George Ezra
What Cate says:
George and I started discussing the stage design for the UK Arena Tour in April 2022 during a short run of intimate theatre shows, which served as underplays to kick off his third studio album campaign called The Gold Rush Kid.
George told me that the writing process of this album had been very different to his previous two. Normally, his muse is his own personal travelling adventures. However, his latest album was written during lockdown, so he instead took inspiration from the themes and stories of past travel journals.
What I love about designing for George is the vivid and carefree storytelling his lyrics articulate and the sharp, clear imagery they evoke. The words to his songs are naturally filmic, conjuring beautiful, fun, sometimes surreal, often abstract pictures and animations in my mind. These then inspire the stage visual design and atmospherics.
In our earlier chats, George had also expressed his fascination with traditional theatrical devices such as props and scenery. He was keen to incorporate such strategies in his own stage setup.
To that end - and collaborating with longtime colleagues Mike Smith and Flora Harvey - we included the theatrical device of the proscenium arch, but not in a traditional way. Rather than use the proscenium as a ‘fourth wall’ device, separating audience and performer, we elected to position it upstage of the performers and offset the angle of the top to make a strong abstract yet architectural statement. This made for an idiosyncratic frame for the video content on the 22m-wide upstage LED wall, but it also enabled us to create smaller, more intimate environments, shrinking the stage picture to fit within the frame when required.
The visual content of this show was critical given it was to fill the 22m-wide video wall. To that end we worked closely with visual content developers, Treatment Studio. This was a satisfyingly productive relationship and enabled us to explore numerous themes for each song, while maintaining a coherent visual language throughout the show.
I like to create multi-planed, layered designs, where elements of the show are revealed, hidden, or transformed with light, shadow, and colour alongside carefully choreographed automation and timing. Being able to easily re-shape the stage space enables us to conjure a variety of moods, atmospheres and therefore vary the emotional relationship between performer and audience.
Although there is some automation in this design, which allows us to close the stage down for the softer section in the middle, it’s a statement piece, which establishes the design from the moment the band walked onstage.
What the press says:
Lsi Magazine Review:
https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=7bfd6868-3a0a-4b9c-822f-e611f2f81492&pnum=
GLP Review:
https://www.glp.de/en/news/glp-s-power-and-versatility-animate-george-ezra-s-massive-pros-arch
Tpi Magazine review:
https://www.tpimagazine.com/jake-vernum-discusses-life-on-the-road-with-george-ezra/
Show Design Concept - Cate Carter & Flora Harvey
Production Design - Cate Carter & Mike Smith
Visual content production - Treatment Studio
Video Director - Phil Woodhead
Lighting & Video Programmer and Screens Director - Joe Lott
Lighting Director - Chris Taylor
Scenic Design - Flora Harvey
Scenic Painters - Jon Perry & Martin Vernon
Production Manager - Jake Vernum
Tour Manager - Trevor Plunkett
Production Coordinator - Meg Hood
Security Coordinator: Cary Nightingale
Stage Manager - Mark Cameron
Head Rigger - Dave Oldham
FOH Audio Engineer - Mike Timm
Monitor Engineer - Oliver Weeks
Guitar Tech: Henry Spenner
Drum Tech: Thuluxton Janenthirarajah
Playback Tech: Jan Zwiebel
LX Crew Chief - Aidan McCabe
Video Crew Chief - Tim Curwen
PA Crew Chief - James Coghlan
Audio Control Crew Chief - Chris McGuinness
Head Carpenter - Pete Geary
All Access Crew Chief - Kay Givan
PA - Adlib
Audio Control - Stylus
Lights & Rigging - Lite Alternative
Video - 4Wall
Scenic - SetStage
Stage - All Access
Trucking - KB
Bussing - Phoenix
Catering - Popcorn
Artist Management - Closer Artists.
