PRAGUE – Transcendence is built into the very essence of art, which, at its best, is never limited to a single time, place, or culture, but rather, serves as a beautiful fabric that weaves them all together into one beautiful, unifying tapestry. Pioneering Czech Art Nouveau painter-illustrator Alfons (Alphonse) Mucha certainly exemplified this quality. Moving […]
Stratford-upon-Avon – It is said that great art renews itself with each passing generation. By this measure (not to mention many others), Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is indeed a towering achievement. How else to explain the play’s enduring popular, not only in theatre, but also in film, television, and even musicals, which have often featured the […]
ORLANDO– Pushing their musical genre to new limits with their unique classical string arrangements that blend with ferocious guitar riffs and growling vocals, Imminence has been a magnet for metal fans. Small wonder, their recent 20-city tour sold out quickly. Fans who flocked to see the quintet from Trelleborg, Sweden weren’t disappointed, as the band […]
MONTREAL– As anyone who’s been involved in the profession knows, a lighting designer isn’t always asked to create more light. Sometimes the client’s request veers more toward darkness. Such was the case this December when Pierre E. Roy was called upon to light the acclaimed holiday show Parapapam at the elegant la Maison Symphonique. Roy […]
CORNWALL, ENGLAND – It is said that nature has a unique way of giving rise to hope and dreams. Appreciate the timeless beauty of a tree, or the inviting possibilities of a sunrise, and it is easy to believe that anything, regardless of how farfetched, is within reach. The founders of Eden Project surely felt […]
NEW YORK – It started when someone lit a few fireworks atop the New York Times newly opened building between 7th Avenue and Broadway to mark the passage from 1904 to 1905. A couple of years later, they decided to lower a 5-foot iron and wood sphere adorned with 100 25-watt light bulbs from the […]
LAS VEGAS – CHAUVET Professional built its LDI exhibit around the theme of “Reveling Our True Colors.” And true to form, evidence of the company’s color rendering prowess was everywhere in its immersive booth, which featured a design by Gigi Pedron. A pair of notable examples of this capability could be seen in exciting new […]
NEW YORK – “The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.” William Faulker said this when accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature. Playwright Max Wolf Friedlich explores two such hearts in the play “Job,” which recently made its Broadway debut at The Helen Hayes Theatre after a critically acclaimed […]
NEW YORK – Reality dangles precariously on the strings held by the puppeteer. Hidden behind the scenes, this master of illusion exerts an invisible hand to create a world of its own in a small space. It is a world familiar to Mickey Sabbath, an aging, manipulative and sex-obsessed puppeteer, who is the subject of […]
ANAHEIM – Size matters! Well… not always, especially when it comes to the art of design, where it’s not always the size of a rig, but the way in which it’s deployed that makes the biggest impression. Patrick Dierson provided vivid proof of that at this year’s iHeartRadio ALTer EGO concert. Although a procession of […]
MONTREAL – The 1960s saw many wild, wonderful and colorful transformations, but the modern moving light that would one day lead to the reimagination of stage design was not one of them. That creative breakthrough was still a decade away when “Hair,” the Tony-winning counter culture musical from James Rado and Gerome Ragni, made its […]
SINGAPORE – The world of imagination is indeed “boundless,” as the philosopher Rousseau observed. It is also a very happy place to be. Just ask the thousands of children of all ages, who are journeying into that world every day at Universal Studios’ Pantages Theatre in Singapore to see “Trolls: Hug Time Jubilee,” which debuted […]