Noted
by critics as a designer who creates “explosions of multimedia”
onstage, Bob Bonniol serves as the guiding creative visionary for MODE
Studios. With influences and instructors like Laurie Anderson, Natasha
Katz, Robert Edmond Jones, and Nam Jun Paik, Bob stands at the fore of
a new movement in production design that fuses multimedia with lighting
and architecture into a cohesive whole. Bob began this journey living
and working New York City.
A move to Las Vegas, and his
subsequent appointment as Lighting Director of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Starlight Express added glitz to his New York sensibilities. Bob went
on to design the lighting for Planet Hollywood Las Vegas (in
association with David Rockwell, noted architect of the new Kodak
Theatre in Hollywood).
Feeling parched for culture as well as water, Bob relocated to Seattle
in 1998, where he and Colleen started Monarch Designs/MODE Studios.
Since making the move he has designed lighting for the National Tour of
Victor/Victoria (as well as the Papermill Playhouse and 5th Avenue
Theatre Production), designed Lighting and Projection for the
International Sensation, Burn The Floor, designed large format film
projection for the world tour of Footloose the Musical (as well as
concurrent Vegas and Atlantic City productions), designed projection
and multimedia for the critically acclaimed 2001 National Tour of
Godspell (directed by Scott Schwartz), designed projection and lighting
for The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Evita at North Carolina
Theatre, and designed projection for the National Tour of Selena
Forever. He has won an Eddy Award as part of the lighting design team
for the Seattle Opera’s epic Ring Cycle; He has received a Triangle
award for his lighting and projection design for The Music of Andrew
Lloyd Webber in Concert.
Bob (along with wife and partner Colleen) most recently designed the
world premiere of the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, with the
Seattle Opera’s production of Parsifal. Also completed this fall is
their projection design (in association with Jim Noone) for the world
premiere of the new musical, The Wedding Banquet, and their projection
and lighting design for Dame Edna’s new Broadway production. Upcoming
productions include Concert Tour designs for Nickleback , and Robert
Randolph. Colleen and Bob are contributing columnists to Entertainment
Design Magazine, Lighting Dimensions Magazine, and Video Systems Design.
Bob Bonniol revisits the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, while looking in on Diamond Vision's spectacular new 33 foot by 109 foot LED 'backdrop'. He reveals to readers stunning new technologies and entices us to look forward to the future of these remarkable advances.
