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USITT and Interesting Products

USITT and Interesting Products

Hey everyone welcome back to The Notebook. This week I’d like to start with my first visit to the USITT here in Phoenix, Arizona. I was familiar with the LDI and NAMM shows where they have a lot of lighting displays, but not this particular one. Fortunately in a previous blog I plugged that I was in Phoenix and if anyone was in town could contact me to see an EastonAshe show. Little did I know that Richard Cadena would be contacting me saying that he’d be in town and interested in checking out a show. I happened to be interested in checking out the USITT since it would be a great opportunity to mix it up with my peers in the industry.

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The Double Exposure of Lighting and Video

“Stars on Ice: Double Exposure” is the new professional ice skating tour from champion Scott Hamilton featuring top skaters who get to let their hair down and show the audience many sides of their lives beyond the skating rink. Lighting the many talented performers is a simple but effective lighting rig that allows the ice to be completely covered by patterns and colors throughout the show, and with the versatility of Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots, each production number and solo performance looks entirely unique.

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The Certification Game Gears Up

Corporations and insurance companies raise the bar for qualified techs.

Despite what Donald Trump might have us believe, the age of the apprentice is coming to a close. Training for technical stage skills continues to expand, from college programs to private skills schools. ESTA, in conjunction with other professional organizations including IATSE, and with private entities such as Live Nation and PRG, has established the Entertainment Technician Certification Plan (ETCP), a voluntary testing and certification program that grants enhanced status to individuals who have passed its examinations. 

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No Crack Problem Here

The electrician is master of the theatre domain

“It seems the expectation is that an entertainment electrician should be an engineer, licensed electrician and theatre technician.” Virginia Croskey, an adjunct professor at Prince George Community College in Largo, Md., wrote those words after taking a two-day entertainment electrician’s course. The course is designed to teach the principles behind the practice of being an entertainment electrician. Yes, Virginia, there is more to the entertainment electrician than meets the eye. 

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Bringing Life In the Heights Onto the Stage

As Broadway has become littered with revivals or shows inspired by movies or tied into famous franchises, it’s refreshing when an original work comes along to stir things up. One such production is the new off-Broadway musical In the Heights, a production certainly worthy of the Great White Way. With lyrics written and music composed by star Lin-Manuel Miranda, the bilingual In the Heights chronicles the lives of residents in a Latin neighborhood in Washington Heights, their interweaving stories, how they keep their heritage alive while adapting to a different culture and their pursuit of the American Dream. The musical features dynamic staging, a clear and vibrant sound mix full of Latin sounds, show tunes and hip-hop, and lively, inspired performances from the cast, particularly Miranda as grocery store owner Usnavi and Olga Merediz as Abuela Claudia, the matriarch of the neighborhood.

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The Wizard of Applause

Robert Wertheimer puts his theatre background on ice

At an age when most of us are still playing with bugs, a different sort of bug bit Robert Wertheimer — the lighting bug. Ever since, the owner of Spectacle Lighting Design (www.spectaclelighting. com) has been fascinated by the world the lighting. In this month’s PLSN Interview, Wertheimer explains how he ended up designing for Hockeytown, the art and danger of designing on ice, and why it’s important that your client has an excellent experience. 

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Lighting a Symphony – And Then Some

In the last few months I received two offers to light a symphony. I thought to myself, “How hard can this be? Set a pretty look for each segment and key light a couple of solos. Simple, right?” Now add some flamenco dancers, jugglers, acrobats, assorted guest vocalists and 100 choir members. What I ended up with is a variety show, featuring the symphony.

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Look Solutions Cryo-Fog

Look Solutions’ newest fog machine, the Cryo-Fog, is a compact, low-lying fog production machine. It’s compact enough to fit in the “overhead bin;” just be careful when you open that bin, because this baby is 28 kilograms without the fog fluid. (For those of us who don’t do metric, that’s just under 62 pounds.) But don’t let its size fool you; the Cryo-Fog machine pumps out enough fog to compete with the more standard-sized (read, larger) fog machines of its type. I recently had the chance to get upclose and personal with the Cryo-Fog machine when Tom Gittens at Advanced Entertainment Services, in Las Vegas, Nev., showed me around the device.

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AARP Brings Vision to Their Annual Event

Event Producers Sets the Stage

The schedule looks something like this: Get in to town on Sunday, maybe Friday or Saturday if you are lucky. Walk through Hall D of the Anaheim Convention Center late Sunday night, go over some points, make sure that you have all of the gear and prep yourself for a long week. This 221,284 square foot convention hall needs to be turned into an 11,000 seat theatre by 8:30 a.m. Thursday for the opening ceremonies for AARP’s National Event, “Life at 50+: Lights, Camera, Anaheim,” a gala-event with performances by Bill Cosby, Jose Feliciano and Elton John; along with appearances by Maya Angelou, Geena Davis and Dan Rather, among others. 

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The Greatest Band (Lighting) on Earth

Tenacious D has been described as “this wild lead singer with pipes of platinum” and “the heavy-set bald fellow churning out riffs of pure profundity.” Of course, it was Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the two founders of the band, who came up with that description. You would expect nothing less from the self-proclaimed “Greatest Band on Earth,” the same duo who said their show “couldn’t be explained but had to be experienced live and in person.”

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