“I started Preston Productions with an ETC Ion, a few thousand dollars and a credit card,” Justin Preston says when we meet with him in the unlikely setting of downtown Los Angeles.
Marshall Bissett
Marshall Bissett grew up in Central Scotland and studied theater direction at the Old Vic Theatre School. He worked on the original productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and toured with such acts as Chicago, Neil Diamond, and The Rolling Stones. In 1983 he founded TMB, a worldwide supplier of lighting equipment. He’s kept his hand in directing, which in retirement now vies for his time along with freelance writing and fly-fishing.
Life can be tough for aquarium-bound fish. Their days are spent patrolling the confines of their tank, staring back at the young faces pressed against their glass walls. On the upside, there is companionship, regular meals, and freedom from predators. For the denizens of the Suzanne and Walter...
Pink Floyd could never be accused of half-hearted productions. In the mid-seventies when their contemporaries were still using carousel projectors, they created a 32-foot-diameter circular screen lit by two 10,000-watt Xenon 35 mm projectors with custom lenses ground in France. When other bands...
The word “iconic” is often used to describe the natural amphitheater in the grounds of Stanford University. Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead and Crosby Stills and Nash are a small sampling of the seminal acts of the ‘60s who performed on what some call “that hallowed stage.” Opened in 1937, Frost...
Many movie theatres of the 1930s, like the starlets who graced their screens, have faded away. Time – and real estate developers – wait for no one. But in Vancouver’s west side the art deco Hollywood Theatre was rescued from demolition by an enterprising team who turned the classic ‘30s palace...
The 2017 closure and eventual demolition of the Sherwood Auditorium in San Diego could have dealt a fatal blow to the La Jolla Music Society who had been its tenants since 1986. “It was a huge shock,” recalled Christopher Beach, the society’s president and CEO, “We had no place to call our own.”...
In theatre, the word “immersive” is often tossed around to describe the flimsiest of attempts to create a pre-show atmosphere.
When Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (billed as “America’s Friendliest Airport”) was looking to replace its aging control system, they recognized the legendary products and services ETC had supplied to the theme park business and decided to apply them to the airport.
Following the notoriety of its Breaking Bad locations tour, the City of Albuquerque has added another startling tourist attraction: a colony of penguins.
It’s easy to picture Paul Luntsford, the dynamic founder and principal of PLA Designs in Portland, Ore., in work boots and hard hat on the jobsite checking measurements.