Owsley Stanley Foundation Stage Design

Hot Tuna at the Great American Music Hall

The Project

We created a large scale psychedelic backdrop for The Owsley Stanley Foundation’s benefit at the Great American Music Hall. The evening featured greats such as Hot Tuna, Steve Kimock, and Roger McNamee. It was Mc’d by Rolling Stones manager, Sam Cutler. The Owsley Stanley Foundation seeks to preserve Bear’s legacy, by protecting and re-releasing his recordings. It’s a mission that is close to our heart, and we jumped at the chance to support the project.

The Role

I was the Design lead for this project, responsible for it’s design and production. Working with the team at Jammin On, I created a site specific design with historical significance.

The Venue

The Great American Music Hall is an SF classic.  It’s gorgeous and elaborate. While it’s beautiful to behold, it’s difficult to decorate. The stage is backed with pillars and a balcony.  It’s impossible to hang a single piece of fabric as a backdrop. We had to go to the venue, and measure the various areas of the stage. We spent some time deciding what we wanted to cover, and decided on seven areas that would require 13 fabric panels and cover 600 square feet.

The Fire Marshall

We sourced fire retardant material that is required by law in most states. We printed the certification on the back of one of the panels, so it would never get misplaced.  We did have to cut a small hole in one of the panels to allow for visibility of emergency exit sign.

The Art

We wanted iconic imagery that was immediately relatable and emotionally evocative for the audience. We chose three themes.  First, and most obvious was Owsley Stanley’s masterpiece, The Wall of Sound.  It was a ground breaking, first of it’s kind, sound engineering marvel. Second, images of Owsley Stanley’s cast Belt Buckles. Third was some of the art from the Grateful Dead compilation album, ‘Bear’s Choice. Each piece was chosen to honor his legacy.

The Licensing

The highest quality surviving image of the Wall of Sound was taken by Richard Pechner. He was happy to have his work included in the project, but is also understandably protective of his work.  We negotiated and created a licensing agreement, agreeing that his image would only be used for this purpose, to benefit The Foundation, and never for commercial gain.

started with an old image of the wall of sound taken by Richard Pechner, added some of Bear’s art, and a little bit of our own magic. The end result was a 13 panel 600 square foot tribute to The Wall of Sound that the foundation will be able to use for years to come.

The Design

While turning a small picture into a large scale set design, it became clear that we were going to have to design to what the audience would expect to see, rather than what was historically accurate. The Wall of Sound was supported by a large amount of scaffolding. While the pictures show the supporting architecture, the eye tends to ignore it. However, it would prove to be a huge distraction, and lessen the audience’s enjoyment of the piece. We painstakingly photoshopped the scaffolding out of the piece.

The Printing

The Image was printed on transfer paper on a 64 inch Mimaki.  the transfer paper was then fed through  a rolling heat press with the fire retardant fabric.

Fabric Finishing

Some of the sections required coverage greater than 5 feet wide, the limit of the printer.  Knowing that we would have to sew the long sections of fabric together and that a seamless appearance was paramount, we created a system of hashmarks that allowed the seamstress to sew the pieces together cleanly.  Marks for grommets were also placed at even intervals at the top and bottom of the fabric sections.

Installation

Our team installed the backdrop, and then took it down, handing it off to the foundation for safe keeping.