Lighting Gets Tricky On Beyoncé's Formation Tour, Part One

Beyoncé has hit the road with The Formation World Tour, in support of her 2016 visual film/album, Lemonade. Live Design spoke to lighting designer Tim Routledge about his design for the show and his experience designing for one of 2016’s biggest tours.

Routledge says his name was put forward by production designer Es Devlin. “I got a call back in January asking if I was interested,” he says. “A couple of days later, I was on a plane from London to LA to meet the team and Beyoncé and got involved in her Super Bowl performance.” Before heading to LA to meet the Parkwood team, Routledge met with Devlin to look at initial design ideas. “I spent an afternoon with Es, looking at the set concepts and initial design decks,” says Routledge. “This is no simple undertaking lighting-wise. Unlike any other stadium touring show, there is no roof to hang from, no real structure, and with the monolith taking up the lion's share of the real estate, there is very little place to put any lights.”

Check out Es Devlin's production design and the building of the massive tour.

When asked about the direction for the show, Routledge says, “The overriding direction was that this was not a light show or a normal concert design. This was a pure art show with IMAG on the monolith forming the major part of the content. Camera was king. This show is all about balance of Beyoncé’s image on the screen. It's not always about the big lighting effects. We stripped back a lot.”

Credit: Parkwood

He continues to describe how much of the The Formation World Tour Beyoncé was in creative control of. “Sitting next to Beyoncé for a few weeks, each night was a revelation,” he states. “She is not only hugely talented onstage, which is a given, but she is also smart, collaborative, and has a real eye and knowledge of what she wants to see. There were certain nights where a lot was achieved as Beyoncé conducted what she wanted to see. This camera effect for this shot, or this toplight for this cue, etcetera. We had a huge team of creatives, all from different disciplines and huge levels of experience, but when push came to shove, the boss gave the direction, and we facilitated. Fascinatingly enough, I would say she was pretty spot on every time. She knew what she wanted to see.”

Check out StageCo's build of the tour and their technical drawings.

The main element of The Formation World Tour set design is the rotating monolith. Capable of both rotating and opening, the monolith is the central structure of the stage. “Whilst the stage is large, the monolith takes up a vast proportion of it, especially when you need clearance for its 140-ton movements, both rotationally and opening,” Routledge explains. Once space for entrances and exits is allowed, there is literally no floor space remaining. This, coupled with the Beyhives (audience pit areas immediately flanking the mainstage), caused quite a limitation on what lighting positions were available. “Available for a floor package was a slice down the side of the stage, but optimal positions were not available due to the Beyhives,” says the LD. “This meant only three downstage lights for cross light, and that was a bit of a battle to get them there!”

Credit: Parkwood

Routledge emphasizes that the position and movement of the monolith for each song changed while the show was work-shopped and that, with each change came big changes to programming. “Understanding the rig is complex. Which song is on which face of the monolith? Is it open or closed or spinning? Does it spin during the number, thus blocking your look as it goes?” he explains. “As the show took shape and numbers came in or moved, each time a position of the monolith was changed, its impact to our programming was huge. It takes a long time to spin the thing, so spinning it 180° to get back to where we wanted it was often not feasible.”

Watch the opening performance of the tour and check out photos.

He continues on to say that space inside the monolith is at as much a premium as outside. “With various flying gags, the apertures, such as the pole dance gag and all the machinery to drive it, as well as the video drive racks, space is at a premium. The four Kinesys trusses just about fit. We also added three vertical runs of movers on soft ladders to cross light any action in there. Many options of performance inside the monolith were work-shopped, but sightlines for the majority of the audience to see inside are just not great enough to justify too much happening inside, and the strength of a solid, bold monolith became more and more striking.”

Stay tuned for Part Two.

Steven Battaglia has worked in theatre production and operations for more than 12 years. He has been the operations manager at Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York for the last six years and also works as a production manager and lighting designer in his spare time.

Stay tuned for more coverage in our Project In Focus, sponsored by SGM.