MT: The Drowned World Tour stage has a number of asymmetrical elements within a symmetrical plan. You once said that those elements were driven by the emotions you felt listening to Madonna's music.

BR: As a child I liked to draw faces noticing early on that faces are both symmetrical and asymmetrical.
I think when you are being talked to you want to see the speakers face. In performance design it"s only fair that everyone has the same experience, the feeling that sightlines are great for everyone, that the audio experience is equal for everyone.

MT: We had a chance to chat with director Jamie King who confessed his obsession with the way he's going to "present" Madonna on stage.
The opening act of the Drowned World Tour is probably one of her strongest presentation... Would you like to tell us something about what you use to call "Cousin It"?

BR: I knew I needed to give Jamie and Madonna a set with lots of layers and zones, and I wanted to make a statement. In the concept phase I knew I wanted the spaceship/lighting rig to lift up but I didn"t really want Madonna to be lowered from a cheesy spaceship. I came up with the idea that she would float forward out of the darkness at center stage at an elevated level about 8" off the stage deck. I also needed a huge staircase for later in the show so I thought it would be good to have a staircase that also hinge lifted at it"s bottom landing to a raised position. We nicknamed this staircase “Cousin It” after the character in the Adam"s family tv show. In that silly show the staircase lifts up for the family to feed the monster that lives under the stairs.

MT: The Music" performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards featuring that fantastic limousine and that backdrop projection that I've always considered a sort of "visual resume" of Madonna. "Music" in the Drowned World Tour had a similar footage, but the limousine was not there anymore. Was it ever considered to be part of the show? It would have fit the act's theme perfectly...

MT: Do you have a fondest memory of that experience, or any other episode or anecdote you like to remember, something funny or maybe some panic scenes?

BR: A funny story happened in the design process that I should talk about. After Madonna approved the concept design she pretty much left all the decision-making up to Jamie and me. Her direct request was for me to give her a set with the same vibe as Ricky"s La Vida Loca set: "silver shiny and modern".

During her dance rehearsals I had my studio make a "white study" model of the design because I wanted her to have a 3-d version of the set to look at for spatial inspiration.
During the fabrication of the actual set I was ready to paint it all shiny, silver, modern - just like Ricky's La Vida Loca set that she loved so much.

However, in a series of private meetings between Jamie and I, Jamie decided he wanted the set to be painted brown like a volcano and Jamie said that she wanted it done that way. I argued but finally said ok and we painted the set like a giant brown volcano rather than a shiny, silver, modern temple.

When we loaded in the set for production rehearsals she was shocked to see the brown set…she didn't comment on the color for a few days I think out of politeness - until finally she called for a huge production meeting in front of everyone.
Her reason for calling the meeting was to tell me she hated the set. I asked her why and she said because it was brown. Evidently she had not asked for a brown set. Jamie was sitting there next to the white study model and didn't say a word - he was sort of in shock - I guess it was uncomfortable for Jamie but he didn"t manage to take responsibility for calling for the brown finish.
Madonna pointed at the study model and said 'that's what I want! if it were silver I would love it!!”.
It was a classic moment where everyone in the entire production was watching to see how someone was going to deal with the situation. I took responsibility (much to Jamie"s relief) and I told her I could paint it over night and we did.

It took 4 scenic painters 12 hours to paint the brown volcano into the silver temple it was meant to be. When she came in the next evening she walked up to me with a hug and asked if I liked it better and I said yes…
The lesson here is to always communicate directly with the client even when you think you are.

MT: Are you satisfied with the final result or do you regret something you conceptualized that didn't managed to be included in the stage as built?

BR: I wanted to have a huge red silk sail deploy in a reverse kabuki during the Japanese fight scene. It would have been 120" wide x 48" tall. I didn"t get this effect in Madonna"s show but I used the idea for a huge Vogue Fashion Show a couple years later.

MT: Which were your emotions the first time you saw the entire show complete? And what about the first time you witnessed the reactions of Madonna's live audience?

BR: It was exciting, I was happy for everyone involved.

MT: Where did your involvement with the tour stopped, did you follow the show on the road or it just ended up on the opening night?

BR: I"m happy to say my involvement ended at the end of production rehearsals.

MT: A set is also a complex technical machinery where mechanical and engineering sometimes force specific choice and limit certain possibilities to turn a concept into a built stage. How was that like for the Drowned World Tour?

BR: Good question. It took a lot of money and energy and interface to bring this production together. It was very emotional at times but the payoff was worth it. I found myself fighting for the design every single day. A lot of the staff that was between me and Madonna were setting up road blocks hoping to reduce the scale of the theatrics I was going for and it got downright dramatic…I had to threaten to quit and walk away three or four times but Madonna and her manager Carese always fought for my designs. Madonna is great like that! One more note: I had some amazing touring carpenters on the Madonna show.

MT: The tour was originally scheduled to open in Germany but the first dates were cancelled due to some technical problems. I've been told that the height and shape of the roof at the Koln Arena was not allowing the "Crouching Tiger" number to be performed. Was that the real reason?

BR: I"m not sure. The crouching tiger number was very simple and didn"t require any out of the ordinary weight or rigging requirements.

MT: How long did it take to assemble the entire thing in a new venue and get ready for rehearsing?

BR: From the time I started sketching to the first day of production rehearsals was about 8 weeks.

The first 7 weeks of this period was spent in fabrication. (three weeks of this 7-week period was used for budget accounting and discussions) We rehearsed on the set for about 4 weeks. Once the tour got rolling the amazing crew was able to load-in the entire 24-truck production in only a few hours.

MT: From an architectural point of view, the use of the giant LED screens was pushed to the limits in the re-Invention tour, at the point that you can somehow say that there is no stage at all in the conventional sense of the term, it's only Madonna, her dancers and the images on the screens. It is definetly a radical choice, and very different from the DWT design. Did you have a chance to see the show? What do you think about it?

BR: I didn"t see her RI Tour…
I hear Jamie designed it. Knowing Jamie I've always said he could make a great dance production with only a candle and a cardboard box…he"s very talented. And Madonna is a great presence with or without any setting. However - I didn't see it and can't comment.

MT: Maybe it's just my architectural background, but when I read about Tribe,inc I can't help thinking about the Taliesin experience. How is it working in Tribe, inc?

BR: At times it works and at times it doesn"t. In that way I think we are exactly like Taliesin. The fun part of having several designers under one umbrella is interesting if the atmosphere is free and open. We were only 7 people and now we are four but it"s still great to have a working design team that is more family than employees.

MT: The sketches and renderings you create for you stage designs are amazing, powerful hand drawings, which is probably quite unique today as everyone else seems to be modelling on machines and there's and be obsessed by photo-realism in architectural renderings.
At the same time, when you move from concept design to construction design you can't avoid the help of technology and CAD drawing.
Do you have your very own equlibrium between craft and technology at Tribe, inc?
How is the job done? How many people and what kind of professional specialties are involved?

BR: I like it when a client says the set looks like the drawings/models…or in this case when she says she wants it to look like the model!
I can"t understand how a "designer" or even a "director/choreographer" who does not draw can take credit for a built or illuminated design. For example alot of "lighting designers" are so quick to take credit for a lighting fixture"s qualities.
And a lot of these "directors/choreographers, lighting and set designers" who give royal yes or no nods to ideas or colors aren"t designers they"re shoppers.
I"m proud to be able to draw. It"s what I do best.

Mark Fisher (U2, Ka) is a real designer. His napkin sketches and his drawings prove the real connection between imagination and reality.
I wanna be him when I grow up. But to answer your question My studio uses autocad and vectorworks, 3-D Studio Max and Final Cut Ppro, Photoshop and Maya to design with. All my people are master model builders, artists, sculptors and draftsmen.

MT: How important are models and 3D designs in developing a concept for a live show and how helpful they are when it comes to prepare a client presentation?

BR: I have 18 years of models in my Venice studio and often I will have a first conceptual meeting with a client there to walk them thru the various sets I"ve been involved with.
So in a sense the models are useful before and after each project.

MT: As you know we're called "MadonnaTribe" and fans usually refer to us as "Tribe", which I bet is something familiar to you... We use "where the tribe adores the idol" as a headline meaning that we are a bunch of people gathered by a common passion. What would you say is the biggest passion for you guys at Tribe, inc?

BR: I chose Tribe inc. for my company name for similar reasons except that idol worship is not part of it.

The common worship or focus is toward one meaning or belief system. I think we"re talking about the same thing though. I like the tribe mentality at concert settings.

I like the fact that that same tribe that attended Madonna"s show will join other tribe types at work the next day but work thru the day as a working tribe and that same tribe may disperse and join other tribes for a football game or yoga workout and so on.

It"s kind of simple in thought but it"s true. We are as a world body a tribal people. That brings many negatives but real beauty comes from tribal associations and gatherings too.
Guess what I"m in the U2 tribe… but I"m also a member of Sting"s tribe, and oh yeah I"m a huge Italian architecture tribe member.

MT: Let's talk a bit about one of your most recent designs, Sting's Sacred Love Tour.

BR: This project came to me through two friends that were involved with Sting on his Tuscany DVD project.

Meeting and working with Sting"s production team was quite an experience. He"s the coolest, most calm Zen-like person you could imagine but his team is an insane crotchety group of mad men if there ever was one. And I love him and them equally.
I made a point to first show my concepts to the crew the evening before my meeting with Sting.

One of the guys lit my model on fire and the others spent 2 hours telling me what sucked about the design. I felt like I was a lonely prisoner in a torture room with a gang of thugs. It was great.
Some of their ideas were good and some were bad. I left that "meeting" and went to my hotel room and stayed up all night re-working my design to incorporate their good ideas with mine and surprised them all in my first pitch to Sting the next evening.
They were impressed and I was in. The rest of the experience was a beautiful thing. Look for the DVD soon.

MT: Which are the main projects currently going on at Tribe, inc? Which is the one you are looking at with the biggest expectation?

BR: We are suddenly working internationally with two projects in Japan and one in italy…. Other than that we stay busy with about four tour designs a year.

MT: Thanks so much bruce for stopping by at another "Tribe". We wish you all the best!

BR: Thanks

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