This week marked the 15th anniversary of the Broadway Lighting Master Classes, led by creative consultant Jules Fisher. The event ran Monday through Wednesday and included a performance of 9 to 5, The Musical on Tuesday evening, as well as three days of sessions with top lighting designers, showcases, and technology demos with sponsoring manufacturers, and an awards luncheon reception Monday afternoon.
Monday kicked off with Jules Fisher’s opening address, An Approach To Stage Lighting, Part 1 (Part 2 of which followed later that morning), followed by sessions on Paper-Aided Bean Spreads by Scott Parker and Beverly Emmons’ must-see presentation, On Color.
Monday’s luncheon honored the Live Design Lighting and Projection Products of the Year, as well as the Live Design Second Annual Excellence Awards.
Honored in the lighting category were:
Control: MA Lighting grandMA 2
Luminaire: PRG Bad Boy
Show Control: Stage Technologies F:light
Widget/Software: Wybron Gel Swatch Library for iPhone
Honored in the projection category were:
Software: MAX/MSP/Jitter 5
Video Screen: LSI Industries V-Lite
Projector: Panasonic PT-D12000U Series
Media Server: Resolume Avenue 3
Excellence Awards honorees were:
Concert: The Tina Turner Live In Concert Tour
Corporate Event: VM World’s Streets Of San Francisco Event
Venue (club or lounge): Heat Ultra Lounge
Theatre Production: Screen Test
Tuesday saw more sessions from more award-winning Broadway lighting designers, including Peggy Eisenhauer (Musical Cueing: Sculpting, Time, and Rhythm), Don Holder (Insight from Lighting a Cyclorama), Brian MacDevitt (Visual Aids: Paintings and Photography For Inspiration and Communication In The Theatre), and Kevin Adams (The Fine Arts Influence on a Lighting Designer), followed by the show in the evening, complete with a post-show Q+A in the theatre.
Peggy Eisenhauer spoke again on Wednesday, this time on Emoting and Motion: Communicating With Movement, after which Ken Posner, lighting; Peter Nigrini, imaging design; and Jules Fisher, lighting presented a case study on 9 to 5. The afternoon wrapped up the lighting classes with Howell Binkley (Finding Your Path As A Lighting Designer), and a presentation from projection designer Wendall K. Harrington, Keeping Your Focus In The New Digital Age.
Thursday was dedicated to a day of Broadway Projection Master Classes, with Zachary Borovay acting as creative consultant. Sessions included a panel led by Elaine McCarthy with her projection team from Impressionism; a panel on picking the proper gear moderated by Loren Barton of TMB and including Adam Dunaway, Jake Pinholster, René Berhorst, Zachary Borovay, and McCarthy; a case study on Rock of Ages, also seen by the classes Thursday evening; and a panel moderated by Borovay about the future of technology. Technology presentations from A.C.T Lighting/MA Lighting, Enttec, and TMB allowed attendees to also get some hands on the gear.
Platinum sponsors of the Broadway Master Classes are:
Electronic Theatre Controls
Meyer Sound
Corporate sponsors to the Broadway Master Classes include:
A.C.T Lighting
Altman
Apollo Design Technology
City Theatrical
Clear-Com
d&b audiotechnik
Digico
Enttec
Group One
HME
Lectrosonics
Lee Filters
Lycian
Martin
PRG
RF Pro
Rosco
Robert Juliat
SeaChanger
Selador
Sennheiser
Shure
Sound Associates
Stage Research
Strand
Strong Entertainment Lighting
TMB
Vari-Lite
Nemetschek by Vectorworks
Mentoring sponsors to the Broadway Master Classes include:
Masque Sound
Theatre Projects
Yamaha Pro Audio
Mentors to the Broadway Master Classes include:
Acme Sound Partners
Kevin Adams
Barbizon
Howell Binkley
d&b audiotechnik
Jonathan Deans
ETC
Jules Fisher
Fisher Marantz Stone
Wendall Harrington
Don Holder
Abe Jacob
Lex Products
Meyer Sound
Number Nine/Brendan Gray
Philips Color Kinetics
PRG
Strong
TC Electronics
Wally Russell Foundation
Wybron