To reflect on the creative, innovative moments of 2020 and to welcome the hope that the New Year brings, Live Design is conducting 31 Days Of Plots. Every day during the month of December 2020, we will highlight a different lighting design, from across theatre, concert tours, corporate events, and more.
Marc Janowitz of E26 Design shares the plots for his lighting design of Trey Anastasio's Beacon Jams, an eight-week virtual residency streamed from Beacon Theatre every Friday from October 9 through November 27, 2020.
"Throughout the design and creation process we would constantly ask ourselves, “What can we do to create an intimate, honest, and unique experience for the performers and the viewing audience? What opportunities do we have in this model of presentation that we could never have if we were creating a live concert?” It was important for us to capture the essence and energy of live music, the interaction and collaboration of the artists and deliver a compelling and beautiful experience without falling into the paradigm of creating a “concert” as we know it," says Janowitz. "When we settled on the decision to turn the room around and shoot in reverse we embraced rather than avoided that there was no live audience in the building, utilizing the seating areas and building architecture as an infinite expanse of space to place lighting fixtures. It never felt like an empty room, but instead functioned as a reflection of sorts for the viewers at home. Fashioning the stage into a TV studio, crammed with cameras, dolly’s a jib, light stands, operators and rigging drove home the intention that the Beacon Jams series was created exclusively for the viewers at home."
Trey’s musical repertoire consists of over 500 songs: "He wasn’t sure at the start of the project and even week-to-week what the instrumentation would be—who would be onstage with him and what version of his various bands and collaborations to start from. Some songs are acoustic solo songs, others are barn burning electric rockers, some are psychedelic jam journeys, many just don’t have a genre to describe them," Janowitz continues. "And Trey was on a journey to re-visit and re-define the way in which he had performed much of the material in the past. The lighting needed to create a visual scape to support all of this in its many variations and look great on as many as 10 cameras at the same time. We had limited programming time, mostly creating and adapting our cueing while simultaneously rehearsing music and cameras in the space. Even at the time of broadcast, every Friday at 8pm, the setlist was still rather 'fluid' to say the least…"
Gear List
Vendors
- Pulse Lighting – Paul Hoffman, Andrew Smith
- WorldSstage NJ – Terry Jackson, Susanna Harris-Rea
Fixtures
- 16 Robe Mega Pointe
- 12 Robe T1 Spot
- 36 Robe Spikie
- 12 Robe BMFL Spot
- 30 Aryton Mistral S
- 22 GLP X4S
- 24 Robe Tetra2
- 90 Robe one-PATT
- 24 Chauvet Strike P38
- 8 Chauvet Strike 1
- 24 Chauvet MK3 Profile
- 24 ARRI SkyPanel S60C
- 6 ARRI 650 Fresnel
- 7 Astera Titan Tube
- 27 Martin Aura
- 24 ETC Source 4 Four
Control & Distro
- 2 High End Systems Hog FULLBOAR4
LD/production designer Marc Janowitz is part of “What Calls You Home,” a short documentary on the making of the Beacon Theatre’s first-ever virtual residency, #TheBeaconJams, with Trey Anastasio. Featuring exclusive performance highlights and in-depth interviews with Trey and key members of the production who helped bring The Beacon Jams to life.
Check out other plots from the 31 Days here, and stay tuned for more tomorrow.