USA - Lighting designer Marc Janowitz has enjoyed utilising Robe’s T2 Profile luminaire on several recent projects, including Trey Anastasio’s 2025 solo acoustic tour and two high-profile HBO specials – Brett Goldstein's The Second Best Night of Your Life debut stand-up special at the Bergen PAC (Performing Arts Centre) in New Jersey, and Marc Maron’s Panicked, which was staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s Harvey Theatre.
“This is a fantastic and highly adaptable light source. It is perfectly suited for camera and broadcast environments and also for subtle theatrical-style drama and effects,” stated Marc.
Lighting for all three of these shows was supplied by Main Light – via account handler Patrick Bellino – and the company has recently invested in the T2 Profiles, which were delivered by Robe North America.
Marc has worked with Trey Anastasio on his solo projects since 2012. The Solo Acoustic Project began in 2018, and the 2025 tour was the most extensive, yet with 20 performances at theatres across the East Coast, Midwest, and Southeast United States. Fans could enjoy stripped-back, raw, and acoustic versions of Trey’s Phish and solo materials, presented in intimate settings with emphasis on the words and the sonic narrative.
With the challenge of only 10ft of truck space available for lighting in this scaled back production, Marc had to choose his kit wisely.
He went with the 12 x T2 Profiles that were hung above the stage on whatever bars, trussing or rigging was available in the venue, plus 23 x Robe Tetra2 LED battens, used to illuminate their cyc, which also had a scrim flown in front of it. An additional six T2s were deployed on the floor and used for low sidelight for Trey, as well as textural backgrounds on the scrim and cyc.
Simplicity, straightforwardness, and ‘less-is-more’ dictated the aesthetics on this highly successful tour, and the T2s gave Marc all the subtlety and finesse needed to accent this show precisely as needed and support the artist in a very intimate environment where he was really exposed onstage and in close proximity to everyone in the room.
Utilising these 18 x T2s gave Marc the levels of control to create a dramatic setting for each song, from the folksy and upbeat numbers to the fingerpicking, introspective guitar riffs. “Literally, it was just like painting with light,” he commented, adding that the “usability of the T2 on this tour was absolutely immense.”
The show was operated on the road by lighting director Patrick Hayes using an organic style that required being fully in tune with the artist’s mood and flow.
For the HBO specials, the T2 Profile’s high CRI of 95 was pivotal to achieving the right look and style, together with their camera-friendliness, which meant they could be used for scenic texturing and audience illumination as well as lighting the artist.
For the Brett Goldstein show, he specifically used T2s on RoboSpot Systems for front and rear follow positions, with more rigged on booms in the auditorium for texturing the scenic curtains, the venue walls and around the proscenium.
For Marc Maron’s special, he used T2s in conjunction with iFORTES for that bit of extra throw and punch in illuminating sections of the Harvey Theatre’s famous distressed look interior, which has been left unrestored to preserve this atmospheric venue’s historic character.
