Production Credits
Yumi Matsutoya Strollin’ Cowgirl Tour 1996

Producer:  Masahito Ohashi
Director:  Masataka Matsutoya
Set Design:  Mark Fisher
International Production:  Yoichi Aoki
Technical Direction:  Richard Hartman
Lighting Design:  Mitsumasa Hayashi
Lighting programming:  Mike ‘Oz’ Owen
Stage manager:  Hikaru Hayashi
Engineering:  Ateiler One
Scenery construction:  Brilliant Stages
 
Mark Fisher writes:
The show was performed in the round.  The stage was surmounted by a streamlined freestanding four-legged crown gondola that gathered all the lighting, sound and technical junk into a clean monolithic design.  Each mast of the gondola supported a sleek transparent pulpit-style balcony that has no access from stage level.  Hidden beneath tambour-style lids within the diamond shaped stage were four cantilever staircases with pantograph handrails that could elevate and slew.  The stairs lifted up from beneath the stage and rotated to connect to the balconies.  Performers could dance up one stair, across a balcony, and down another stair, in a procession that took them all around the stage.

The centre of the stage concealed a revolving lift decorated with rich gold sculptures of Africal animals, elephants, antelope, lions and snakes.  The Baroque quality of the sculptures and the quatrefoil form of the lift were developed to create the maximum contrast with the space-age form of the stage superstructure.  The centre stage pit was also used to conceal pyrotechnic effects.

In one number, performers in UV costumes flew from the grid over the stage, illuminated by UV sources concealed in the legs.  In another scene, an Austrian rig metallic opera gauze cylinder deployed from the grid to create inside and outside stage spaces that were explored with dramatic lighting effects.

The tour traveled the whole length of Japan, and in many arenas rigging a centre stage lighting rig was impossible.  This requirement for ground support led to the decision to build the stage as a free-standing structure.  The four inclined legs supported a 2m deep crown truss that concealed rigging, technician positions, and jumbing off points for Yumi and her dancers.  Access to the gondola was by personell lifts in two of the inclined legs.  This allowed the performers and technicians to access the technical space during the show.

With several improvements based on the Yumi experience, the cantilever stair design with tambour cover was re-used to create the performance stair to access the U2 lemon ini their 1997 Popmart tour.