Fans who packed the iconic outdoor Riverstage venue on the night of January 27, for the opening of Reneé Rapp’s first Australian tour, didn’t seem bothered by the heat or humidity — after all, it was the height of summer in Australia.
They were far too busy anticipating the appearance of the popular and provocative American pop star… and they were not disappointed!
From the moment the North Carolina singer-actress bounced onto the stage under the red strobing light of the CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M fixtures in Jack Cannon’s design and launched into her hit “Leave Me Alone”, the audience knew they were in for more than just a concert, but a vibrant and memorable experience.
Working skillfully with a very compact PRG-supplied rig consisting of only 60 fixtures — 16 of them Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes — Cannon synchronized the lighting with the wide range of emotions conveyed by the artist on stage.
“Our variation in looks wasn’t just about maintaining visual interest, it was also about setting the emotional pacing of the show”, explained Cannon, who served as lighting director and programmer on the Australian tour, working with programmers Taylor Jack Haynes and Jade Frasey. (He also designed the show for Juliet Blue Creative).
Reneé’s music swings between vulnerability and defiance, softness and ferocity. I wanted the lighting to feel like it was breathing with her: tightening, expanding, revealing, concealing. The show didn’t follow a linear narrative, but it did have an emotional arc. We moved from intimacy to confrontation, from isolation to catharsis. The lighting changes were really shifts in perspective, almost like different lenses on the same character, he explained.
To create this blend of atmospheres and emotions, Cannon adjusted the lighting angles throughout the show, moving from strobe effects to silhouettes. He also relied on different color combinations and monochromatic palettes to reflect the theatrical quality of the artist’s performance.
In his view, monochromatic moments created emotional clarity. “When everything is saturated in a single tone — deep red, icy blue, stark white — there are no distractions”, he noted. “Red becomes obsession or rage, and blue becomes isolation”.
Discussing his use of lighting angles, he added: “By pushing light from behind and below, especially on the riser, I could turn Reneé into a shape — an icon rather than just a person. It felt sculptural, almost mythic. Then when we brought the face back in, it was like reintroducing the human being inside that silhouette. The back and side lighting was designed to feel defiant, almost confrontational. It doesn’t invite you to look; it dares you to”.
Rapp, who first gained major recognition starring in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, brings a strong theatrical flair to her concert performances, something Cannon’s lighting helped enhance.
Reneé’s theatrical background is part of what makes her such a compelling performer: she understands intention. I leaned into that by treating some songs like scenes. For me, theatricality isn’t about making it look like a Broadway show, it’s about using light to frame performance as storytelling. Every cue had to feel motivated — not just musically, but emotionally, explained Cannon.
Cannon sought to reflect the artist’s complexity through contrasts in lighting, shifting from hard edges to soft textures, from blinding brightness to near darkness, creating atmospheres that felt like they could snap at any moment. Helping him achieve this were the Color STRIKE M fixtures, positioned in a line on the downstage truss and another line on the upstage floor.
“Strobing wasn’t used just for impact, it was punctuation”, explained Cannon. “Reneé’s music has explosive emotional peaks. A proper strobe allowed us to fracture time in those moments. It turned movement into snapshots. It heightened adrenaline. It created a sense of instability in the room for a brief moment”.
That strobe effect made the audience feel “inside the energy of the song”, Cannon noted — exactly where many of the attendees wanted to be on that hot Australian night.
