Lighting designer Seth Jackson worked diligently with Manilow to create an elegant and polished environment for the intimacy of a Broadway house. While some lighting designers could be daunted by the compact environment, Jackson adapted his design to fit the traditional venue with legs, borders and proscenium.
"Cues can have more subtly and precision, colour choices can read much clearer, and the kind of looks and focus choices you make are much more contained," said Jackson of the smaller space. "We did our best in the process to forego the 'usuals' of the concert look and paint with a much finer brush."
That finer brush yielded what Jackson refers to as stylized one-man show, rather than a concert. The trusses are covered, and everything is masked. A video screen sits against black and all of the content has masks around it, giving the appearance the imagery is floating in the air.
"We never once let you see the edges of the video screen," Jackson explained, "and we decided to use no live cameras. This is storytelling, not larger than life stardom."
With the exception of a front of house positions with Source 4s and scrollers, the rig is completely automated and made up of a combination of VL 2500s, Martin MAC Vipers and Martin MAC Auras.
Jackson attributes his success to the show to the team he had surrounding him, including his associate designers Brent Sandrock and Nathan W. Scheuer.
"They each bring so much to the table and help add such creativity and originality to everything we work on that I don't care to ever do a show alone," Jackson said. "Having this team surrounding me just pushes me farther creatively. Additionally, both of them bring so much expertise in terms of programming, networking, video content, you name it. We were also able to have our assistant, Jack Rushen, along for the entire process which was a huge help in keeping us organized."
(Jim Evans)
