Loading up a truck. Even though this is a crucial skill that, when properly executed, can save a production rental company lots of time, money and headaches, it’s a skill that isn’t often taught, and even less-frequently learned.
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Kid Rock turned 40 this year, and he had a small party. Just hundreds of thousands of his closest friends. Also, it went a little long. Eight months.
Part of the party was set/lighting designer and programmer Richard “Nook” Schoenfeld, who has been lighting up Rock since 2000. And there was a lot to light, too. Rock brought out a 10-person band plus four dancing girls. Kicking off in Detroit, Rock’s hometown, the high-energy flame-ignited spectacle dazzled more than 50,000 at Ford’s Field on July 17. He took the party across America through to September.
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Mark Payne, lighting designer, director and programmer for Rod Stewart, credits the late Ian Knight, who died in March 2010, for the general concept and set design for the 2011 Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks Heart & Soul tour.
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Ed Wannebo stops in mid sentence. He’s halfway through a long interview, and he’s up to working for Hall & Oates. He’s already spoken of his work with Van Halen, Tina Turner, David Bowie, ZZ Top, and Stevie Nicks, among others. He’s not yet gotten to Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, or Kenny Chesney.
Read More »With storm-related collapses of outdoor stage structures in the news this year, there have been extensive discussions on topics ranging from wind loads on truss structures to foul weather evacuation protocols. Here, we take a closer look at one of the many critical inter-related factors that all add up to truss collapse prevention and stage safety: The problem of unpredictable load distribution and the importance of load monitoring.
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Autobiography, corporate history, theatre history, memoir—the new book, A Theatre Project, by Richard Pilbrow, is as hard to classify as Pilbrow himself. Best known as a lighting designer, Pilbrow has also served as a ground-breaking theatre consultant. He’s also produced theatre, film and TV and was a projection designer before there was even a recognized craft as such.
Read More »I don’t know why you got started designing lights, but for me, it was color. Specifically, how color acts as a direct visual manifestation of my feeling about a piece. I’m sure there are people who get into creative pursuits for other reasons, but for me, I can not imagine doing so without it being driven by a desire to create and participate in a work of performative art. It was music that did it first, followed in short order by dance. And that is how every project begins for me — with some initial creative impulse. Everything else derives from there.
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Company History an Inspiring Tale of Perseverance
Spotting something on eBay triggered Eric Von Fange to think back to his earliest days as lighting director and the latest in LED technology simultaneously. He had been in the business professionally since the tender age of 17, so he’s hoisted more than a few Fresnels in his day. And as the owner of a lighting clamp and accessory company for over a quarter of a century, he’s been able to keep up with all innovations.
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The BCEC Gets a Dramatic Visual Update, Inside and Out
When the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) was first designed in the 1990s, the design called for exterior features that would change the Boston skyline and interior displays that would impress attendees not just with aesthetics but with practical — and revenue-generating — communications capabilities. Read More »
