A concert is just as much a visual spectacle as it is an aural one. Stages are transformed into dream worlds, temporarily inviting audiences to believe in magic. One of these magicians is Jonny Kingsbury. He works as a lighting and production designer for COUR, a design firm pioneering the live entertainment experience. Most recently Kingsbury helped design the visual spectacle for Suki Waterhouse’s North American Tour, celebrating her second studio album Memoir of a Sparklemuffin.

The production design is heavily influenced by the titular Australian “Sparklemuffin” spider, with a 12-foot spider web positioned at center stage. Surrounding this is a lush woodland, complete with custom-built tree trunks and a dense green underbrush. And there’s no shortage of sparkles, either. Above the stage turns a disco ball delicately laced with vines, drowning the forest in glimmering iridescent light.

FLAUNT spoke with Kingsbury to discuss the magic of immersive storytelling, and the process of bringing his ideas to life.

What drew you to the intricate realm of live entertainment and immersive experiences, and how does that passion define your creative direction?  

My dad is a booking agent and so is my uncle, and my grandpa was the yodeling king of the world. So, live music and the industry is sort of in my blood I think. I was a live photographer for a long time and toured around with various artists and I found that I was craving being involved in the creative process a bit more than just shooting it.  I saw an Amon Tobin show back in 2009 and that really blew my mind and inspired me to learn about lighting and programming.

How did your creative journey intersect with Suki Waterhouse’s vision, and what initial ideas shaped the enchanting world she sought to create?

The initial idea for the enchanted forest came from her album work and E.T. the ride at Universal Studios. Suki’s creative director Frooz and I really were inspired by the forest built inside of the waiting experience at E.T. the ride and how world building it was, it sort of sounds silly haha but it’s true! We wanted to create the feeling of being in a forest clearing at midnight and light shining through a tree canopy.  

In your designs, how do you harmonize the poetic nature of storytelling with the cutting-edge possibilities of technological innovation?

I think that the storytelling always comes first, and any sort of technological innovation is only needed if it supports the creative and the storytelling.  On other shows I’ve done, I’ve used the oldest jankiest lighting fixtures that you can find, but it wasn’t cutting-edge, it just supported the story. I try to only use cutting-edge if it serves a purpose to support the story, not just to show off what’s possible.

The fusion of moonlight, music, and an enchanted forest evokes a dreamlike aesthetic — how did you transform such a poetic idea into a tangible visual and spatial experience? Can you walk us through the genesis of the “enchanted woodland” stage for Suki Waterhouse? What early inspirations and creative cues informed its evolution?

The genesis was really inspiration drawn from the album title and artwork. The album is called “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” and a Sparklemuffin, in case you aren’t aware, is a type of spider from Australia and they are very brightly colored, so there was always this idea that we wanted Suki to be  the spider in her forest and that she was this magical creature on stage.  We have a spiderweb that we built out of metal that sits in the middle of the trees, and Suki performs in front of the spiderweb and I think that it sells this idea. We also did a version of this stage at Coachella that was a forest, but the forest was of small trees, and so for the tour we wanted to build on that idea, but make the trees taller and make it look like the tree trunks outgrew the stage and that you couldn't even see the tops of them, but you're just seeing sort of the tree canopy and it's out of your view.

The inclusion of the Australian "sparkle muffin" spider is both unexpected and fascinating — what sparked this unique design choice, and how does it contribute to the design narrative?

Oh, I see you've done your research! I think I accidentally covered this in the question above. I think something interesting that I can add to the Sparklemuffin conversation is at the top of the show there is a narrator, that’s supposed to have a David Attenborough type vibe, that is describing a Sparklemuffin and about how Suki ended up in this enchanted forest. It's really, really interesting if you can hear it.
Every ambitious project has its hurdles — what were the most intricate challenges in materializing the enchanted disco forest, and how did COUR overcome them?

On this one the challenge was really in the scenic design and trying to find a way to make our trees feel TALL and that they were even TALLER than the stage.  Also, that they were enchanted so they weren't just realistic tree trunks. They were wavy and they have some bend to them that makes them feel a bit more fairytale in nature. I also wanted to create a lot of depth with our trees, the leaf canopy, and the backdrop behind it, so trying to build this enchanted world and sell the idea of it, but still be on a stage with all the instruments, cables, and gear everywhere. It was really challenging to get all the details correct to build the world where the audience would buy it.

‍As a pioneer in live entertainment design, with projects ranging from Suki Waterhouse's enchanted world to even the  2024 SWEAT tour, how do you envision COUR continuing to redefine the boundaries of immersive storytelling in the years to come?  

By staying passionate about what we do and working hard to support the world that our artists have already built within their music.  We have a team of creatives at COUR that can create any idea or vision an artist has and turn it into reality.