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The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess: Reinventing Catfish Row

Porgy and Bess photo by Michael J. Lutch

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess: Reinventing Catfish Row

It’s very rare when an off-Broadway production arouses international controversy and sets the stage for a highly anticipated Broadway run, but in the case of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, that is exactly what happened. Composing legend Stephen Sondheim wrote a letter to The New York Times that was like the musical “shot heard ‘round the world,” condemning the Boston-based production by director Diane Paulus at the ART last fall before he had even seen it. While that is negative attention, that’s still a lot of free publicity, and people’s ears perked up. Sondheim’s issue was with the fact that the show, being transferred from operatic to musical theater form, was going to include some modern revisions that were actually approved by the Gershwin estate.

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Super Bowl Halftime Show photo by Brad Duns

Hail Madonna: The Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show

This year’s well-received Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show featuring Madonna was a great success, both artistically and technically. Once again the team led by executive producer Ricky Kirshner of RK Productions, director Hamish Hamilton, production designer Bruce Rodgers and lighting designer Al Gurdon presented us with a dynamic and innovative production that appeared effortless, which we all know means it took a tremendous amount of effort and hard work to bring together.

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ETC Gio Console

ETC Gio Console

Lighting control is an evolving proposition. As our demands for control and functions increase, so must the flexibility in our control solutions. If you have spent any time in the lighting industry, you know the acronym, ETC. Electronic Theatre Controls has been one of the top lighting control manufacturers for the past 30 years. Throughout the company’s existence, they have released control products aimed at controlling lights that users required and requested.

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City Theatrical SHoW DMX SHoW Baby

City Theatrical’s SHoW DMX SHoW Baby

City Theatrical, the industry’s go-to company for innovative accessories, has also been working for more than a decade to develop its WDS and SHoW DMX wireless technologies. Last year, the company introduced SHoW DMX Neo, and the new SHoW DMX SHoW Baby is built on the same wireless technology.

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Chauvet Legend 412

Chauvet Legend 412

Recently, I worked with Chauvet’s latest contribution to the world of small LED moving heads, the Legend 412. It is a 10-pound fixture that could easily fit inside a one-foot cube. But to me, the most exciting feature is the price tag. They are selling one heck of a moving light for $949. That is not a typo.

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Load cells have been used at Olympiapark Munich...

Load Monitoring Usage is On the Rise

Rigging for  live entertainment production has become more complex. Along with the growth in the sheer weight of all the lighting, sound and video gear now suspended over performers and the audience, other rigging complexities range from flying human performers to moving truss.

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Foo Fighters tour photo by Steve Jennings

Foo Fighters “Wasting Light Tour”

Foo Fighters may have been touring in support of an album produced in a garage using nothing but analog recording gear (which didn’t prevent Wasting Light from garnering four Grammy nominations and the award for best Rock album). But if the retro techno approach underscored the value of the human element in creating music, the visual design team wasn’t limited to PAR cans. Along with the latest lighting and video technology, the designers teamed up with the seasoned professionals from supporting companies including Epic Production Technologies, Show Group Production Services (SGPS), Chaos Visual Productions and Control Freak Systems.

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Cherry Hills Community Church, Highlands Ranch, CO

Cherry Hills Community Church’s Rock Concert Lighting

For the faithful, balancing secularism with spirituality is the source of constant confusion and soul-searching. It’s a dilemma that’s existed for millennia and even pops up in the Bible, prompting a certain teacher to impart the cryptic wisdom, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” The Cherry Hills Community Church, affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and located in Highlands Ranch, CO, may have just discovered the secret.

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Dr. Oz

MB Productions Helps Health Summit with Dr. Oz

NEW YORK – MB Productions, in association with USANA Health Services,  provided the lighting, video and audio package for the Health and Happiness Summit with Dr. Oz on Feb. 25 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Working in collaboration with LD Brendan Grey, the plot featured moving lights including 21 VARI-LITE 3500 Wash and seven VARI-LITE 3500 Spots, controlled with a pair of Wholehog consoles.

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Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was

Bullet Proof… I Wish I Was

Christopher Scoates’ New Book on Radiohead LD Andi Watson

I have always been an avid fan of the lighting, video, and stage designs of Andi Watson, and I’ve been lucky enough to have spoken with him on a few occasions about his work and the cutting-edge new products that he often uses in his designs. To me, he belongs on any list of the groundbreaking concert designers working today, and when I saw that there was a book about his work coming out, I had to get a copy of it.

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Vickie Claiborne used the DMX merge capabilities of a PRG Series 400 power and data distribution system to extend a video clip’s reach from LED panels to the lighting fixtures used for a recent show.

Merging DMX

Recently, I took on the task of incorporating DMX merging into my lighting control system. “Why?” you may be asking.  Aside from that question (I asked myself this too, along the way), I also thought of a few other questions that programmers and LDs might ask themselves about merging DMX. For example, “What does DMX merge mean?” “How do you combine two sources of control into one stream?” “Do you get something usable?” “What gear is necessary to set up a system for merging multiple sources of DMX?”

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