NEW YORK — In an evening that was at once somber, defiant and celebratory, less than 24 hours after the deadliest mass shooting in American history claimed 50 lives at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the hip hop musical, Hamilton, which had received a record 16 Tony Awards, dominated the winner’s circle with 11 wins, including LD Howell Binkley’s award for “Best Lighting Design from a Musical.”
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NASHVILLE – Cyndi Lauper’s career has spanned more than 30 years, and while she’s known as a pop pioneer, she’s recently made another bold move to country airwaves with her newest album, Detour. Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for the first leg of the Grammy, Tony and Emmy-award winning performer’s summer tour, which kicked off in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium. In addition to performing songs from her new album, Lauper also treats fans to her classic hits, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “True Colors,” while telling anecdotes of her adventures.
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CHICAGO — MayFest returned to Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood from May 20-22, 2016, with rock veterans 7th Heaven headlining the final night. Zach Scott designed the lighting for the band, which has opened for the likes of Bon Jovi and Kid Rock. Scott included Rogue R2 Beams from Chauvet Professional in the lighting looks at the event.
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RALEIGH, NC – Alpha Production Group, which recently took delivery of six Clay Paky Scenius moving head spotlights, quickly sent them out to support the looks for Lauryn Hill’s tour, now making several stops along the Pacific Northwest. In the Lauryn Hill rig the Scenius fixtures were mounted on downstage truss to serve as washes for the artist and her band. They are also used midstage on cases for more atmospheric sets. Alpha Production Group purchased 16 Clay Paky Sharpys from A.C.T Lighting about 18 months ago and has a pair of grandMA2 Light consoles, which A.C.T Lighting also represents in North America.
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MANCHESTER, TN – Synthpop trio Chvrches has been touring with a lighting design by Louis Oliver and James Scott of Okulus that includes Philips’ Showline SL Nitro 510C LED strobe fixtures to meet the band’s interest in having a strong video element but without using a conventional screen. The band performed recently at Bonnaroo 2016.
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LOS ANGELES – Green Hippo noted that Denis Hessberger has joined the company as a freelance product specialist. Hessberger has extensive experience in lighting and video, including both lighting consoles and media servers. He will work with current and potential users, focusing on the German market.
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Reflecting on his Parnelli award, Tom Marzullo, production designer for Justin Bieber’s Believe tour, tells PLSN, “To get that recognition, especially with the caliber of people on the list with me, people I have worked for and looked up to was surprising and very rewarding.” The caliber of people Marzullo works with is a key ingredient to his success in this business, as he often points out in this recent interview. PLSN revisited aspects of his 40-plus year career, which covers the spectrum of concert, corporate, sports and movie productions. Along the way, he just happened to create the largest site on Facebook for the live entertainment industry.
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Tori Kelly’s “Unbreakable” tour, in support of her June 2015 album release, Unbreakable Smile, trekked across the U.S. and Canada from April 5 to May 21. Designer Chris Kuroda was initially contacted by talent manager Scooter Braun and Allison Kaye, general manager of Scooter Braun Projects, to design the looks for the tour. Kuroda has a longstanding working relationship with Braun and Kaye, having worked for them on world tours for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. Allison is also a fan of Phish, a band that Kuroda has lit, as LD and lighting director, since 1989, and that design work played an influential role as well.
Historic TV Facility on Broadway Takes a Modern Lighting Approach
For this month’s Light Night Conversation, the third in PLSN’s series with a focus on late night television talk shows and how they are lit, we chatted with Michael Scricca, LD for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the show’s technical director, Jon Pretnar.
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Commercial wireless devices for DMX have been around for about 20 years now. They were used for theatrical plays where running a cable to a… Read More »Wireless DMX Devices
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The English electronic music group Disclosure, whose second album, Caracal, was nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at this year’s Grammy Awards, consists of brothers Guy Lawrence and Howard Lawrence. The show design, lighting and production for the Caracal 2016 tour is being done by Will Potts and Okulus (James Scott and Louis Oliver). Potts, who is also directing the tour on the road, programmed the show with Scott. After performing in Europe in February, the tour headed for a series of shows in the U.S. and Mexico from March through May. The Lawrence brothers will be performing in the U.K. and Europe again this summer.
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Projection and Video sere Integral to the Flexible and Kinetic Design of the Bad Boy Family Reunion Shows
Two nights that were 20 years in the making became part of Hip-Hop music history with Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Family Reunion concerts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
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