HITCHIN, U.K. – Brilliant Stages noted that it had been actively involved in the production of three of the top five tours tallied by Pollstar for 2010: AC/DC (#2), U2 (#3) and Lady Gaga (#4). The company provided a summary of its activities in support of each tour.
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When Prince comes 2 town, it's always a big production. Lighting designer Demfis Fyssicopulos was tasked with keeping it that way for Prince's current Welcome 2 America tour. The show is presented in the round on a stage in the shape of Prince's unpronounceable symbol – the same shape used for Prince's 2007 Super Bowl halftime show performance. High above the stage is a lighting rig in the shape of a hexagon with six spokes radiating from the center. At the end of each spoke is a pod that is hidden by six large video displays. Four of the six pods also house followspots.
Read More »What can one say about a man like David Taylor, who was so gifted and talented, so full of humor and kindness, and so giving of himself to the industry and to his loving family, when his life is taken in a tragic accident? David was a lighting consultant, most recently with Arup as the leader of their Theatre Consulting division and with Theatre Projects before that. He died on January 16 at the young age of 48 when he accidentally fell from the roof of a 14-story building in Taipei.
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The Judds have had a 26-year career, recording and touring both as an ensemble and individually. However, they last toured together for their Power To Change tour in 2000, and in the intervening decade, touring technology has changed significantly. For instance, witnessing the introduction of DMX-controlled media servers that turned LED from panel indicator lights into a display format and light source, and the evolution of video from simple image magnification to a creative graphics display platform.
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The recent revival of David Mamet's A Life In The Theatre stands out for many reasons. It was one of the edgy playwright's earliest works, one that is more sentimental and relatively epithet-free. It is an intimate show that would work well in a small repertory house, yet stars Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight, who imbued it with a larger-than-life quality that allowed it to thrive in a larger Broadway house. And its hilarious exposé of backstage life – specifically an older actor mentoring and berating a younger compatriot in a low-budget regional theatre – gave Tony Award-winning scenic designer Santo Loquasto the opportunity to apply his magic and make things look far simpler than they were.
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Edmond Deraedt has been a fan of Richard Thompson since he first heard his band, Fairport Convention, in 1991. "I have always considered him a musical genius," Deraedt says. He had the opportunity to light some of Thompson's solo acoustic concerts around the New York area and in California. In 2006, Thompson came to the Inter-Media Art Center in Long Island where Deraedt worked as the lighting director.
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Jerry Krulewicz has wired the last four decades of the live event industry. From his days as a teen working with big bands to Broadway, through Saturday Night Live to a political summit at the threshold of Soviet Union's fall to the Olympics and houses of worship, he's stared down every technical challenge with one simple approach: There must be a better way.
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Back in those halcyon days of childhood, mom n' dad packed us all in the station wagon and took us to the drive-in every few months. I'm sure many of you have similar memories of those long aisles of cars, the squawk box on the window, pajamas and blankets and a wonderful family film on a summer night. Over the years (and ever so slowly), the drive-ins disappeared – typically replaced by shopping centers and housing developments. Yet here and there, a few steadfast hold-outs remained.
Read More »Music concert touring hit a speed bump in 2010 and production equipment and service vendors can expect a knot on the head as a result. According to Pollstar's end-of-year report, concert touring ticket revenues for the 50 biggest grossing tours globally fell 12 percent, to $2.93 billion, from $3.34 billion in 2009.
Read More »Automated lighting programmers are responsible for more than just mastering their console of choice. A programmer must also understand the capabilities and functions of the fixtures under their command. Quite often, an LD will specify a fixture type without knowing all the capabilities, or a lighting company may substitute one fixture type for another. In addition, fixtures contain various modes that can greatly affect the abilities of the fixture. Automated lighting programmers need to be aware of the fixtures they are programming and educate themselves about the details of each unit.
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At the beginning of the year, Stacy Johnson wrote a piece for Money Talks News entitled "Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know." Among the items he listed on the endangered list were videotape, travel agents, books, magazines, newspapers, movie rental stores, watches, paper maps, wired phones, long distance, newspaper classifieds (my 14-year-old daughter read this and asked me what one was), dial-up Internet, encyclopedias, CDs, film camera, catalogs, fax machines and wires.
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Every year, I find myself at some stadium lighting something. If it's not a rock show, it's often the halftime entertainment or pre-game ceremonies of some sporting event. The gigs vary drastically, but the one thing that they all have in common is that it is broadcast on live TV, and you only get one shot to do it right. Plus, it's inevitable that I'm gonna end up gigging with some folks I haven't seen in a long time.
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