This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Stage Seminar’s Stage Lighting Super Saturday in New York City. What a weekend! It was all about theatre.  While Super Saturday was only one day, my wife and I decided to make a weekend of it and catch some shows and visit some of my favorite places in midtown.  What a whorl wind tour.  Like the on going joke on twitter #SleepIsForTheWeek or #IllSleepWhenImDead.  With less then 48 hours in the city, you really only get a glimpse of what New York City has to offer.  But the glimpse we got was awesome.

The entire trip centered around Super Saturday.  I spent my most of my day there talking, learning and meeting new and exciting people.  The day kicked off with Broadway lighting designer, Ken Billington giving the Keynote speak about how be began in the industry, what lighting means to him and all the different choices and areas of lighting there are.  I have a special treat courtesy of Stage Seminars and Mr. Billington.  Look out for the next iSquint Podcast!

The day progressed from there into the sessions with breaks every 3 or four sessions for the manufacturers showcase.  It’s at these breaks the the attendees got a chance to get up on stage and talk with manufacturers about their products and what they have to offer. It also gave us attendees a chance to mingle, talk and express our love and tribulations of lighting.  I got a chance to talk to a couple of readers of iSquint about some lighting desk.  I love talking about control! I could have been there all day talking about control, but our time was limited on stage and with manufacturers so back to making rounds to the various tables.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the new products that were shown.  I’ll be writing more about the new things coming in a bit.  Then there are a couple of things that we still have to wait a couple of months to see. Lets just say, LEDs are getting better, brighter and more beautiful.

What about the sessions! The sessions were great and lead by some pretty intelligent people. I must say, I didn’t get a chance to see them all as during some of the sessions I was chasing down individuals for interviews.  The sessions I did get a chance to see where wonderful.  All of the sessions and the entire day of Super Saturday is geared towards those less informed about lighting and lighting design.  I don’t want to say it is just for newbies or novice at all.  Now I will not say I am an old dog or industry vet, though I do think it is safe to say I can turn a wrench with the best of them.  I learned something new this past weekend.  It sounds silly, but folding a plot rather then rolling it makes for easy transport.  And here, all these years I have been rolling! So yes, even experienced professionals can learn something.

I had a wonderful time this weekend.  Not just at Super Saturday, but spending time with my wife and taking her to not only her first Broadway musical, but her second as well!  For the record, we saw Billy Elliot on Friday night and American Idiot on Saturday night… and yes, Billy Joe was in the cast and it was fantastic!

I have quite a few things to edit and get up on the site from the weekend so look for more coverage to come in the next couple of days. Thank you to Scott Parker and Sonny Sonnenfeld for inviting me to Super Saturday 2011!  I had a blast and look forward to next year.