Submissions open for KOI-USA
- Details
The event, which is the USA edition of the UK's respected Knight of Illumination Awards, first took place in 2018 to celebrate the talents and work of lighting and video designers across the sectors of Live for Broadcast, Theatre and Concert Touring & Events in the United States.
This year's competition features two new categories – Opera and Corporate Events – and the award ceremony and gala dinner is taking place in Las Vegas on 22 November (Friday) alongside the LDI trade show.
The categories are:
Theatre:
Plays - large venue
Plays - small venue
Opera
Musicals - large venue
Musicals - small venue
Live for Broadcast:
Awards Shows
Digital Content
Unscripted Series
Live Performance Special - Music
Live Performance Special - Non Music
Concert Touring & Events:
Club Tour Lighting
Concert Video Content
Stage Tour Lighting
Arena Tour Lighting
Festival/One-Off Lighting
Corporate Events
Corporate Events - Video Content
Deadline for submissions is 31 July. Productions must have been performed or broadcast between 1 August 2018 and 31 July 2019 to be eligible for inclusion – find out more about entering the competition here.
Judges
Three judges are joining this year's Theatre panel. These are Nancy Wozny (editor in chief, Arts & Culture Texas), Norma Porter (editor, Black Dance Magazine) and Paul Horsley (journalist, Dance Magazine, Musical America, The New York Times). Lauren Warnecke, dance critic for the Chicago Tribune, will chair the panel, whilst former chair Clifton Taylor returns to judging duty alongside Celia Ipiotis and Chris Jones.
In Concert, Touring & Events, John Featherstone remains chair, with Marian Sandberg, Barry Lather, Yelena Filipchuk and Angie Warner completing the judging panel.
LD Jeff Ravitz also stays chair of the Live for Broadcast panel, which this year will feature eight-time Emmy Award-winning lighting director and production designer Tara Denise; TV Academy's Hall of Fame inductee Bill Klages; lighting director and programmer Tiffany Spicer Keys; TV director Lauren Quinn; and cinematographer and professor at Cal State Long Beach, David Waldman.
KOI co-founders Durham and Jennie Marenghi say in a statement: "It is wonderful to see KOI-USA return for the second year after such a successful inaugural ceremony during LDI last year. We are very gratified to see lighting design and creative video and projection skills recognised across the pond!"
"We were thrilled and a little overwhelmed at the positive feedback to the inaugural KOI USA Awards," adds LDI MD David Johnson. "We seem to have tapped into a real desire in the US market to exclusively honor live design work in multiple disciplines as a way to bring some many of the industry's immensely talented artisans under one roof. We are excited to expand upon that first year with additional categories and some other special surprises to be announced soon."
(Jim Evans)
