Epic Production Technologies will present the first annual Redden Awards for Excellence in Lighting Design, in memory of Craig Redden, on Saturday, November 21 at LDI2009.
The 2009 winners are:
Concert lighting: U2 360° Tour/Willie Williams, Alex Murphy, Ethan Weber
Theatre lighting: Herrick Goldman
Corporate/event lighting: Lightswitch (accepted by John Featherstone and Norm Schwab)
The newly created Redden Award for Excellence in Lighting Design was named in honor of the late Craig Redden who was a vice president at Epic at the time of his sudden passing in 2008. Redden began his career in 1978 when he stopped into a newly opened rental shop then called Westsun Media and formed an immediate friendship with company founder Marc Raymond who later invited Redden to join the company full-time. After years of prepping, touring, and teching every kind of event, Redden took on a well-earned senior management role at what had become Westsun International. In 2002, Redden joined Raymond in the newly formed Q1 Production Technologies as Vice President Rentals where he focused on US and International business development.
“Craig worked his way up through every aspect of the touring industry to become the best account rep in the business,” says Raymond. “He especially admired the great lighting designers he worked with and ultimately understood that the essence of a successful lighting company was its ability to make sure that each designer’s vision could be fully realized. We are so pleased that through our friends at Live Design and LDI we have this opportunity to show how much we appreciated Craig and how much he appreciated the art of lighting design.”
A special LDI Award for Video Design and Technology will be presented to Frederic Opsomer and Chuck Hoberman for their innovative work on the U2 360° Tour expanding video screen The LDI awards will be presented at 6:00pm, Saturday, November 21, at booth #945, Apex Stages, along with the Debuting Product Awards, Booth Awards, ESTA Awards, and the Green Awards sponsored by Showman Fabricators.