Commemorating their historic 25th anniversary, the original band members reunited for their first ever tour. Everyone involved was excited by the opportunity to do something different and explore crafting a show unlike any other.

It was only fitting we would partner with our long-time friend and collaborator Kille Knobel for this 8 show tour. There were tight design and financial parameters (we had to design into one truck…) which had to be met but we were all up to the challenge.

Our team drew inspiration from trees depicted in the “Hunger Strike” video and got to work on the production design. Traveling with live trees was not practical, so the design team came up with the idea of using a forest of ropes instead. We explored concepts from realistic to abstract throughout the process. The idea of the ropes creating the tree shapes satisfied all the design requirements. They were organic; transparent for 360-degree shows; and packed small. Once everyone approved the concept, we brought in Atomic’s Scenic Division to manufacture the trees. With our office in Lancaster and Atomic in Lititz (a short 15 minute drive) it was awesome to be able to hop over and look at prototypes while working through the many steps in the design process in person.

Primary lighting concepts used by Kille were the feeling of darkness, starkness, unconfined washes, hidden sources, asymmetrical lighting, and heavy floor lighting. We were honored she brought us into this labor of love with her.