Cats Opening Night

Last night was the opening night of Cats in Seoul. The show went incredibly well, playing to a packed house and finishing with a standing ovation. I've stayed back to see the two shows today and Greg's spending the next week here in Seoul to help hand the production over to our awesome Korean operations team who'll make sure it keeps looking good over the next several months. ^ Greg and I at the theatre with Jo-Anne Robinson, the show's director. This marks the end of a production process that's lasted most of the year and taken us back to Cats productions from the early 80s, seen us fly to New York and Korea and resulted in the creation of a pretty awesome, spectacular new production that has everyone raving. For now, I'm about to enjoy a rare two days off in Tokyo before heading back home for Macquarie Bank, Parklife and Sleaze Ball before venturing back off to the USA in a few short weeks time.... Told you it was the crazy time of year! rich

First Preview

Just had our first preview of Cats here in Seoul and we're really happy with the results Greg and I will spend the next few days polishing the show before Friday's opening night but we're in excellent shape and have a really good looking show in the theatre. Been really good working with the show team again and looking forward to much, much more in the future. The funny thing is that 19 years ago I saw Cats for the first time as a 7 year old kid in London's West End and now I'm sitting here as a designer. Really happy with it all, it's a bit of a personal milestone which I'm pretty stoked about. Pictures coming soon to the official part of the website, but they'll probably be up a few days after I get a couple days rest in Tokyo before returning to Sydney, which in many ways, will be more full-on than Tokyo for a few weeks! cheers rich

Full Throttle

Mandylights lit up some of Australia's most expensive cars tonight to launch the new Australian series of Top Gear. As usual the spectacular Aztech Event was most definitely fast paced and high octane!

KATS Korea Kapers

I am busy in Seoul overseeing the setup of the new Korean production of Cats that myself and Richard are designing. We have come up with a very cool circular trussing design that mimics the set nicely. The truss design is a departure from a few straight trusses and pushed the gear supplier to come up a good way to make it actually happen. They have done a great job of building a custom concentric circle truss. Very nice. I have decided to call it the Spaceship. Check back soon for more updates as Richard and I get into rehearsals next week and actually using the gear. On paper it looked good and the indications from what I am seeing as we set up and focus and bring more gear online is that the show will look very nice. Beer and BBQ very soon once some more work is done... GY ^We have liftoff !!

New York

Greg and I have spent the last few days in New York for a couple of meetings, and we were privileged to enjoy the company of both David Hersey and Richard Pilbrow - two lighting legends - on more than one occasion which were incredibly enjoyable. After seeing more shows than I should have, I'm now sitting in the lounge at JFK airport about to fly to London and then onwards to Barcelona to light a big conference and gala dinner in the Palau de Congressos centre.

Onwards and upwards

This month is all about getting ready and braced for the rest of the year. I've got a bunch of awesome projects coming up that see me off overseas to the USA, Spain, Korea and UK amongst others. Apart from clocking up thousands of frequent flyer points, I also get a few weeks off in the middle which will be great. We've taken on a bunch of visualisation projects in the last few weeks which has lead us to invest in an awesome new computer that will be at least twice as powerful as our previous studio system. The system will be used to program a new production in the coming weeks, where Greg and I will lock ourselves in our studio to program Cats for the new Korean production. We'll also squash in programming a major event in Hawaii - all without actually setting a foot on the island! And these projects are before we even start taking into account the day to day stuff we do for our clients! It's an exciting time. Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a day with MA Lighting whizz Oliver Rump at Show Technology in Sydney. It always amazes me how much everyone can learn and explore on current and new consoles, and we had a chance to preview some very cool new toys. I'll be sure to keep the blog up to date with all the news of the coming months. And if you happen to be in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Cleveland, Orlando, Barcelona, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Seoul, Hong Kong, Macau, Paris, Rovaniemi, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth or Tokyo at any stage in the next two months - join me for a beer! Cheers rich

Freezing

So I have it on good authority that it actually snowed towards the end of our bump out in Mittagong the other night. Whilst I wasn't freezing there, I was numb with cold standing on a bigger stage at a certain racetrack in Sydney and stopped programming when I couldn't feel my fingers or face! I've spent the weekend thawing out in the office with the heater on max, designing the Cleveland Fabulous Food Show and the English Good Food Show - both places where the temperature will barely rise above freezing. Why is it that as soon as summer starts I have to leave to go to the Northern Hemisphere?! In the meantime, good luck to everyone else who's working on WYD projects :P