So far, our first day of the Broadway Lighting Master Classes has been a huge success. Students started off with a two-part session by legendary designer Jules Fisher. With a phenomenal turnout, manufacturers were as busy as ever during the exhibitor showcase at the lunch hour (well, two hours to be exact), showing off their wares before sending students back to our afternoon sessions with Beverly Emmons and Clifton Taylor, followed by the final session of the day with Brian MacDevitt (just nominated for a Tony for his lighting design of The Color Purple). Congrats to Brian, and many thanks to today’s speakers.

Moving on, the Live Design staff and the great people from ESTA’s The Behind the Scenes Foundation are currently setting up for this evening’s festivities. In just a few hours, we’ll be kicking off the first ever Live Design honors, which will benefit Behind the Scenes, an organization formed to provide members of the entertainment technology industry with grants for emergency situations, such as serious illness, injury, or death. Thanks to all our friends at ESTA for being a part of our Master Classes.

Tonight, we are also proud to host an evening in honor of the Public Theatre‘s 50th anniversary, paying tribute to “The Design Aesthetic of The Public Theatre‘s Shakespeare in the Park.” Our cocktail reception will be followed by a panel discussion with many of the designers and directors whose work has graced the boards of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. We look forward to reporting back on all the festivities.

Well, the BSMCs have come to a close. What a ride! The new space at the Tisch School at NYU proved to be just the ticket for more space, better layout potential for the sponsors, and a fantastic crew. Our compliments to Chris Jaehnig, Leighton Mitchell, Gary Brown, and the really hard-working student crew for all of their help and support during the load-in, classes, and especially the load-out. Having such great support system made our job that much easier.

One of our main goals this year was to create a manufacturer’s showcase that the students really spent some quality time in. From looking at the showcase and in talking to the vendors, it appears that was accomplished. Everyone really liked the new layout for this very reason.

Kathy and I would really like to thank all of the companies for their tremendous support and cooperation. We would like to give a special menton to mention to Richard Bugg of LCS, for his efforts. He not only created a switching system that gave all of the console manufacturers the opportunity to run audio through their consoles, but in the upstairs classroom space he made sure that every word of wisdom could be easily heard.

We are very happy to be back at the BSMCs working with our friends at Live Design magazine as well as all of the manufacturers , students, as well as all the freinds that we get to catch up with at the classes.

Now its on to the Broadway Lighting Master classes!

Michael and Kathy Eddy