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Masters of Light: A Conversation with Don Holder and Ken Billington

Don Holder and Ken Billington

Masters of Light: A Conversation with Don Holder and Ken Billington

Like many other disciplines in the theater, lighting design has undergone a big shift in recent years as technological innovations have increased and as the demand for more eye-popping shows has grown. At times it feels like Broadway has gone Hollywood, but seasoned LDs know how to strike the right balance between the artistic and the technical. Not every big show has to be over-the-top to be effective; it all comes down to what the show and its story require. Both Don Holder and Ken Billington have tackled their share of smaller productions, big extravaganzas and other projects. Their latest credits include Annie and Chaplin: The Musical, respectively. Their combined experience came to the fore when they sat down with PLSN in Billington’s office to discuss their craft, their careers and their philosophies.

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Madonna MDNA tour photo by Steve Jennings

Design Gone Wild: Madonna’s MDNA Tour

By the end of “Girl Gone Wild,” the first song in Madonna’s MDNA tour, you know that this will be a concert experience unlike any before. More operatic in design style than pop concert, the creative team has married technology, music, and choreography with the precision and glamour that exemplifies the star herself. The MDNA tour opened in Israel in June and is currently touring North America.

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Gallagher Staging’s projection platforms were used for a Red Hot Chili Peppers show at the San Francisco Civic Center.

Gallagher Staging

Joe Gallagher’s name and reputation is so tied to live event staging that it seems like his own company started years ago. But while Gallagher Staging and Productions, Inc. is barely a year old, the Gallagher name is a 30-plus year institution.

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Jennifer Lopez tour photo by Steve Jennings

Two Artists, One Stage: Sean Burke and Travis Shirley Light Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias

The 2012 Enrique Iglesias & Jennifer Lopez tour combined two distinct shows into one evening, with each artist performing 13 songs. J-Lo was up first, with looks ranging from vintage Hollywood, complete with male dancers, top hats and canes, to a boxing motif reflecting tough urban roots. Following an intermission, Iglesias stripped away most of the theatrical flourishes and offered up the raw energy of a traditional rock concert.

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Squarepusher's LED helmet

Squarepusher Pushes Creativity with digiFLEX LED Helmet

LONDON – Electronic musician Squarepusher uses just a single tile of displayLED’s flexible LED product digiFLEX to create a futuristic display on a helmet. The helmet uses the musician’s own software to convert sound to graphics, which appear on the visor during the performance and tie in with imagery on the larger screens of the show’s backdrop. Squarepusher has been on tour with the LED helmet throughout the US, Europe and Brazil.

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Charlie Hernandez

Charlie Hernandez, Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Honoree

Somebody had to do it. Who else but Charlie Hernandez?

A menacing rainstorm in Rio de Janeiro flooded the Formula 1 racing field where the next insane episode of the Guns N’ Roses tour of South America was going down. A delay in getting Guns N’ Roses on stage was nothing new, though this time the weather was not helping. Unwisely, the local promoter let the crowd onto the field during load in. Hernandez and associate Lori Tierney were above in the announcer tower, surveying the mayhem. “Charlie and I were looking out on this seething crowd when [Dale] “Opie” [Skjerseth] comes in and announces that we still needed to run the snake from the stage to FOH. I looked down at that riot, and I said, ‘are you kidding me?’”

Then a wide-eyed grinning Hernandez chirped: “I’ll do it!”

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