A Night with the Stars, a showcase piece for the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra Company and Born To Perform (a platform created by Creative Directors, Gemma Marinus Donnelly and Matthew Marinus to create professional opportunities in the Performing Arts Industry for talented children and teens) took place at the UJ Arts Centre on 27th and 28th May 2016.
The collaboration celebrated the talented youth of South Africa and featured budding performers from a variety of genres. It was also the producing and directing debut for the award-winning composer and arranger Bryan Schimmel. Schimmel sits on the board of Directors at the Youth Orchestra Company and is passionate about promoting a musical culture within the youth of South Africa.
The Lighting and AV elements were provided by Gearhouse Splitbeam with starcloth backdrop provided by sister company Sets, Drapes, Screens (SDS). The stage design called for a “break up” background comprised of a collection of custom built hexagonal screen surfaces.
Splitbeam’s AV team mapped the graphic playback exactly to the bespoke projection surfaces to provide a kinetic 3 dimensional backdrop for the performances. The graphic component was used to showcase the performers individually, to run sponsorship videos and as general eye candy.
The team used a Resolume Arena Media Server to precisely map the projection to the shapes via Midi protocol and Splitbeam’s Video Mapping specialist, Marcel Wijnberger and Lighting Programmer Glenn Duncan made use of the in-house GrandMA Ultra Lite to trigger the content playback; perfectly integrating the Audio Visual elements with Scenic and Lighting Designer Oliver Hauser’s dynamic Lighting design.
Oliver and Marcel were able to preplan the pixel mapping precisely to devise the most efficient setup, which made for an easier execution and programming by the rest of the team.
The 70-piece live orchestra conducted by Maestro Eddie Clayton set the tone for an exciting evening that more than lived up to its name. Industry greats Samantha Peo and Timothy Moloi added their voices to further enhance the concerts as guest artists, thus ensuring a non-stop journey of pure delight for old and young.
