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PRODUCTIONPROFILE
Martina McBride’s
Timeless Country Classics
Design crew works
in traditional,
contemporary
elements
Photos and Text By
SteveJennings
Martina McBride’s new album, Timeless,
features a selection of classic
country songs that were originally
recorded 30 or 40 years ago. Naturally, when
she started touring in support of the album,
she wanted the look of the show to reflect the
simple but eloquent nature of the traditional
country sounds. Tom McPhillips of Atomic Design
was an integral part of creating a set with
those production values.
“The production is very
analog and has a very organic
sound, very warm and intimate,”
he said, “a very loving
recreation of those original
versions of country classics.
To support the album they
had shot a special in a beautiful
theatre in the Midwest.
Martina felt that the theatre’s
vintage atmosphere fit exactly
the feeling of the songs. So for
the first half of the show’s vintage
country songbook, the upstage is a theatre
proscenium—a gilded arch bordered by
red velvet swags and filled with a translucent
blue Austrian drape.”
Vintage Look with
a Modern Touch
Although the look is strictly vintage, the
technology is a bit more modern. “Upstage
of the drape,” McPhillips said, “we have a full
stage rear projection screen and a fiber optic
star drop. In the first part of the show we also
use a pair of cameo front projection screens
on which we project still images of some of
the originators of the various songs.”
For those fans with a taste for McBride’s
many contemporary hits, the show changes
pace midway through. “For the second half,
which features Martina’s regular repertoire,
we deploy seven rollers which carry laser
cloth—a material that almost vanishes when
it’s not lit and glows profusely when it is. So
from something intimate we expand the set
to something that’s capable of much bigger
lighting looks,” McPhillips says.
The luminous soft goods on the show
provided lots of surface to light. Lighting designer
Abbey Rosen Holmes was appreciative
of the lighting-friendly set and the lighting
designer-friendly set designer. “This was a fun
set to light,” she said. “Tom is very generous
about taking time to work things out, making
adjustments in placement to help out with
lighting angles and positions.”
Her approach to the lighting design revolved
around the idea of lighting the traditional
country music in a manner that is true
to its origins. “The first set is music from Martina’s
new album, which is beautiful covers
of older country songs,” she said. “The older
material feels very different, and was originally
performed long before the existence of
automated lighting. I really wanted to respect
that in the lighting. The lighting is warmer,
with less movement and with simpler, more
restrained cueing.”
From McPhillips’ point of view, the lighting
worked with the set as well as the set with
the lighting. “I like to work with people who
understand how to light soft goods and who
have what I would call a simple approach to
going from one look to another
in a way that maximizes what I
think the set’s capabilities are,”
McPhillips said. “I’ve worked with
Abbey on many projects, and one
of the greatest was one we did
for Bonnie Raitt a few years ago
where her talents really enhanced
what I did to the point where set
and lighting became one process.
With the Martina show she came
up with absolutely stunning looks,
using a lot of gobos that she had
designed specifically for the show.
Many of the moments she created
were truly magical.”
For the latter half of the show
when the laser cloth is deployed,
the simple set change had a big
impact on the entire design. “Tom
added really beautiful drape panels
for the second act,” said Holmes.
“They
“They took light so well. The panels
were translucent but even with the
proscenium still visible they really
transformed the look of the stage”
–LD Abbey Rosen Holmes
took light
so well.
The panels
were translucent
but
even with
the proscenium
still
visible they
really transformed
the
look of the
stage, allowing for the much more
current looking lighting cues for
the second half of the show.”
For lighting director John
Lucksinger, who has worked
with McBride for four years, the
chance to work with a new lighting
designer was an opportunity to view familiar
material in a new way. “This is my first
time working with Abbey, which was great,”
he said. “It was nice to see the show through
someone else’s eyes. I have been doing lights
for Martina for a long time, and it was good to
get a fresh look at the show.”
From Holmes point of view, Lucksinger’s
experience with her boss was a big advantage.
“Lucksinger does a great job with the
show. He’s a real pleasure to work with and a
tremendous help to us since he knew her music
so well,” she said. She also acknowledged
the work of programmer Kille Knobel, who
she said “did a fantastic job.”
24 PLSN AUGUST 2006
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