Las Vegas entertainment community gathers in solidarity on Strip
Forever toiling behind the scenes, the workers of the Vegas entertainment community seized the spotlight on the Strip on Wednesday night.
We the Entertainment Community of Las Vegas — WE/EC Vegas in shorthand — displayed its solidarity with a car parade and walking/standing demonstration on the Las Vegas Strip. Along with several stage performers, those who turned out in unrelenting heat included members of the workers who present ticketed shows, headliner residencies and corporate events.
Those displaced since March include stagehands, lighting techs, video designers and sound engineers who are the city’s hospitality infrastructure. About 1,100 people took part, factoring in those in the 150 vehicles that started the parade just north of Town Square, and also the workers standing with signs on the four corners of the Strip at Flamingo Road.
The WE/EC campaign is simply a call out to draw attention and support to the Vegas back-of-house community. The shorthand description would be “Don’t Forget Us!” The message is being sent up to the governor’s office and such agencies as the Gaming Control Board, who hold the keys to return to live entertainment (for information and to support, join the group’s WE/EC Las Vegas Facebook page).
The organization has been headed up by David Schulman, a lighting director from “Vegas! The Show,” “A Mob Story,” several “Ribbon of Life” benefit productions and Strip corporate events. He’s joined by singer Cian Coey of “Raiding the Rock Vault,” Meat Loaf, Dweezil Zappa and “We Will Rock You” at Paris Las Vegas. Vegas lighting director Vickie Claiborne and Bryan Henry of video production company Event Engineering Solutions are among the co-founders.
The drive started at about at 6:30 p.m. and moved north past Bally’s, Bellagio, Caesars Palace and the Cromwell. At each point, supporters gathered, cheered and in many cases reunited for the first time in five months.
“We’re usually the first to come in and the last to leave,” said stagehand and stage manager Meg Leighton, a member of the Stagehands Local 720 who stood in front of Caesars with her “We Are Standing By Extend Benefits” sign. “Now, it looks like we’re going to be the last ones out, and the last ones to be let back in, too.”
Leighton has been the exhibits operations manager at the Licensing Expo, and has worked as a stagehand at such conventions as CES, onExpo-Con/Agg and the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. Her husband, George Stingel, is technical director of “Ru Paul Drag Race Live!” at Flamingo and has helped build the staging at Microsoft Inspire 2019 Conference and annual Coachella music festival.
“We re really all over the city,” Leighton said. “We represent everybody in front of the curtain, and behind the curtain.”
The event drew such performers as comic ventriloquist April Bruckner; Ryan Kelsey of “Chippendales” at the Rio; the entertainment couple Sarah Jessica Rhodes of Raiding the Rock Vault, “Monster Jam” and “Absinthe,” and that show’s audio engineer, Jacob Smith; “Jen Romas of “Sexxy,” and “X Burlesque” and “X Country” comics Nancy Ryan and John Bizarre, who cruised past in the car parade.
Not surprisingly, Megan Belk cruised the Strip, too. Belk’s production and management company, Music By Belk, furnishes performers and performances for venues and conventions across Las Vegas. Belk has also provided a wealth of unemployment assistance advice for Vegas entertainment professionals.
The tour turned around at the still-closed Mirage, where about 400 walkers waved once more at the line of cars rolling past.
The signature effects evoked familiar Vegas images. The pilot car featured a replica of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, designed by Gary Bordman’s Amusement, Exhibits and Events Services of Las Vegas. The parade ended with a truck traveling with an unoccupied white piano, with an unmanned microphone, reflecting the absence of live entertainment. It sign read, “The Silence Is Deafening.” That was the collective work of Ty Hansen, Mike Hansen, Alexander Sigura and Kirk Hover and the crew at John and Debra Cobb Hansen’s of AV Vegas.
To put it mildly, the Vegas entertainment community has long been eager to return to work.
“We are ready. Of course we have to do some rehearsals, but we are ready anytime they are,” event volunteer and “Potted Potter” at Bally’s stage manager Nathan Frye said. “We had just extended for a year when we were shut down in March, like everybody else. So come see ‘Potted Potter,’ if it ever comes back.”
We plan on going live today when the march begins. Follow @johnnykats and @BenjaminHphoto for more as the event starts. #RJNow pic.twitter.com/iFRmwLvwlL
— James Schaeffer (@jamesmschaeffer) August 20, 2020
Wednesday’s event was the opening act, as it were, for a “case push” scheduled for Sept. 1 at the Fremont Street Experience. That event is part of a national campaign headed up by worldwide arts organization Red Alert Events. Las Vegas should be represented by a robust turnout.
The stagehands in this city have proven their resiliency. Stingel worked the annual Route 91 Harvest festival and the event’s October 2017 shooting that led to the closing of that event, and Las Vegas Village as a live-entertainment venue.
“We survived Route 91, and now we’re being taken down by a pandemic,” Stingel said. “I never would have imagined. But we will be back. I am positive of that.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats! podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
