FEATURE PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS Earl Girls Inc. Egg Harbor City, N.J. Don Earl, president of Earl Girls Inc. “ That our customers have voted and made us winners of the Northeast Hometown Hero award for lighting five years in a row assures us that we must be achieving our primary objective, which is satisfying our clients,” says Don Earl, president of Earl Girls. “We have been growing at a tremendous rate and we realize that it is primarily because of the word-of-mouth praise that we receive from our existing customers. We try to view every customer as our friend and colleague, and we try to satisfy every concern from the client’s point of view, since our experienced staff knows first hand what it’s like to produce events.” For those of you at home keeping score, Earl Girls is five for five on the regional award. The <strong>com</strong>pany has in recent years expanded into a larger warehouse, adding an addition 15,000 square feet to their needs. When Don Earl was a kid growing up in Connecticut, his parents were active in <strong>com</strong>munity theatre, and he was on the stage at the tender age of seven. But luckily for the lighting clients in New England, he didn’t get bit by any acting bug. “I remember looking up the stairwell at the theatre, and there was this board with all these lights and dials,” Earl recalls. “And I was thinking I had to find out more about that…” He did. He earned a college degree in technical theatre, then moved to Atlantic City and worked on the lighting in casinos opening there. In 1991 he founded Earl Girls in honor of his wife and two young daughters. “This past year has seen remarkable growth in our video and rigging departments, as well as the moving light area,” Earl says. “Video installations have been increasingly interesting, and we are particularly happy with a unique installation that we did with Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania, using a holographic screen.” The tougher times haven’t phased Earl either: “This is presently a challenging economy; however it provides Earl Girls with the opportunity to show our customers how to get the most for their dollar.” Metalworks Production Group Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Ad info:http:// www.plsn.<strong>com</strong>/instant-info Owen Whitehead, left, and Bob Spencer of Metalworks Production Group The Metalworks people have it figured out. First, they have an awardwinning studio that draws the talent to record their projects (Prince recorded his Musicology there most recently). Once they have their ear, they introduce them to their live event division. Then a third <strong>com</strong>ponent is their education facility, where hundreds of students learn about live event and recording arts. This creates a talent pool from which to draw. Founded 30 years ago by Triumph guitarist Gil Moore, who is still very much involved in all aspects of the <strong>com</strong>pany, they handle concerts, live theatre, corporate, and special events. “What we did was develop into a one-stop shop approach,” says Owen Whitehead, production manager. “We were good at multitasking and be<strong>com</strong>ing experts all kinds of events. And with all our clients we’re able to take an event from conception to <strong>com</strong>pletion.” “We supply LDs, stage managers, the CAD equipment — down to the paperwork necessary to have a show go on,” president Bob Spencer adds. “We’re the first supplier to [arena] Rogers Center here in Toronto, and our assortment of Stage Line mobile stages allows us to do almost all the big festivals that Canada has.” Metalworks has a full inventory of products that relies heavily on Martin products. “We have 150 moving lights and 150 LEDs,” Whitehead says. “And I believe a couple of miles of truss. And everything we have is new, as we selloff product when it gets old.” Spencer says what attracted him to the organization is that it’s not just “a bunch of good-old boys” but is staffed with forward-thinking people. “The <strong>com</strong>pany is well-financed and has a proper attitude. We have great international support for the organization because of all three of our <strong>com</strong>ponents. Consumers see our state-ofthe-art approach as a positive.” A few recent highlights for the <strong>com</strong>pany include handling all of Alice Cooper’s Canadian tours, “as we’ve done for the last seven years,” Spencer says. They handled some especially large concerts by Queen of the Stone Age and Blue Rodeo. And they reach beyond the border, too. Last year they took on the two week Seventh Day Adventist convention held in St. Louis, with 60,000 people in attendance. They built the mammoth set in Toronto. Whitehead’s highlight of the year is more personal. “I was setting up a Steve Winwood gig and he was on stage practicing,” he smiles. “I snuck on stage and played drums with him.” Ah, the perks of the biz! 40 <strong>PLSN</strong> SEPTEMBER 2008
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