UK - When Simon Marlow was brought on board as production manager for the stage version of Mrs Doubtfire in London’s West End, he turned to Unusual Rigging to meet the show’s extensive rigging needs. The adaptation of the ‘90s movie starring Robin Williams, originated on Broadway, before transferring to the UK where it enjoyed a successful run at the Manchester Opera House. It opened at The Shaftesbury Theatre on 12 May and, like most big scale musicals, boasts several large scenic pieces to be rigged, flown and stored - along with extensive lighting and sound rigs. Simon commented: “Unusual Rigging has provided all the rigging motors, grid diverts and general rigging for this complex show which is multi scenic and heavily automated. The Shaftesbury theatre is much smaller than the Sondheim Theatre on Broadway where it originated so getting the show to
UK - There was much to celebrate when Coldplay performed the third of four shows at Etihad Stadium in early June as part of its eco-conscious Music of the Spheres world tour. The venue’s usual residents, Manchester City F.C. had just won the F.A. Cup at Wembley, ahead of one of the most visually enchanting live productions in recent memory providing the party of a lifetime for 60,000 ecstatic fans. For PixMob, the Canadian technology developer behind the crowd’s “game-changing” LED wristbands, this leg is also the first since it announced its expansion into Europe with the opening of a new base in Brussels. “Having been involved in projects on the continent for the best part of a decade and seen increasing demand, we decided to get closer in order to better service the market,” commented Ysabel Vangrudenberg, managing director of PixMob Europe. S
South Korea - A recent production of Verdi’s La Traviata in Busan wowed audiences with enhanced acoustics and amplified sound and effects that tracked the performers as they moved around the stage. Staged at in the open air at the cultural complex and former wire factory F1963, Yamaha AFC was used to create the spatial feeling of a classic concert hall, while each performer wore a TTA Stagetracker location sensor along with a wireless microphone pack. The sound was reproduced in three dimensions by multiple speakers positioned around the venue including five Nexo P12s along the top of the stage and Nexo ID24s suspended on wires above the heads of the audience. Additional Nexo PS speakers filled in from the sides, with amplification and processing for all Nexo speakers coming from NXAMPMk2 powered controllers. Building on a successful earlier production o
USA - The stately well-appointed theatre at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, NJ is no stranger to sellout crowds. On 22 November, 1926, when it opened as the Plaza Theatre with a double feature headlined by Harry Langdon and Douglas Fairbanks, its $1.10 tickets were the hottest in town. Tickets for this year’s grand reopening of the historic venue, in April were a bit pricier, but they were just as hard to come by. With Jay Leno doing the ribbon cutting, the 1,367-seat theatre, now called The Bergen Performing Arts Centre, opened its doors to the public once again, following a renovation of its main hall. The celebrity ribbon cutting wasn’t the only thing drawing attention to the festivities during the theatre’s opening weekend. There was also excitement in the air (quite literally) created by four 60,000-lumen output Chauvet Professional Maverick Storm 4
Namibia - Well-known Christian evangelist and author, Angus Buchan attracted large crowds at the recent Speak Jesus prayer day at Windhoek’s FNB Vegkop Stadium. The event, which was organised by Mighty Men Namibia, called for a professional audio system that would deliver crystal-clear audio to thousands of attendees, all of whom were eager to hear the words of worship and Christian teachings shared by Buchan. Namibia-based event production experts, dB Audio, was responsible for designing and integrating the audio system. “Our brief was to ensure that the messaging came through loud and clear to an audience of 4,000,” explains Char-Ann Husselmann, Project Manager at dB Audio. “Providing a great overall audience experience was the overarching goal.” Considering the nature of the event, which focused mainly on spoken word alongside interludes of worship music,
USA - In partnership with dry-hire rental house Main Light, Elation Professional provided Fuze MAX series moving head luminaires to David Geffen School of Drama at Yale for use on the school’s annual Carlotta Festival, which showcases plays written, directed, acted and designed by students. The Carlotta Festival features three fully produced new plays by graduating playwrights performed in rotating repertory. The plays presented in this year’s festival, which ran 5-12 May at the Iseman Theatre, included littleboy/littleman by Rudi Goblen (directed by Jacob Basri); Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne (directed by Leyla Levi); and Color Boy by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel (directed by Jecamiah M. Ybañez). The Carlotta Festival demonstrates to students the significant artistic, technical, and managerial challenges of producing new plays in reper
USA - Austin, TX band Shane Smith and the Saints’ mix of country, rock and Americana calls for a lightshow that is equally complex and powerful. That’s exactly what Matthew PJ Row delivered for their special livestream performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with help from 20 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 blinders supplied by Brown Note Productions. “I was brought in to design, programme, and implement a few items that Ethan Holland, the band’s PM had in his mind,” said Row. “The look we envisioned is built around the band’s huge multi-vocal harmony sections for choruses, intros, and emotional areas. “For some of the dark eerie vocal tunes, I wanted to cast no front light and have only their shadows,” continued Row. “The idea was to have all these vocal parts sewn together visually. So, you would be not knowing who is singing which part, and thereby
Portugal - Europalco, created the concepts for Caixa Fora da Caixa, a meeting staged by Portuguese public bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD). The seventh Caixa Fora da Caixa internal meeting took place at the Altice Arena in Lisbon and gathered 4,000 Caixa employees under the motto ‘Together we can go further’. The annual event highlights the results achieved in 2022 and the challenges ahead for 2023. Agency Prestigio for Brands relied on Europalco to deliver an exceptional event for CGD. The Lisbon-based supplier provided the stage, furniture, sound, lighting, video, and rig, also a 40-people team that worked for two weeks and one day in-situ to prepare the event. To project the brand, Caixa, and the meeting's concept, Caixa Fora da Caixa (Box Outside the Box), the project department worked on a theme of boxes that synchronised with the nine moving screen
USA - With his fourth and latest record, Gettin’ Old, released this past March, less than a year after 2022’s companion album, Growin’ Up, Luke Combs is on a global tour that is now carrying the country singer across 16 countries and three continents, starting with his current sold-out North American stadium run. Once again, North Carolina-based touring sound company Special Event Services (SES) is supplying the control packages for Combs’ worldwide trek. But this time, monitor engineer Michael Zuehsow has added a new tool to his DiGiCo Quantum 7 console at stage right - a DMI-KLANG card for immersive monitor mixing. Based in Nashville, Zuehsow joined Combs’ crew in late 2018 and initially hit the road with him on his first headlining run, 2019’s Beer Never Broke My Heart tour. Although DiGiCo Quantum 7 consoles have anchored the artist’s F
Europe - American metalcore band The Ghost Inside has concluded their European tour, marking their first bus tour in the region since a tragic accident they faced back in 2015. Spanning over a month, the tour revolved around the Impericon Festivals, with a week of shows in the UK followed by a series of sold-out performances in Germany alongside acts including Bury Tomorrow, Thy Art Is Murder, Sondaschule, and Future Palace. Front of House engineer Bryan Greenberg chose to work with an Allen & Heath dLive system to ensure The Ghost Inside's electrifying performances would captivate audiences with high-quality immersive sound. The FOH setup featured a dLive CTi1500 control surface and CDM32 MixRack provided by rental company Solotech. The lightweight CTi1500 surface is engineered with titanium side panels and comes in at 11.5kg, or just under 23kg in a flightcase,
Vietnam - After a three-year hiatus, the 2023 Danang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF 2023) has returned. Working with main sponsor Sun Group, international consultancy Global 2000 International turned to Cinewav to provide synchronised audio via mobile phones for the first time at an international fireworks festival. This was first debuted at the official opening ceremony on 2 June where locals and tourists across Da Nang, Vietnam’s fifth most populated city, could listen to a clear soundtrack using their smartphone in sync with the fireworks themselves. Mrs. Pham Tu Cau, vice president and CEO at Sun Group Central Vietnam, executive office of central region was instrumental in bringing Cinewav onboard to play a part in DIFF 2023. “It truly inspired me. I was struck at the sound quality which perfectly matched the visuals. This is also the first time in Viet
Europe - Metallica continues to break new ground with their in-the-round production for the global, two-year M72 World Tour that recently kicked off in Europe. Throughout the tour, the band’s sound is immersing the entire audience - at full bandwidth across a broad stereo landscape - through a Meyer Sound system comprising a record 288 Panther large-format linear line array loudspeakers. The band and long-time creative director Dan Braun have moved beyond the old paradigms. Two concerts will be presented at every tour stop, with completely separate music sets for each show. The celebrated ‘snake pit’ has been relocated inside a ring-shaped stage, requiring four drum kits for Lars Ulrich to rise up as needed. Also, the sonic field has been expanded to ensure a wide stereo spread of guitars and drums at every seat and standing point in the stadium. “I’m always
USA - Bandit Lites illuminated the 8th Annual Black Music Honours, a star-studded showcase that celebrates back excellence and trailblazers in music, ranging from gospel to R&B, Hip-Hop and more. This year’s honourees included music legend Missy Elliott, vocal trio SWV, disco and R&B star Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, R&B/soul singer Jeffrey Osborne, and gospel trailblazers The Hawkins Family. Hosted by singer and actress LeToya Luckett and actor DeRay Davis, the event was taped at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta on Friday 19 May. Lighting designer Mark Carver and production designer Scott Moore sought to utilise a range of fixtures that would offer the flexibility to build a range of looks for all the genres of music represented. “We wanted fixtures that can look both retro and contemporary, and fixtures that have a vast colour palett
USA - The creatives behind the stage design for Scotty McCreery’s current 31-city North American Damn Strait tour is creating big, bold, dynamic looks on stage, while still meeting practical considerations, like fitting your powerful touring rig into the allotted trailer space. Helping them make this happen is a design that cleverly uses rolling carts and upstage downlighting, along with well-placed specials to enlarge looks, along with a potent, yet compact, lighting rig that features 24 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures, owned by the former American Idol winner. “The big thing about this show is we wanted to be able to create ‘WOW’ moments, but also fit everything into a single semi-truck,” said Drew Hornback, Scotty McCreery’s lighting director. “I feel like we’re doing this very well. In addition to being compact, our rig is designed for qu
UK - Based in Cardiff’s landmark Wales Millennium Centre, Welsh National Opera (WNO) is one of the most prolific operatic ensembles in the UK, with a national and international touring schedule that consists of an average of 120 performances per year. In need of a new in-house communication system, WNO recently invested in a full Riedel Bolero digital wireless intercom system, specified by Autograph Sound. “We spend around five to seven weeks, twice a year, at our home in the Millennium Centre, producing our operas. From there, we head off on tour for around seven weeks at a time,” explains Benjamin Naylor, head of lighting and sound at WNO. “We’re on the move a lot and require a communication system that works for us, not against us.” Prior to the upgrade, the team at WNO were using an outdated digital wireless system, which had served them well for aroun
USA - Lil Wayne, Third Eye Blind, Wu-Tang Clan, Nile Rodgers, Babyface Ray, Maren Morris…. There were plenty of stars at Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival on Virginia Beach, but sadly, there was plenty of water too. High winds and rains along the Atlantic coast battered the superstar’s three-day event; a tornado even touched down nearby. Things got so bad, Friday and Saturday’s shows had to be delayed, while Sunday’s was completely cancelled. But Evan Kirkendall and his team at Harford Sound, along with their collaborator Steve Tanruther’s Rock the House, were able to handle anything Mother Nature dished out, with help from an all-weather rig anchored by 238 IP-rated Chauvet Professional fixtures. “Thankfully, all of our Chauvet lights were ready take on the storms,” said lead light tech Gabe Odachowski. “Given the size and scope of t
UK - Hosting on behalf of Ukraine, the United Kingdom welcomed a global viewing audience of more than 161m into the Liverpool Arena to hear performances from the top 26 countries during the grand finale of Eurovsion, aired live on 13 May. Shure Axient Digital Wireless System was selected to provide to support the production. Britannia Row provided audio equipment for the 67th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. Tom Brown, project manager at Britannia Row, together with his team and Robert Edwards, head of sound at ESC 2023, specified an extensive system of Shure Axient Digital, PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring, AD600 Axient Digital Spectrum Manager, ShowLink, Wireless Workbench Software, and Wavetool Software to provide the robust and solid solution required. Tom Brown commented: “We needed a reliable system that we could be confident in pushing to its limits, and the Shu
USA - Country singer Brett Young’s Five, TOUR, Three, Two, One Tour swept into LA’s The Greek Theatre in May with an upbeat, colourful lighting design by Luke Elrod. During the show, he enveloped the audience in starry gobo-effects and bright, rich colours using Vari-Lite VL3600 Profile IP fixtures from Signify. Elrod, who runs Luke Elrod Designs from his base in Nashville, Tennessee, has been Brett Young’s tour lighting director since mid-2022. The current tour visits a wide range of venue sizes as well as festivals, meaning Elrod required an IP-rated fixture capable of producing bright colours and effects using the full 28-strong VL3600 rig or a scaled down version. “I’d heard many great things about the VL3600s and they checked off all of the boxes for the design,” says Elrod. “I wanted something that was really punchy and could fill a lot of space, wh
Mexico - Myst is a colourful cabaret-style musical megamix encapsulating some of Mexico’s rich and vibrant musical culture and history over two hours - split into two acts - staged at the Foro Totalplay in Mexico City. At the centre of the show’s lighting since it has been at this venue are 60 x Robe Spikies and 30 x Spiider LED wash beam moving lights. These were specified by lighting designer Juan Ignacio Adriano who is also the technical director of música esencial at Foro Totalplay. This story began back in 2017 when Myst needed a new resident venue after being forced to move from the previous one, Sala Corona, which was damaged in the devasting 2017 earthquake. Foro Totalplay, inside the upscale Antara Mall in the Polanco district of CDMX, was designed as a 400-capacity club rather than a theatre or even a cabaret venue, explained Juan Ig
USA - The 2023 CMT Music Awards moved from Nashville to Austin this year. The three-hour event, which was broadcast on CBS, radiated a fresh, vibrant energy that instantly captured attention with its distinctive colour schemes, boldly outlined stage, and dramatic catwalks. Tom Kenny, who created the lighting design for the event at The Moody Centre, credits the change of venue with inspiring him, production designer Ann Brahic, and the rest of their team to reach deep into their creative wells to come up with their bold, and highly original, looks. “The whole process of moving to the hip city of Austin gave us all a big hit of adrenalin,” said Kenny. “Everyone jumped in to have fun and worked hard at getting the show into a great place. We began the week outdoors, at the stage off Congress, with a big show by Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban that put the whole ci
USA - Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty’s musical comedy Seussical, based on the works of the famed Dr. Seuss, is filled with an abundance of exuberant characters, from Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz, to Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers, The Cat in the Hat, and The Grinch. Lighting such colourful characters is fun! Ask Christopher Robin, who used layered effects and a variety of light angles to bring them and their imaginative costumes to life at a recent West Hempfield High School production of the play. “This was just a really enjoyable experience,” said Robin. “The costumes were magnificent, and the set was beautifully painted. Within the set itself, the whole spectrum of colour was used. The giant story book on stage gave me free reign to use any colour to capture the palette on the pages of Dr. Seuss’s many children books.” Help
UK - This year, Black Skull Creative, in collaboration with its sister company Black Skull Studio and Marvin Dietmann, was entrusted with the task of creating nine distinct country performances for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. From content design and choreography to production design and stage direction, Black Skull Creative covered all aspects of creative direction and production from ideation to completion. "As the co-creative director of nine Eurovision countries, overseeing such a massive task was undeniably challenging,” says Ross Nicholson of Black Skull Creative. “However, it was also an immensely rewarding experience. Eurovision provided a platform for untapped creativity and we, at Black Skull Creative, seized that opportunity to infuse our creatives with a sense of boundless imagination and fun. “The Eurovision stage became
UK - Through a mix of live performances and puppetry, The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure is an immersive theatrical experience that brings to life the stories and characters of Beatrix Potter. Taking place at London’s Covent Garden, audiences are transported back in time as they help Beatrix herself rescue Jemima Paddle-Duck from the clutches of Mr McGregor, with the help of Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit. The show features a lighting design by Sean Gleason who approached White Light (WL) to supply his lighting equipment. When it came to lighting the show, Sean comments: “My role on The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure was mainly to bring found and adapted spaces to life, help set the scene, as well as bring focus to certain moments. The play has a mix of actors interacting with puppets and puppeteers so light needed to play a large role in not only crea
USA - Last fall, Darkroom Creative enlisted Elation Smarty Hybrid moving heads on Walker Hayes' Glad You’re Here Tour as a multifunctional workhorse on the country star’s first headlining arena tour. Currently out on his follow-up Duck Buck Tour, the design firm has again turned to the compact moving head as the only hard-edged fixture in the rig. “It met all the needs and continues to carry far more of a workload than you think a fixture of that size could accomplish,” stated Seth Jackson, partner at Darkroom Creative, of the CMY colour-mixing hybrid moving head. Darkroom Creative is again handling lighting design, set design, video production and content for the 2023 outing with lighting supply by Bandit Lites. Limited in both crew and truck space on last fall’s tour, the set and lighting rig for Glad You’re Here was understandably restricted. Now, howe
