Skip to content

Articles

LD Gabe Hodge and ZZ Top

LD Gabe Hodge and ZZ Top

Tour: ZZ Top tour of North America, U.K. and Europe (May 30-Oct. 4, 2015)

Design Process: “ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons pays attention to all the production: I-Mag, video, lighting, sound. That’s awesome; it takes some of the guesswork out of it.”

Read More »
Nook Schoenfeld

Shining in the Rain

It’s summertime in Mississippi. And to steal a quote, “it’s Africa hot.” So hot that rain is welcomed at this festival gig I’m lighting tonight. Except that my front lighting truss is exposed to the elements, and the rear truss is rigged off of the upstage roof edge, ensuring it will catch every drop of water that hits that canvas.

Read More »
The set features Buddhist simplicity rather then royal opulance. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Michael Yeargan, Scenic Designer for ‘The King and I’

When he designed the set for last year’s The Bridges Of Madison County, Tony Award winner Michael Yeargan fashioned a bridge out of pieces rolled on stage. With the current Tony Award-winning production of The King and I at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, he has assembled four pairs of moving pillars to help create different room configurations for the King of Siam’s palace. The production co-stars Tony winner Kelli O’Hara as the English schoolteacher brought to teach the children of the proud King of Siam, and Ken Watanabe as the King, who learns life lessons from the schoolteacher as well.

Read More »
Luke Bryan 2015 tour photo by David Venus

Luke Bryan’s 2015 ‘Kick the Dust Up’ Tour

Country star Luke Bryan’s meteoric rise to the top has solidified his tour as one of the must-see shows of the summer. The singer has been selling out every show this year from arenas to sheds, special club gigs to humongous stadiums as evidenced by this weekend’s sold out gig at Nashville’s Vanderbilt stadium. Production designers Justin Kitchenman (touring LD) and Pete Healey (touring production manager) co-designed a large-scale system that can fit into any type venue. Through reconfigurations of where to rig the truss and video elements, these transitions between different sized venues are seamless, due to the design team doing their homework ahead of the tour.

Read More »
Train 2015 Picasso at the Wheel Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Train’s ‘Picasso at the Wheel’ Tour

At the age of 11 Brock Hogan attended his first concert, Def Leppard’s Hysteria tour. Ever since that moment, he knew he wanted to be involved in lighting. He began in the industry as a stagehand for a local production company in Boise ID. After several years of working every gig he possibly could and always asking questions, Hogan worked his way up from a pusher to lead rigger. In 2001 he began working at a local venue called The Big Easy Concert House (now The Knitting Factory). Within a year, he convinced them to let him learn lighting.

Read More »