LD Marc Janowitz has enjoyed utilizing the power and versatility of 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 Center) in New Jersey, and Marc Maron’s “Panicked”, which was staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s Harvey Theater.
“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 theaters across the East Coast, Midwest, and Southeast United States. Fans could enjoy unique, stripped-back, raw, and acoustic versions of Trey’s Phish and solo materials, presented in the most intimate of settings with emphasis on the words and the sonic narrative. With the challenge of only 10 feet of truck space available for lighting in this scaled back production, Marc had to choose his kit very 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 6 x 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.
Marc is well known for thinking laterally and out-of-the-box for his designs, and on this he maximized the T2’s highly nuanced CTO keying, creating hints of lavender, steel, and pale blues, which the multispectral LED engine delivers so accurately in CMY mode.
“It was brilliant having a source where you could palpably see the difference between a ‘pale lavender’ and ‘light pale lavender’ or a ‘light mint’ and an extra ‘light mint’.”
Custom gobos were inserted in some of the slots for projecting precision texturing onto the cyc, using the fixture’s two rotating gobo wheels, animation wheel, two rotating prisms and changeable 1° and 5° variable frosts that work along the full zoom range. “We had cloud moments, water fall moments, even a rising moon for the song ‘Wolfman’s Brother’.”
Combining these complex effects enabled Marc to produce “some incredible aberrations which in turn opened up and created dynamic new visual spaces” surrounding the artist in which the song would unravel.
“The MLP feature (Multi-Level Prisms) unlocked the potential of what we could project on the cyc in a way that we’ve never seen in a moving light. Once lighting director Pat Hayes and I figured out how to access it, we looked at each other and immediately embarked on a deep dive.”
Utilizing these 18 x T2s gave Marc infinite levels of control to create a dramatic setting for each song, from the folksy and upbeat numbers to the fingerpicking, introspective guitar riffs, each one unique. “Literally, it was just like painting with light,” he commented, adding that the “usability of the T2 on this tour was absolutely immense,” and he enjoyed exploring the possibilities that the fixtures offered.
The show was operated on the road by lighting director Patrick Hayes using a very organic style that required being fully in tune with the artist’s mood and flow. The T2s were operated in Tungsten emulation mode by default, another feature that Marc loves for this particular style of performance. “It was just as if we were lighting with Lekos like we did on the first couple of acoustic tours!” He noted, adding that the silent running of the T2s was another bonus in this case.
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. Marc once again mentions the flexibility and scope of the multispectral engine in this context allowing him to achieve whichever colors were needed.
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.
Inspired by ‘kintsukuroi’ – the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the cracks with a mix of urushi lacquer and powdered gold, silver, or platinum, finding beauty in imperfection and also embracing the history of an object – Marc had custom T2 gobos made.
These effectively created part of the set by projecting golden cracks around the room.
“Having the ability to mix the exact shade of gold required to make these cracks shine through both live and on camera was incredible,” commented Marc, again referring to the T2’s color detailing capabilities.
“It really is an awesome fixture!” he concluded, and he will be using them again soon.
For more info, you can visit www.robe.cz
