Professional Lighting & Production - Fall 2017 | Page 18
18 PL&P
COMING
By Andrew King
I
Teamwork Integral to the 2017 Calgary Stampede TransAlta
Grandstand Show
t’s widely billed as “the greatest outdoor show on Earth” –
and with good reason. The annual TransAlta Grandstand
Show presented during the Calgary Stampede is a true
spectacle in every sense, presenting ticketholders with a
wide variety of big talents and breathtaking feats backed by
a sizeable and striking production design.
But while it’s the action onstage that awes the 20,000-
plus crowd night after night during the Stampede’s mid-July run, the
professional team of behind-the-scenes (and front-of-house) collabora-
tors behind the show deserves as much credit as the talent onstage for
earning the show’s special distinction.
The 2017 TransAlta Grandstand Show was directed by Brian Foley in
his 16 th year at the helm, produced by Dave Pierce, who won an Emmy
Award for his work on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Opening
Ceremonies, and hosted by beloved Calgary native Jann Arden. Titled
Together, the theme for the spectacle – which played on the popular
Canada 150 milestone – was a celebration of Canadian history and
culture, uniting a diverse array of talent and creativity from communities
all across Alberta and Canada on the iconic Queen Mary portable stage –
the largest of its kind in the world.
The show’s title could just as easily be applied to the technical team
that brought it to being, which itself was comprised of talented profes-
sionals – some Stampede veterans, others new collaborators – from plac-
es across Canada, working towards a singular goal: a show that lived up
to a reputation earned over the course of several decades.