (18-feet deep and 13.5-feet trim) stage.
At times, this expansive set evoked images of an ancient courtyard, at others it inspired with majestic mountain-like imagery. Lighting Designer Moshe Baskin and Programmer/Operator Max Blackman brought this spectacular panorama to life with help from 170 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Shaya Adler’s Eagle Production.
Baskin described how the design came together. “This concept came from an Israeli designer, Ronen Najar. Eli Gersner of EG Productions, who produced the concert, reached out to have us create something with it. I took it into Vectorworks and worked on it until I was happy. I substituted the original fixtures with CHAUVET Professional products, particularly the PXL linear units.”
The PXL battens helped Baskin accent the depth and dimensionality of the set. “The set had multiple risers to accommodate the all-female orchestra behind Shaindy Plotzke,” he said. “We created custom ladders that measured one meter by one meter out of single tube truss. This allowed us to position the PXL units throughout the set and complement the images on our LED walls, which were created by Shmuli Van Harush. The ladders went all the way to the back of the stage. As they were staggered by one-meter segments and filled up all the negative spots, they completed the look.”
Baskin used 24 COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures run in 101 channel mode as well as 20 PXL Bar 16 units (84 channel mode) and 24 PXL Bar 8 units, kept in 51 channel mode. Joining the COLORado PXL fixtures in the rig for the 32-universe show were 12 Maverick MK3 Profiles, used for front and key lighting, 36 Storm2 BeamWashes that reflected the mood of songs in color, 42 Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes for SFX, and 12 STRIKE Array 2 units, relied on for strobing and audience lighting.
Looking back on the concert, which raised funds for EFRAT assisting Jewish women in Israel, Baskin described it as a “team effort.” In addition to citing Eli Gerstner, Shaya Adler, and Max Blackman, he praised the work of lighting tech Perry Adotey, master electrician John Strycharz, LED Engineer Tzvi Stein, LED techs Christopher Severn and Felipe Concha, as well as ABC Fabulous Events
“We all put a lot of work into this design,” said Baskin. “There were some challenges working with the high trim and deep stage, but when we saw the amazing effects that were created anytime the PXL Curves had any sort of fan, we knew it was well worth the effort.”
Further information from CHAUVET Professional: www.chauvetprofessional.com
