LAS VEGAS – Ignacio Rosenberg knew what he was getting when he walked into the BleauLive Theater at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas: a modern venue with state of the art entertainment technology. So, not surprisingly, the widely acclaimed designer from Lightswitch stuck with some fixtures from the house rig in his lightshow for four-time Grammy winner Marc Anthony’s first-ever Las Vegas residency.
“This is an excellent venue and from the very beginning my idea was to maximize the existing inventory in the house for the residency,” said Rosenberg. “It seemed like a misuse of finances to take the theater’s properly appointed rig and empty it to put in a different properly appointed rig! We also had to load our first show in on the day it was scheduled to run, so making that transition as easy as possible was essential.”
Key to Rosenburg’s plans were the house rig’s 20 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobes, which aided him in creating sizzling eye-candy during his client’s 90-minute show, featuring songs in Spanish and English with equal verve. The bold looks from these fixtures are one of the visual signatures of the residency, which included five dates in February and will have six more in July and August.
Rosenberg kept the Color STRIKE M fixtures in the same position they occupied in the house rig. “They looked great where they were,” he said. “Their trusses are raked in a way that actually left just enough space for us to trim out automated units in between and have them all be visible, which was a very happy coincidence when we walked in the theater. With that in place I didn’t find that we had to move the Strike Ms at all to have them have the impact we wanted.
“We did a lot of work in previz, and actually in rehearsals we ran both previz with the house system and our replica “real life” rig to make sure that when we went in we were as dialed in as possible,” continued Rosenberg. “This way, we knew from the get-go that they were going to do what we wanted.”
Changing looks during the residency show, which is called “Vegas My Way!” Rosenberg endowed the production with a captivating vitality. He revealed his rig gradually, both in terms of size as well as scope.
For example, some of the moving trusses appear briefly in three songs, while others don’t come in until the second act. Rosenberg brought out his entire rig for the song “My Way,” then did so again for Vivir Mi Vida, which ends with a jam session from a truly remarkable band, and a symphony of light with the Color STRIKE Ms playing their vivacious part.
