USA - Halsey’s recent For My Last Trick tour concluded on 6 July. The multi-Grammy winner was intimately involved in creating the look for the 30-city tour - a look that interwove the dramatic expectations of theatre with the raw energy of rock (not to mention a rainbow of colours) so naturally, that its various elements seemed to flow from one another.
“My Last Trick was definitely more theatrical than a typical tour,” said John Featherstone, who worked with his Lightswitch colleagues, Hailey Featherstone and Ignacio (Iggy) Rosenberg on lighting the show. “Given that there were multiple acts, it was important for Halsey and her team that there was a strong differentiation between each stage of the show we were in.
“There are moments of real softness and emotion; raw, vulnerable emotion,” continued Featherstone. “Then there are moments of the badass rock ‘n’ roll chick; and then there are moments of her talking about all the health struggles she went through and how that changed her as a person; becoming a mother, and how that affects everything. It was a balancing act of those different, really important viewpoints, and about making it feel cohesive. That’s always the biggest thing, stitching it all together.”
The Lightswitch team collaborated with Halsey herself and her manager/creative director Anthony Li, as well as scenic designer Derek McLane, cinematographers Joe Ranson and Nathan Amzi, LD Malcom Harrison, and programmer Anna Merritt. “Since the show was divided into theatrical and rock sections, we all got to show our individual styles,” said Rosenberg. “It was also incredibly refreshing to have such close conversation with an artist.”
In its theatrical section, the show relied heavily on the art of the reveal. The rig’s 22 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorised strobe-washes (supplied by 3G Productions), which were positioned on the risers dotted around the band, and on the front truss, were instrumental in helping the designers achieve the desired effect.
“The band is mostly hidden behind a vanish wall during the first half of the show,” said Rosenberg. “We used the Strike Ms to start creeping them in as the act advanced. It let them pop through in moments so the audience could start to guess that there was ‘something else’ behind the LED wall. In the second act we used the Strike Ms as an uplight for the band, as well as another layer of audience lighting. We flipped them around to fill this dual role. We used them a lot more as whimsical accents on the theatrical first act. On the second act we kind of went all out, and they did a lot of ‘audience abuse’ so to speak!”
John Featherstone had this to say about the fixture: “They added our punch and punctuation to the rig. If the rig were a drum kit, the Strike Ms were our cymbals! Halsey also likes to really integrate her audience into the show -- and by gosh, does she have an enthusiastic fan base! The 12 of these fixtures on the front truss brought the action and excitement out into the audience.”
A big part of that excitement stemmed from the bold and vibrant monochromatic colour scheme that often animated the stage. “I am by far a monochromatic designer,” declared Rosenberg. “We also had to think about our interplay with the set, video, and cameras, so helping keep the show homogeneous was a big part of that decision.”
As the designers are quick to point out, their client was deeply involved in the show’s transcendent colour combinations. “Halsey has synesthesia, specifically chromesthesia, where she associates sounds with colours, so the stimulation of cognitive pathways for her leads to an involuntary experience in another,” noted Featherstone. “So, all this is very connected to her, not only the way that sound triggers colour, but the way colour triggers sound. It's really quite fascinating.”