Minnie Riperton’s career was as brilliant as it was brief. The Chicago soul and funk artist, known for her extraordinary five-and-a-half-octave vocal range, captivated the music world in the late 1970s before passing away from cancer at the age of 31. Despite her short career, her music and influence endure.
On September 25, 2025, marking the 50th anniversary of the release of her iconic hit Lovin’ You, artists including Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Alex Isley and Chanté Moore performed before a packed Hollywood Bowl at a concert dedicated to her memory.
This summer, her music once again took center stage at Toronto’s Harbourfront Stage during the Luminato Festival with Lovin’ You: The Minnie Riperton Story, a show starring Juno Award-winning singer Divine Brown.
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Part concert and part theatrical production, the show took audiences on a journey through the artistic and personal story of one of the 20th century’s most distinctive voices.
The show’s wide range of styles presented a significant lighting challenge, which Andrew Dawson addressed with CHAUVET Professional Maverick Force S Profile and Color STRIKE M fixtures.
This design had a more theatrical approach, which was a welcome change from my usual concert work, as I originally come from a theatre background. I really enjoyed being able to approach a show from that perspective again, Dawson explained.
In addition to enhancing the theatrical side of the production, Dawson also had to respond to the demands of a live concert.
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“Divine Brown is an incredibly talented artist, and I wanted the lighting to support her performance”, he said. “At the same time, there were high-energy moments with DJ Starting From Scratch and the band. Combining the storytelling with those more dynamic passages was one of the aspects I enjoyed most about the design. The show explored not only the evolution of Minnie Riperton, but also that of jazz, hip-hop and R&B, showing how Minnie has influenced so many artists today”.
To differentiate these atmospheres, Dawson used the Maverick Force S Profile and Color STRIKE M fixtures in complementary ways.
I used the Force S Profiles to create large textures and draw attention to specific moments, particularly around the vocals. The STRIKE Ms, meanwhile, worked like a true Swiss Army knife: in addition to generating pixel-based visual effects, they allowed me to introduce more intense lighting shifts when the scene needed greater dynamism, he explained.
During Divine’s songs, Dawson sought to create a more intimate atmosphere that reinforced the expressive nature of her performance. “My intention was to make the light feel like it was breathing with the song”, he explained. “The Profiles gave me a great deal of control over the texture and shape of the beam, allowing me to create breakups and transitions that almost followed the vocal range itself, while I used the STRIKE Ms to add different layers and accents of color”.
The glass surfaces at Harbourfront added another challenge to the design. There was still plenty of natural light when the show began, so Dawson used his 10 Maverick Force S Profiles to create layered looks with narrow beams, while the four Color STRIKE Ms provided clearly visible effects.
As night fell, the design evolved. Dawson began using large gobo projections with the Profiles, while the STRIKE Ms provided saturated colors to visually frame Divine and the band.
There were several moments when I was able to use the venue itself as an extension of the design once it got dark. The structural elements of the roof allowed me to create powerful intensity effects with the STRIKE Ms, adding a layer of light that washed both the space and the audience. I also used them as additional top light for the band. I would like to thank the venue’s lighting designer, Mikaela Cordero, and the IATSE 58 technicians, who made such a flexible production possible, Dawson commented.
The Maverick Force S Profiles also played an important role in maintaining the production’s theatrical aesthetic. “They were very useful for creating larger-scale looks without losing the theatrical character when the show called for it”, Dawson said. “Achieving this result was possible thanks to the work of a great team and the use of different tools”.
The result combined the show’s storytelling with the energy of live music, accompanying the journey through Minnie Riperton’s life, work and influence.
Image credits: IG: Alyssa Balisteri
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