Production Designer Tamlyn Wright along with Lighting Designers Matt Firestone and Jon Kusner talk about designing two different television specials celebrating two legendary entertainment icons—Singer, Joni Mitchell and Comedian and Actor, Carol Burnett.
The Howell Binkley Fellowship Program announced their third Fellow for 2023, Amara McNeil; and a 2023 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre will be presented to Production Supervisor and Production Stage Manager Lisa Dawn Cave. We also look at the Tony design nominations and present the news of appointments and promotions at the Washington National Opera (WNO).
Debi Moen has the inside scoop on all the where, what and who hitting the road for an incredibly busy touring season.
Chris Lose looks at Green Riders for tours and how everyone has a part to play in going green on the bus, onstage and at the FOH.
Designers Jesse Lee Stout and Sooner Routhier were looking for a way to visually express the band’s desire for a show design that would convey a narrative of “an extreme group of vigilantes resetting the world to ground zero” (Stout) with a “rig that feels like the skeletal nature of a post-apocalyptic, near-future world” (Routhier). Upstaging provided 122 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M fixtures, most of which were in a horseshoe configuration around the stage, with others under the plexiglass stage. “They are one of the main workhorses of the show,” Routhier says, noting the importance of reining in their intensity through most of the show and limiting the full intensity blasts of light to “only a couple times in the show” so they will deliver maximum impact.
From “Designer Spotlight,” PLSN, May 2023, page 34
The usefulness of words hinges on a consensus of what they mean. In his “XRticle” published in the May 2023 issue of PLSN’s “In the Volume” section, by Matthew Ward, who is part of the Emerging Technologies at Fuse Engineering Workshop and Head of Product with Superlumenary LLC offers his interpretation for how Reality, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Extended Reality (XR) and Mixed Reality (MR) can be understood, then goes deeper in analyzing the trickiest one on the list: XR.
Historical Morton Salt complex transformed into Chicago’s hottest new live performance space
The Morton Salt complex in Chicago had been in operation for nearly a century before it was closed down in 2015. Today, the complex has been transformed into a multi-purpose venue for live music and other events named The Salt Shed. Boasting state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, including a comprehensive Elation stage lighting rig from Upstaging, The Salt Shed is quickly becoming the hot new performance space in Chicago.Read More »From Salt Production to Stage Production: Upstaging Lights Chicago’s Salt Shed with Elation
British rock band Muse has hit the road with its North American tour, Will of the People, on which more than 150 Claypaky Xtylos enhance the band’s post-apocalyptic staging non-stop. The tour is named for the band’s most recent ninth studio album, which gave Muse its seventh consecutive No. 1 on the UK albums chart and topped Billboard’s Alternative and Rock Albums tallies. The Will of the People tour began in Chicago’s United Center on February 25 and concluded the U.S. portion of the tour on April 20 in Salt Lake City, after which it will move on to Europe.Read More »Claypaky Xtylos Deliver Post-Apocalyptic Look for Muse’s ‘Will of the People’
Folk-pop artist Maggie Rogers has wrapped up the first leg of her The Feral Joy Tour. The tour promoted her latest album Surrender and featured special guest Del Water Gap as an opener for the show. Production/Lighting Designers Tess Falcone and Dan Hadley of LXFC marked their first tour with the artist. Hadley had worked with Rogers’ management before and was invited to submit a design to work with the artist herself, executing an intimate rock-concert design for Rogers’ unique sound. Entertainment Technology Partners spoke with the LXFC partners about the tour’s design.Read More »2023 Maggie Rogers: LMG Touring Delivers Ultimate Rock Concert Feel
The NAB show might have been celebrating its 100th anniversary, but the products on display were a glimpse of the future. We highlight a few of the standouts.
An informative interview with Lighting Designer and Educator Lap Chi Chu about working on two shows at Lincoln Center simultaneously; “Camelot” and “The Coast Starlight.” Both shows were very different, yet for the designer, there was more that connected them than just a staircase.
Debi Moen catches up with Michael Ledesma, John “Grinder” Procaccini, Gregg Maltby, Joe Cabrera, and Cat West, as well as Rob Koenig, Nathan Alves, and Seth Jackson, along with several others about the gigs they are on.