#10 Celine Dion
LD Aldo Visentin with Andrea Bocelli
DATES: Throughout 2017
THE DESIGN: “I always have Andrea in full light. The audience wants to see him. Because he is blind, we mark off an area around his microphone with sticks taped on the stage, so he can feel it under his shoes. This allows him to know where he is and in the light.
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The State of Air Transportation
It’s the start of a new year, and time for me to put my corporate taxes in order for the old year. This amounts to taking 12 months’ worth of info and combining it into one spreadsheet that shows all my write-offs. One of my favorite parts of all this is my travel expenses. I gather up what the flights cost and I cross-reference them against the airline miles I made. I am indeed, one of those geeks who figures out ways to get several free plane tickets every year.
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Tracking a ‘Comet’ from Boston to Broadway
Mimi Lien’s Stage Design for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
It’s a complicated Russian novel and everyone’s got nine different names, but the narrative extract from Tolstoy’s War and Peace that has been transformed into the colorful musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 has become one of the most original productions to arrive on Broadway during this past year. And one of its strengths, Mimi Lien’s lavish stage design, required a lot of thoughtful engineering.
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Bryan Hartley Raises the Bar for TSO’s 2016 ‘Ghosts of Christmas Eve’ Tour
The first tour the Trans Siberian Orchestra (TSO) did was only five shows long. They had just one band and used local production. But the word quickly spread. The next year, they brought in designer Bryan Hartley and a lighting package. They also started doing two shows a day on that second tour, some 17 years ago. Ever since, this gigantic live concert, which is a mixture of classical, rock and holiday music, has grown to selling out arenas every holiday season with what can best be described as a visual spectacle.
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Stevie Nicks ’24 Karat Gold Tour’ with The Pretenders
Stevie Nicks performed a solid two-hour set spanning her 35-year solo career, which also included some notable Fleetwood Mac hits on her 24 Karat Gold Tour. With the added pleasure of The Pretenders on the bill, fans got two powerhouse iconic acts in one show. One of the highlights came when Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde comes back out to sing with Steve on the hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to the delight of the crowd.
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Maxwell & Mary J. Blige
John Dacosta and Daunte Kenner on “The King & Queen of Hearts” Tour
The “King and Queen of Hearts” tour with Maxwell and Mary J. Blige had the combined talents of production and lighting designer Justin Collie of Performance Environment Design Group (PEDG; now known as Nimblist); John Dacosta, the lighting director and programmer for Maxwell; and Daunte Kenner, the production and lighting designer for Mary J. Blige. PLSN got some time with Dacosta and Kenner for some words about the tour.
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A Chat with Jonathan Smeeton
Not many people can stake a claim to being in the lighting business for 50 years. I sat down with my friend Jonathan, who recently passed this milestone, as he explains to me how he got fired from his latest gig just last month. “I just finished designing ARW, an offshoot of Yes members playing Yes songs. This is my fourth go around of sorts with different Yes projects. Singer Jon Anderson fired me for some difference of opinion, but it took me three more weeks to finish tightening up the lighting before I could actually go home.” Make no qualms about it, Jonathan is a unique individual. He started at a time when there was no manual for his occupation.
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Ralphie, Get Your Gun!
Taking A Christmas Story on Tour
It began as the reminiscences of an old storyteller, but it grew to become one of our best-loved tales of the yuletide season — and now it’s a singing, dancing celebration of the youthful anticipation of Christmas morning. A Christmas Story, the live stage show adapted from the 1983 movie, takes a tale of 1940s Midwestern America and turns it into an extravagant fantasy that spins from the mind of an eleven-year-old boy.
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Zhu Shines at the Shrine
Production Club, a multidisciplinary team who design and produce music-based parties, shows and experiences, collaborated with electronic musician and singer Zhu to debut a new design at The Shrine in Los Angeles in October The event, in support of the artist’s new album, Generationwhy, followed Zhu’s successful “Neon City” tour, which kicked off at Coachella this year.
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Battens and Bands
In the last couple of months, I saw three different tours that had me thinking; “Is this a new lighting fad I should look into? Did three different shows each come up with a different touring design concept that was based around their love for this one lighting fixture?” Either way, the fact that three separate acts chose to carry GLP X4 Bars as their predominant light source in their touring package is enough to sit up and take notice.
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The Gift of Christmas
Prestonwood Baptist Church’s Show is an Annual Marvel
Originally founded in 1977, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas now draws more than 40,000 parishioners from all over North Texas. Bound together through a common purpose, the church has also become known throughout the country for their annual Christmas celebration entitled “The Gift of Christmas.”
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