The Circus Starring Britney Spears
Contacts
Curry Grant
Los Angeles
PRG’s Bad Boy spotlights Britney Spears as she soars with PRG automation.
The Challenge: Provide a lighting solution offering powerful control and innovative fixtures, ready to tour the world with ease.
The Solution: The Circus Starring Britney Spears is designed to evoke the wonder, magic and mystery found under the Big Top. Production Resource Group worked with Road Rage, the tour producers, to turn that vision into a reality. “We as creators, on an artistic level, partner in delivering a vision,” explained Tour Producer/Director Steve Dixon. “The people that attend concerts these days are visually savvy; so we tried to give them a show with a grand vision that is larger than life.”
Designer Nick Whitehouse, working with design partner Bryan Leitch and their firm Visual Light Ltd., created the rich lighting design and collaborated with Dixon and Costume Designer/Style Director William Baker on the production design. The team created a spectacular set with a large circular mainstage and two smaller round stages that evoke a three-ring circus. Above the mainstage, rather than the canvas of the big top, there is a large circular truss system, with a massive 360° video screen and red drape, which raises and lowers during the show. There is a complex automated flying system, engineered by PRG Scenic Technologies that allows scenic elements as well as performers, including Ms. Spears, to soar above the stage.
The aerial work and stage performance of the hardworking Spears and company are given visual depth by Whitehouse’s use of eighteen PRG Bad BoyTM luminaires, which add a powerful punch to his circus-themed design. PRG supplied both the Bad Boy fixtures and their new V676TM lighting control consoles. “The show is in the round and I wanted to create a pop spectacle, so I needed to put enough lights out there to accomplish that,” said Whitehouse. “I wanted to cover the entire arena floor. When I saw the Bad Boy, it was the obvious choice. I love the optics. With one light, I can go from a two-inch beam on the mainstage to a full look that covers about 70 feet; and it is crystal clear and bright the whole way out.” In addition to spotlighting the stage, the Bad Boy units wash the audience with color and gobos; they even create a laser effect for one number. The Bad Boy’s Quantum Color® system worked well for Whitehouse’s needs. “It’s great for fast, rock ‘n’ roll color snaps,” said Whitehouse. “I actually created colors on the Bad Boy and then tried to match them with my other lights, some of which could not come close.” The Bad Boy’s reliability also impressed Whitehouse. “We did a month of rehearsals and all of the shows in the US; and I have not had one problem; not one.”
Whitehouse, who operates the lighting console himself, chose the PRG Virtuoso® to control his rig on the US leg. During the changeover to the European leg, he transferred the show to the new PRG V676 console, making this tour the console’s debut. “I love the layout of the console both in terms of ease of operation and how many functions are on the top layer,” Whitehouse noted. “I can get to everything much more easily. It takes fewer button pushes; there are fewer steps; it is just much faster to program. The V676 is also physically faster in its processing. Plus, it looks really great.”
The design team was also pleased with the automation work of PRG Scenic Technologies. “PRG was able to deliver the show that we conceived,” explained Dixon. “It is unique automation needed for a concert, more like that for a Broadway show but with the ability to handle a touring schedule of back-to-backs with eight hours to load in and four hours to load out. With PRG’s Scenic Technologies, I now have a slick, smooth flying automation system that is precise, repeatable and most importantly a system that is tourable. They are a company that has a really positive attitude. It was never ‘no, we can’t do it.’ If there were issues, they came to us with solutions. Their focus was on both the timely delivery of a system and the costs. They understood the importance of balancing both things.”
PRG engineered and provided all of the overhead flying automation including 15 winches. A center lift winch that rotates 720° and works as both a scenery winch and a performer winch is used throughout the performance but it is particularly effective during two major moments in the show, both of which also include new scenic elements built by PRG. “They built a basket that Britney flies in above a ring of flames,” explains Dixon, “and a large umbrella that Britney sits in which opens and flies up while slowly rotating. These new scenic elements are great and she feels safe in them.”
Another key automation sequence in the show involves three large picture frame assemblies that each contains one performer. All three frames revolve in a circle as well as lift and lower. Previously, they only tracked 70° but PRG engineered a solution that allows the units to rotate 340° around the stage. Three lift winches were installed which are connected via an aircraft cable so that they lock into one another and become a single cable-loop. One revolve winch moves all three frames around the circle and the distance between the frames remains constant.
An essential part of the assignment given PRG was to provide four performer fly winches that the aerialists use with both ring choreography and fabric routines. Here safety, precision and consistent cue accuracy was absolutely imperative. PRG Scenic Technologies built permissive switches for each performer winch, which were used by the performer’s individual spotters. The spotter presses a button in order to allow the winch to move up and down. If the button is released the winch is disabled and will not move until re-enabled (the permissive button engaged). This provided another layer of individual safety for each winch. The actual control of the winches is handled by a single operator on PRG’s CommanderTM console, the newest version of the PRG Stage Command® system for automation control.
The Commander console utilizes new software and it shares many hardware components with the new PRG V676 lighting console. All of the effects go back to submasters on the control console where the operator can manipulate the time signatures via faders. There is a grandmaster that can operate all of the effects, as well as individual submasters that control individual winches. Once programmed, the Commander console ensures the speed is going to be the same every night at the touch of the go button. All of the drive racks and control intelligence for the system were moved to ground level where they could be more easily serviced. This also reduced the weight on the grid and allowed for faster load in and out.
“I have worked for years with PRG; they are always excellent and reliable as a company,” said Mo Morrison, Production Executive for the tour. “They very quickly adapted to the concert touring concerns of back to back, fast load ins and outs; the truck space considerations; and the gear reliability required for work on the road. They were very open to what we required. The new flying automation system does everything that we wanted; it’s sexy; and it’s always on the mark. I can truly say this has been another great PRG experience.”