PLSN Co-Editors Debi Moen and Michael S. Eddy each penned an Editor’s Note for the October 2022 issue.
Debi Moen, the Co-Editor of PLSN, this month posted this Editor’s Note: Looking Bright
Things are looking brighter, as sky high gas prices have consistently fallen in many parts of the country. But for some, it hasn’t come soon enough. Christian rock band Stryper is rescheduling all shows Oct. 8-25 to spring 2023 because of gas prices and other shortages. On its website, the band posted: “Unfortunately there were some economic cards stacked against us. Anyone in the music business will tell you about the tour bus and labor shortage out there. We’re feeling it first hand. The tour bus business is like the housing market right now with 10 times more bands trying to rent buses than are available. And you’ve seen the cost of gas lately. When you’re putting 10,000+ miles on a bus, as we were planning to do, gas prices absolutely matter for a tour like ours.” A shortage of available venues compounds the problem. “Due to the over saturation of the touring industry right now, we honestly had a tough time hitting some of the cities we wanted to play this year. But by moving this to the spring, it will allow us to play more cities.” No doubt other bands are in this same situation.
Looking at the brighter side… The Lumineers pumped up their production on The Brightside World Tour to accommodate stadium dates. We spoke with Tour Manager Sara Full and Designer Sooner Routhier about the creative design and crew family on the road. How did electronic pop duo Sofi Tukker incorporate a tennis court onstage on their Wet Tennis Tour? We talk with the creatives, led by Production & Lighting Designer Sarah Landau. Bavaria Sounds 2022 is not like what it sounds. When Lighting & Video Designer Roland Greil and Associate LD Troy Eckerman contacted PLSN, they were raving about the three large open-air concerts drawing 300,000 attendees in Munich. Both are known for their work with mega tours, so what made it so, well, wunderbar (German for “wonderful”)? We checked in to find out.
We couldn’t forget about Halloween. Designer Watch reached out to lighting designers to find out what Spooktacular tricks they have up their sleeves for the fun October tradition. Happy Fall, y’all!
Michael S. Eddy, the Co-Editor of PLSN, this month posted this Editor’s Note: Perception is Not Really an Accurate Reflection
Throughout 2022, one of the big conversations that I have been having, with it seems just about everyone, is the labor shortage across all market segments of our industry. On average, the live entertainment industry, it has been estimated, has lost 30% of its labor pool.
With the shutdown of live entertainment, a large number of our colleagues have left the industry and many have found better pay, better hours, more stability and health care benefits—they discovered a better quality of life for themselves and their families. Now shops and shows are having a hard time hiring experienced techs and staff; even entry-level labor is hard to find. Tours are cancelling because they can’t get enough stagehands to fill a load-in call. So how does an industry address the issues that have been revealed with this exodus—the problematic pay and hours, the lack of health coverage, and the need to rectify the myriad of diversity issues too long ignored?
A good start would be with an accurate understanding of, to paraphrase Sesame Street, Who Are the People in Your Industry? Now is an opportunity to really understand the workforce of our industry. Who is working in it and doing what? What’s their experience and training? What are the going rates of pay and salaries? To find the answers everyone in the industry can easily help simply by participating in the Live Arts, Culture, and Entertainment (LACE) Survey. [Find the survey details in the Oct. issue of PLSN on pg. 53.] Funded by USITT and The Ohio State University, the survey is being administered by SMU DataArts. I encourage everyone reading this to take five minutes; take the survey and tell all your colleagues to do the same as well. Manufacturers, freelancers, shop personnel, designers, technicians, everyone in every role in every market segment. An accurate breakdown of the demographics of our industry is the best way to then respond to the needs of our collective industry family effectively. Change starts with informed understanding, not assumptions.