A. R. Rahman Brings New Stage Technology, Indian Culture To Journey Home Tour

BY: AndrewRossRowe

A. R. Rahman is a lucky guy. Not only has he blown away his competition as a composer/producer/artist, he’s brought in a tour staff that is pushing the limits of stage technology for his “A. R. Rahman Jai Ho Concert: The Journey Home World Tour.”

Directing the way is Amy Tinkham. She is no joke. She’s done Madonna, Mariah Carey and Paul McCartney’s road shows. “Although the tour is called Journey Home, what we’re putting on stage is brand new,” she says. “Its one of the great works of my life.”

And her team is excited too. In fact, the work that is being done has actually never been done before.

“We’re going to point projectors on [the set] to do what’s called projection mapping,” says tour, video designer Bob Bonniol. “We’re going to use projection on top of the set to make the set appear in as many ways as you can imagine. You can make it appear to be shifting and changing shape. Or you can give it an appearance of vegetation growing all over it.”

Of course all this video makes the lighting tricky too. Designer Peter Morrison laments “we can’t light this like a rock show. This is going to be very theatrical and very dynamic.”

And what does A. R. think of all this? “[The tour has] my music and its got visuals of Indian culture in a very western-sensibility. … All of you deserve to see something more of India. That is what we’re trying to give you.”

http://blog.mtviggy.com/2010/04/20/a-r-rahman-masters-ipad-announces-tour/