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 […]

WUNSIEDEL, GERMANY –  “The spectacle of nature is always new,” wrote Goethe. The great poet, philosopher and playwright undoubtably felt this way in 1820 when he first encountered Luisenburg-Felsenlabyrinth (the Luisenburg Rock Labyrinth), declaring that the massive, irregular formation of granite rocks created “an impression the like of which I have never come across on […]

EDE, NETHERLANDS – Robbert Mak has been involved in lighting Openluchttheater Ede for over a decade, and he can’t recall a single instance when a first-time visitor hasn’t been awed into silence by this beautiful and historic open-air theatre. “People who have not been here before look around in amazed silence as soon as they […]

BUENOS AIRES – A facility named after a living legend must uphold the highest standards of production. Such is the case with the Héctor Cavallero Auditorium, at the Argentine Business University (UADE). Providing a practice and exhibition room for students of the Bachelor of Performing Arts, the facility is named in honor of Cavallero, current […]

LES EPESSES, FRANCE – “We are all voyeurs to some extent when we see an intimate film,” said director Martin Scorsese. The stage production “Le Mime et l’Etoile” at Puy du Fou takes matters to another level, as the audience is not only drawn into an intimate story, but also gets to view it through […]

FORT LAUDERDALE – The deepest purpose of art is “not to convey, but to evoke,” the great novelist Jerzy Kosinski once observed. Clifford Michael Spulock demonstrated the power of this principle when lighting the Slow Burn Theatre Company’s production of Newsies earlier this summer at the Broward Center. The story told in this Tony-winning musical, […]

HEMPFIELD, PA – All the world may be a stage, as the great Bard wrote, but when it comes to theatrical productions, it’s often the characters on the stage who determine how that world spins. In the case of the Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty musical comedy, “Seussical,” that spin definitely revolves around fun. Even by the […]

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – Physicists tell us that light makes no sound. That may be technically true, but when a lighting design wraps itself around ferocious metal music and a theatrical stage show to the point where they all merge into one experience, it’s easy to see how fans (and even music critics) can feel that […]

ST. LOUIS  – Adrian Silverstein and Joe Beck both relish talking about history, and it’s easy to understand why! As the assistant general manager and master entertainment electrician respectively of the venerable Stifel Theatre, they work in a building where the past seems to echo off every inch of beautiful Art Deco walls. Once the […]