Dazzle the district • Playhouse Square

The situation

Playhouse Square, a non-for-profit performing art center in Cleveland, OH, presented the "Dazzle the District: Lighting the Legacy" show, which featured the unveiling and lighting of the GE Chandelier. Playhouse Square wanted to create an unforgettable night for the city of Cleveland. As show producer, we crafted the outdoor show by creating, planning, organizing and executing the event. Throughout the process there were challenges faced and goals to accomplish:

1. The organization of the show.
2. Creating an accurate site plan for the event.
3. Cleveland's dreadful winter weather.
4. Exceed the high expectations that Playhouse Square set for the event.
5. Surprise and delight the audience, multiple times.
   
   

The solution

In order to organize the show without having the chandelier in place yet, we visualized where the main stage would go, which way everyone would face, where the fireworks should go off at, etc. Due to the lack of a good enough CAD mechanical drawing of the area, to create an accurate site plan, curbs and sidewalks were re-measured. While creating the site plan and organization of the show, we needed to be prepared to work in Cleveland's dreadful winter weather.

The approach that we took to make sure we exceeded the expectations of the show was, we constructed an event that was as good as, if not better than, anything that could be seen in theaters. To do so, we looked at what we could do outdoors that could never be done indoors.

When producing a show it is a goal of ours to make sure we surprise and delight the audience multiple times with the big ending. From viewing the crowd reaction on all the video playbacks from the dazzle event, we are proud that we successfully accomplished our goal.

The Results

The event ended up being a huge success for the city of Cleveland.

• We helped Playhouse Square achieve their overall mission: to create an iconic photograph that would live in perpetuity.
• Designed an outdoor spectacle that could never be done indoors.
• The event attracted over 20,000 people to witness an unforgettable night in Cleveland.
• The GE Chandelier is 20 feet in height and is suspended from a 44-foot high steel structure and contains 4,200 crystals and 68 LED lighting fixtures illuminate it.
• Playhouse Square now holds the record for world's largest outdoor chandelier. 

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