In honor of AJ Pen's webcast, AJ Pen On Composing “The Book” For My Chemical Romance here is a QA and the lighting plots for his work on Josh Groban's Harmony Tour.
A.J. Pen, president and principal designer at Penlight, discusses adapting his design for different venues and shares his lighting plots for each of them.
Josh Groban’s 2022 “Harmony” tour was designed for an amphitheatrer or “shed” tour of the US and Canada. The layout of the band and orchestra on stage as well as the flown lighting rig were all specified to fit within the 40’X60’ stage that one can expect on such a tour. On a day to day basis there might be a need to move a truss a few feet one way or the other or to tighten up the riser layout on a slightly smaller stage, but the overall tour design can be used for almost all of the venues booked.
There will always be venues on this “circuit” that pose certain challenges with which the experienced road professional is well acquainted. When the venue is different enough from the norm, a custom lighting, rigging, or stage plot might be called for. Three such venues were scheduled on Josh’s 2022 summer tour, and their bespoke documents appear here to illustrate their utility.
Blossom Music Center, Cleveland OH: Well known to the seasoned roadie, the mention of Blossom on a shed tour is often met with groans. It’s going to be a low-trim day with only two trucks loading at a time and a challenging backstage layout that quickly gets clogged with road cases and gear. The rigging grid is constrained to “slats” and “slots” which limits where points can go, but with an advance rigging plot the local riggers will prepare for your show and with a custom stage plot there is a plan to fit the production on their contracted stage.
Chastain Park Amphitheater, Atlanta GA: The stage is small. The proscenium is low. It’s one of the few venues in the world where rigging trim is actually higher upstage than downstage. It’s right in the middle of a residential neighborhood so there are strict rules about when the audio department is allowed to make noise to test the PA or soundcheck. Yet somehow Chastain keeps showing up on the summer shed tour itinerary! The notes on this custom stage plot indicate just how tight the stage dimensions are. Again, when you have a plan, the hard day becomes easy!
Red Rocks Amphitheater, Longmont CO: The overall tour design document would work for Red Rocks; aside from the well-known “staging” dock halfway down the hill where gear is unloaded and transferred to flatbed trucks before being delivered to the stage, the venue itself has plenty of room and a nice high (brand new) roof from which to rig. On Josh’s “Harmony” tour, however, he continued a tradition of inviting the entire Colorado Symphony Orchestra to accompany him in place of the smaller 16 piece local orchestra that is usually featured in his show. As this plot indicates, a much larger orchestra riser would be needed and the upstage lighting truss would have to move to be better positioned to cover the larger group of musicians.
