WESTERLO, Belgium For Albert 1, a new musical produced by Simon de Merode and staged around and on a series of pontoons floating on the moat of the Westerlo Castle in Belgium, LD Michel Jacobs lit the 150 by 100 meter performance space with Robe moving lights including 20 Robe BMFL Blades as the main fixtures. The sold-out show was seen by 1,850 people a night over two weeks.
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LONDON – The production behind British comedian Ross Noble’s latest stand-up tour ‘Brain Dump’ has turned to a tourable lighting control system for the first time. The team has invested in an Avolites Titan Mobile console to power the eccentrically brilliant set, made of giant inflatable light bulbs each with an LED light source at its core. Production manager Shaun Weager, who has worked with Noble since 2012, came up with the 16-ft high dream-like design in response to a creative brief Noble ingeniously constructed using his daughter’s Play-Doh
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NEW YORK – In support of her breakout EP and hit single “Gold,” singer-songwriter Kiiara made her television debut Sept. 15 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. LD Michael Keeling designed the lighting for this segment. He had a back line of Elation ZCL Series lighting fixtures to support her performance. Used for backdrop visuals in the form of columns of eye-catching vertical lighting effects was Elation Professional’s ZCL 360i™ single beam moving effect light.
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NEW YORK — ETCP is pleased to announce an extremely high renewal rate for its original Entertainment Electrician certificants. A decade ago, almost 100 candidates from North America gained their ETCP Certifications at LDI in Las Vegas, NV. This year in October, 94 percent of the inaugural class of 2006 renewed their certifications as their second five-year renewal was due to expire.
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The yearly jaunt to Vegas was once again a fun time. Met a few new friends and caught up with a bunch more on the golf course, the LDI show floor and, of course, the nightly celebrations culminating with the Parnelli Awards on Saturday night.
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Tour: “Love Unleashed,” Oct. 14-Dec. 10
It was a good three days of walking the floor this year, with all of the 350 booths located in the same hall. Attendance seemed moderate this year, as there seemed to be more room to walk the aisles without bumping into people. Of course, there was still the usual logjam at the Blizzard Lighting/Mod Truss booth where the party never seemed to stop, especially when you have life-sized Rock’em Sock’em Robots for us full-sized children to play with! Rest assured, there was plenty of cool things to see this year, and we have compiled a list of the 100 companies we felt had something worthwhile on display.
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LD Natasha Katz talks about lighting the musical as it makes its way back to Broadway.
The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical, Cats, is both a beloved and satirized show. The original production lasted 18 years and ended its original run in 2000, but it has been revived in a new production directed by Trevor Nunn and co-starring pop singer Leona Lewis as the melancholy kitty Grizabella, whose signature song, “Memories,” is an iconic Broadway theme.
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Chris Reade has been lighting bands for 20 plus years now, but as they say, ‘It’s a long way to the top’. He may not have reached the pinnacle of his career just yet, but after getting nominated for a Parnelli Award as LD of the year in 2016, he’s certainly close to it as his peers have noted. It was especially sweet for Chris as this year marks the 10th tour he has designed lights for Dierks Bentley and the fourth time he has gotten to collaborate with set designer Bruce Rodgers.
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Lighting designer and director Andrew Nissley is out with Lindsey Stirling, the American violinist, dancer, performance artist and composer, who’s a YouTube sensation with more than a billion total views. Stirling’s music is a combination of classical, pop, rock and dance. Her tour dates tend to be sell-outs and she continues to grow as an artist. The solo dates in the States wrap up this month, then she shares the stage with three more multi-artist U.S. gigs in December. Then she returns to the road for a European leg in 2017.
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Two Projects are Inspired by the 1984 Talking Heads Concert Film’s Looks
In 1984, The Talking Heads released a concert movie like no other, Stop Making Sense. The film, directed by Jonathan Demme in close collaboration with David Byrne, captured the band toward the end of their tour over three nights at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, CA. Widely considered one of the best concert films ever made, Demme used the live performances to really showcase the band’s music and their highly theatrical style.
The 16th Annual Parnelli Awards was on track to be its typical high-energy, funny, and emotional show … and then Tom Petty surprised the audience by taking the podium. He flew in himself and 11 members of the Heartbreaker family to give accolades to his long time tour manager, Richard Fernandez, who received the live events highest honor, the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award.
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