Earlier this year I heard Howard Herring, the president and CEO of New World Symphony, speak at the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium in Washington, DC. (Watch him speak at TEDxMIA.) He was so good! Talking about engaging new audiences. It was very inspiring to me, so on my next visit to Miami, I visited the space.
Opening Remarks: Casual, Informal
The stage is modern, well-lit, looks like a dance club. There is seating to the sides and the back; I’ve never seen that before.
- “By the time they finish playing this, you’ll want to rip off all your clothes and run through the park…”
- “See you afterwards out in the lobby.”
Thoughts About Stage Design
- Very dynamic stage lighting. Act 2 had some sort of video projection + strobe flashes. This was all new; the club-like gradient lighting from Act 1 was gone.
- I’m wondering, who installed the a/v system for the lights here? Would be neat to find out if any trade publications have written about this. Challenges they faced, diagrams or details of how they pulled it off, etc.
- Fascinated by how interactive the stage becomes with lighting. It changes and in tune with onstage performances. Clearly someone is directing the lights and they are not just auto-programmed.
