Starlite Productions Lights Marian Anderson Award GalaStarlite Productions recently participated in the 2013 Marian Anderson Award Gala, which was the event's 15th anniversary. This year's award recipient was music legend and founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy. Starlite provided the lighting for the event which included a tribute by Smokey Robinson and performances Boyz II Men, and Kool and the Gang. "Starlite has been providing lighting for the Marian Anderson Awards for the past six years and it's always an honor to participate in this spectacular celebration of the arts in Philadelphia," said Starlite's senior production manager, Jason Danowitz. "Normally we're lighting for the Philadelphia Orchestra, which is always a treat. This year, however, we had Berry Gordy as the honoree, and the producers decided that Motown acts would be more fitting. It really was a lot of fun...and we got to use haze!" One of the challenges was striking a balance between dramatic lighting that looked great for a live concert setting while still proving enough light for the 10+ HD cameras that were shooting the event. "You could just throw a ton of white light at it, which would make the cameras happy, but I think the live event would have suffered. We were able to find a middle ground." The Marian Anderson Awards Gala is held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Previous honorees have included Oprah Winfrey, Richard Gere, Maya Angelou, and James Earl Jones, to name a few. The lighting rig this year included 20 Martin Mac Auras and 14 Vari-lite 3000s. The show was run on a GrandMA full-size console. 
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