The Summer King Opera

The Pittsburgh Opera recently staged the world premiere—the first in the company’s 78-year history—of The Summer King about the baseball legend Josh Gibson. Pete’s Big TVs recently supported the opera, with LED screens and media servers. The production, which is a co-production with the Michigan Opera Theatre, featured a scenic design by Andrew Lieberman; a video design by Darrel Maloney; lighting design by Robert Wierzel, and costume design by Kaye Voyce. Tara Kovach is the Director of Production with Pittsburgh Opera.

The Summer King tells the story of Gibson, who was a star in the Negro Leagues but died without the opportunity to ever play Major League Baseball before the color-barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. Michigan Opera Theatre will be mounting the opera in the Spring of 2018.

PBTV provided three large LED screens made up of digiLED MK7 7mm LED modules. As a part of Lieberman’s scenic design, there are risers simulating bleachers with the high-resolution LED screens mounted behind them providing large canvases for Maloney’s beautiful content to support the production.

“We were very happy to work with the creative team at Pittsburgh Opera,” says Anne Johnston, Account Executive with Pete’s Big TVs. “The LED screens played an important scenic role in telling Gibson’s story. We built a mock-up demonstration for the creative team in New York so they could see how the digiLED 7mm product would look. After that, they were sold on the MK7 product paired with d3 Technologies (now known as disguise) disguise media server to deliver Darrel’s beautiful content to the screens.” PBTV’s Erik Hartman was onsite working with the Pittsburgh Opera’s technical team on setting up and running the LED screens and media servers.

PBTV has been supplying LED screens, projectors, and media servers for a number of theatrical productions from Broadway, to touring theatrical production, to opera and regional theatre shows. "At Pete's Big TVs we understand the unique nature theatrical productions as well as the considerations that a production's creative team makes when thinking about using LED or video products for their shows," comments Anne Johnston, PBTV Account Executive. "We work closely with the design and production teams from product selection through opening night, as well as supporting the production throughout the show's run."