CREATING PERFECT ILLUSIONS
Equipment list for the North American leg of the Joanne World Tour .
3 x MA Lighting grandMA2 Consoles
294 x GLP JDC1 Strobes 147 x GLP X4 20 Bars 38 x GLP GT-1s 45 x Robe BMFL WashBeams 188 x Robe Pointes 90 x Robe Spikies 8 x Robe ColorStrobes 2 x Robe Cyclones 13 x PRG GroundControl Followspot Systems
4 x MDG The One Hazers 10 x Martin JEM ZR45 Fog Machines
22 x Barco UDX-4K32 Laser Projectors SACO C-Thru 28 mm Rear LED Wall SACO S12 Video Panels ( for front of stage elevators ) Custom Laser Piano w / 44 3 W Laser Modules
PERSONNEL & VENDORS
Personnel
Production & Lighting Designer : LeRoy Bennett Lighting Director & Programmer : Harry Forster Lighting Programmer : Jason Baeri Lighting Crew Chief : Eric Belanger Lighting Techs : Athan Antoniadis , Matt LeVine , Doug Eldredge , Gabriel
Foucault-Lemieux , Brian Monohan , Shawn Theriault Video Director : Robert McShane Video Programmer : Loren Barton Video Crew Chief : John Moore Server Programmer : Benjamin Keightley Video Techs : Iain Donham , Erik Phillips , Zane Moore , Andreanne Lafrance ,
Barrie Roney , Maxwell Gabriel , Pascale Boilaeu Automation Techs : Rob Hagedorn , Shane Bandy , Justin Lambka Production Manager : Robert “ Hydro ” Mullin Tour Manager : Ky Cabot Road Manager : Alicia Geist Assistant Tour Manager : Tori Cabot Technical Director : Chris Vineyard Production Assistant : Christine Mullin Stage Manager : Steve Roman Laser Techs : Dan Norman , JB Culp Pyro Techs : Michael “ Lucky ” Scheirer , Courtney Jennings Riggers : William Williams , Shawn Gibson , Daniel Porter
Vendors
Lighting & Video : Solotech ( Dean Roney & Adam Dragosin ) Staging & Automation : Tait Towers ( Brian Levine ) Content / Creation : Lobster Eye , Madison & Vine Lasers : Image Engineering ( David Carrodine ) Pyro : Pyro Engineering Trucking : Truck & Roll the original design of that tour had won rave reviews , Gaga felt that she had rushed through the process of getting it up and running without putting as much thought into the concept and design , so she took the radical step of scrapping the original production just over a month into the tour and starting fresh with an almost entirely new creative team . Bennett has designed every tour for her since , save for the 2012-13 Born This Way Ball , as well as many oneoff events like the aforementioned powerhouse performance at Super Bowl LI .
The starting point in Bennett ’ s design for the Joanne World Tour was the idea of a journey – Gaga ’ s personal journey as an artist and a journey for the audience into different worlds . “ We started putting ideas together last November in the midst of also prepping for Gaga ’ s Super Bowl performance so , needless to say , our schedules were pretty crazy ,” explains Bennett . “ Gaga wanted to really strip things down and put the focus squarely on her and her music and make it less about props and elaborate choreography . Gaga ’ s a rocker at heart , so we still have to give the audience an extravagant show and we threw around many theories and concepts before arriving at what the tour is now .” The entire show is conceived in such a way as to constantly surprise the audience .
The four-tiered main stage , largely obscured at the top of the show by a large video wall , looks quite simple with the band stationed at the back ( on the fourth tier ). Two small circular satellite stages , each only about 4 ft . high , are located out in the middle of the audience . A much larger , irregular shaped “ B ” stage is positioned out at FOH ( and , for now , covered up in black cloth ). Three huge pods hang over the audience and are lit in a subtle pink texture . The sheer coverage of the arena floor may give some hint as to the scale of the Joanne Tour , but only when the countdown on the video wall hits 00:00 do we start to sense that things are not what they seem .
As the video wall rises , the main stage unveils the first of many surprises : that the centre of the third tier is actually a lift and this is where Gaga is revealed as she breaks into “ Diamond Heart .”
One of the tour ’ s most striking lighting effects also comes to life during the opening number : an upstage wall comprised of nearly 300 German Light Products ( GLP ) JDC1 LED strobes and almost 150 GLP X4 20 LED Bars . While Bennett is not the type of LD to ring off gear names (“ Once the fixtures are chosen and the plot is done , I often forget exactly what I ’ ve used ” he remarks ),
Winter 2017 | 19